Let me tell you my Trader Joe's story. It will open your eyes to what makes this place tick... and why I'll be a lifelong customer.
In college, I had a TJ's two miles up the road, which made beer runs and backing up the truck for their underrated frozen foods that much easier.
So fast-forward six years and three jobs later and I'm living in my current city -- a city where the closest TJ's at the time was 45 miles away. It became a crusade among the residents to get one up in our area -- if for no other reason than to validate our existence as more than just a bunch of dumb hicks.
Whenever me and Mrs. Birdscribe were in that city for whatever reason, TJ's was a necessary final stop. So one day, we're there with Little Bird in his stroller and we're loading up our customary $90-$100 of purchases. I write a check and show the clerk my ID, telling him -- as I always did -- that they need to open a TJ's in our city.
"Oh, those aren't our type of people," he breezily said, missing the irony that at that moment, "that type of person" was spending $100 in your store.
I thought Mrs. Birdscribe was going to have an aneurysm in the car.
I got home, unloaded the items, called the store back to find out the name of the manager and headed to my computer, whereupon I wrote the Shakespeare of poison pen letters, taking pains to send a copy to the manager, the president of the company and the VP of communications.
This was on a Sunday. On Tuesday, the store manager calls me at home, apologizing up one side and down the other, telling me this employee "was taken care of" and assuring me my business was always welcome.
I didn't have time to fully ponder the Gambinoesque tone to this message, because the next day, Mrs. Birdscribe calls me at work telilng me she got home to "a huge flower display and gift basket..." courtesy of TJ's. Their corporate office sent it to us, with a nice card thanking us for their business.
You want to show me another business that would go to this trouble over the casual idiocy of one of its drones? This was in 1994 and I remain amazed and impressed by the gesture to this day.
Within three years, we finally got one in our area. I remain genetically incapable of entering one without leaving $50 or more lighter. And because of that experience above, I've never had a case of buyer's remorse. Ever.
