The mission of Trader Joe's is to give customers the best food and beverage values they can find anywhere and to provide them with the information required to make informed buying decisions. The company strives to provide these with a dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, fun, individual pride, and company spirit.

At the core of the Trader Joe's "way" is a focus on cost control, simplicity, and fun. These company objectives are woven throughout each aspect of the business. Trader Joe's aims to do a truly unique customer experience, offering high-quality gourmet foods at a low cost in a fun environment that keeps customers coming back for more.

Trader Joe's manages its distribution networks by minimizing the number of hands that touch the product, thereby reducing costs and making products quickly available to their customers. The company orders directly from the manufacturer. The manufacturer, in turn, is responsible for bringing the product to a Trader Joe's distribution center. At the distribution center, trucks leave on daily resupply trips to local stores. Because the stores are relatively small, there is little room for excess inventory, and orders from distribution centers need to be incredibly precise.

This quick and efficient distribution process is directly responsible for helping the company identify where to locate new retail stores. Trader Joe's will only enter markets where the region has a distribution infrastructure that allows it to efficiently resupply products to stores. They did not open stores, for instance, in Florida or Texas—both large, lucrative markets—because the distribution networks were not yet strong enough to support their strategy.^[1]Links to an external site. ^[2]Links to an external site.

Trader Joe's strategy of implementing a low-cost and efficient distribution network has contributed to the democratization of gourmet foods by making them more readily available to customers at all income levels.

Questions

• summarize the article in one paragraph
• post at least 2 key take-aways.
• why should marketing professionals care about supply chain management? Provide an example by citing from the article.