Trader Joe's Founder Joe Coulombe Dies

Joe Coulombe, the founder of the Trader Joe's market chain, at his home in Pasadena, California in the 1980's

Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe's, died this past Friday at 89 years old. Joe opened the first Trader Joe's in Pasadena, California in 1967. Trader Joe's now currently has 500 outlets open in over 40 states. Joe prided himself in having healthy, tasty, high quality food that most grocery shoppers in the 1960's could not find in most supermarkets. His son, who is also named Joe, said that his father would taste test most of the products and make him and his sister try the products out too. He was always trying to bring the best quality products and good value to the people. Joe also liked to make the products unique, adding quirky names to them like the non-alcoholic sparkling juice called Eve's Apple Sparkled by Adam. He also invested a lot into having the best quality wines, he would go to California's Napa Valley and check out every vintage wine. Joe was an only child, born on June 3rd, 1930 in San Diego, California. He served in the Air Force, then attended Stanford University where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's in business administration. He then met and married his wife Alice in 1953. 

Joe was introduced to a brand new world of foods by his wife's parents, like olive oil, fresh seafood and inexpensive quality wine. He was going towards trying to pull a younger demographic and there was a new statistic that said more American people were going to college so there was newly educated people who would probably want some different and that is how he came up with Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's employees are also known to have good savings and compensations like medical, dental, vision and retirement plans as well as annual salary increases from 7% to 10%. A lot of people who work at Trader Joe's end up working there for decades. 

Joe and his wife are also well known philanthropists in Southern California. They have contributed time and money to causes like Planned Parenthood, the Los Angeles Opera, the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. Joe and his wife had been married for 67 years and they had three children who gave them six grandchildren, so Joe's legacy will ultimately live on. I personally shop at Trader Joe's and I love their skincare section, it will be interesting to see if the marketing approach for Trader Joe's will change or if they will try to keep everything the same and continue with the same quality products. 

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trader-joes-founder-joe-coulombe-dies-11582998739?mod=hp_lead_pos6 

by Associated Press. Feb 29, 2020 12:52 pm ET