Trader Joe’s Rejects Walmart Strategy

[healthmyths]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I'm not familiar with QuicTrip, but Trader Joes is more expensive than most grocery stores, so the higher wages and better service comes with a price tag.

Costco Wholesale charges a membership fee, sells bulk-size items which they buy at wholesale rate, sell at closer to retail rate and guarantee quantity sales by product size.

So Trader Joes has a different customer base and market and Costco has a different business model and market.

Add on that you do get better productivity and can certainly be more profitable with higher wages if those wages are comparitavely higher than competitors..

Example: 5 grocery stores pay at or near minimum wage ($7.25/hr). Store 6 pays $12.00/hr. Potential workers are indifferent between stores 1-5 but are more interested in Store 6, which benefits from the competition of workers to get a job and can be more selective. Once a worker is in a job, if a worker in stores 1 is less than competent or takes a lot of time off and is fired, s/he can still find a job working the same salary at stores 2-5. Not so a worker at Store 6.

Henry Ford demonstrated all this a century ago when he cut absenteeism and increased productivity of workers by paying significantly above the average wage.

But again, that only works in comparison.

Walmart pays $7.25/hr. Their productivity and service is no greater than when they were paying $5.25/hr. Increasing wages only works if your competitors don't (or you have a market niche).

NO THEY DON"T THAT's A f...king LIE!!!

Walmart’s average sale Associate makes $8.81 per hour, according to IBISWorld, an independent market research group.
PLUS YOU and these idiots totally FORGET!
Walmart as every employer MUST pay an equal amount for SS/Medicare.. 6.2% SS 1.45 Medicare PLUS employer MUST pay Federal Unemployment tax AND workman's comp! A total of over 13% above the hourly wage of $8.81 or a total of $1.15 per hour + $8.81 or $9.96 per hour!
Also, why not look at what the people report!
AND remember... The employer pays an average of 13% above the hourly salary rate in Social Security, Medicare,etc...
Salaries in USD Avg. Salary
Sales Associate - Hourly, $8.84/hr
Pharmacist, $118,531
Assistant Manager, $43,656
Programmer Analyst, $66,347
Assistant Store Manager, $44,852
Guest Service Team Member - Cashier - Hourly , $8.46/hr
Wal Mart Cashier - Hourly,$8.55/hr
Pharmacy Manager ,$126,020
Department Manager - Hourly ,$11.15/hr
Overnight Stocker - Hourly ,$9.53/hr
Cashier Associate - Hourly, $8.61/hr
Associate - Hourly ,$9.28/hr
Graduate Pharmacist ,$71,267
Senior Programmer Analyst ,$73,917
Customer Service Manager (CSM) - ,Hourly $10.30/hr
Electronic Sales Associate - Hourly ,$9.17/hr
Shift Manager ,$62,169
Store Manager ,$90,873
Customer Service Manager - Hourly ,$10.38/hr
Customer Service Associate - Hourly, $9.03/hr

Walmart Stores Salaries | Glassdoor

 

[t_polkow]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!





Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I'm not familiar with QuicTrip, but Trader Joes is more expensive than most grocery stores, so the higher wages and better service comes with a price tag.

Costco Wholesale charges a membership fee, sells bulk-size items which they buy at wholesale rate, sell at closer to retail rate and guarantee quantity sales by product size.

So Trader Joes has a different customer base and market and Costco has a different business model and market.

Add on that you do get better productivity and can certainly be more profitable with higher wages if those wages are comparitavely higher than competitors..

Example: 5 grocery stores pay at or near minimum wage ($7.25/hr). Store 6 pays $12.00/hr. Potential workers are indifferent between stores 1-5 but are more interested in Store 6, which benefits from the competition of workers to get a job and can be more selective. Once a worker is in a job, if a worker in stores 1 is less than competent or takes a lot of time off and is fired, s/he can still find a job working the same salary at stores 2-5. Not so a worker at Store 6.

Henry Ford demonstrated all this a century ago when he cut absenteeism and increased productivity of workers by paying significantly above the average wage.

But again, that only works in comparison.

Walmart pays $7.25/hr. Their productivity and service is no greater than when they were paying $5.25/hr. Increasing wages only works if your competitors don't (or you have a market niche).

Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club (owned by the Walton family, which owns Wal-Mart). And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. Costco's workers pay just 8 percent of their health care costs, when the retail average is 25 percent.

[Wal-Mart workers, meanwhile, make around $8.75 an hour about $18,000 a year. Wal-Mart Stores Inc's just announced that U.S. employees will pay between 8 and 36 percent more in premiums for its medical coverage in 2013, prompting some of the 1.4 million workers at the nation's largest private employer to say they will forego coverage altogether. - Source: Reuters]

Costco's stock price has risen more than 10 percent in the last 12 months, while Wal-Mart's has slipped 5 percent. Costco shares sell for almost 23 times expected earnings; at Wal-Mart the multiple is about 19. Mr. Dreher said Costco's share price was so high because so many people love the company. "It's a cult stock," he said.

Despite Costco's impressive record, Jim Sinegal's (chief executive of Costco) salary is just $350,000, although he also received a $200,000 bonus last year. That puts him at less than 10 percent of many other chief executives, though Costco ranks 29th in revenue among all American companies.

[S. Robson Walton, Wal-Mart chairman, has a net worth of about $19.7 billion . And he's only number 9 on the list of 2010's top 20 richest Americans.]

Costco also has not shut out unions, as some of its rivals have. The Teamsters union, for example, represents 14,000 of Costco's 113,000 employees. "They gave us the best agreement of any retailer in the country," said Rome Aloise, the union's chief negotiator with Costco. The contract guarantees employees at least 25 hours of work a week, he said, and requires that at least half of a store's workers be full time.

[No Wal-Mart stores in the US are unionized.]

Capitalist Analysts to Costco: Stop treating your employees so well

Analysts to Costco: Stop treating your employees so well

 

[PoliticalChic]

How much money does wal Mart pump into China's economy vs the US economy?

I get such a kick out of you whiners!

Make up your mind:

"Older socialists dreamed of a world in which all classes would share in the fruits of the world. Yet when a permutation of this emerges, it is resented if it represents capitalism.

An institution beyond the imaginings of socialists of old:
Wal-Mart. Within Wal-Mart we see a cornucopia of goods designed to improve human well-being, at prices that make them affordable for all. Millions of jobs are created, and prosperity is spread throughout areas where it was sorely needed. An entity owned by share-holders, people of mostly moderate incomes who have invested their savings, worker-capitalists.

[Wal-Mart owns 8,300 stores, of which 4,000 are in 44 different countries. Its 2010 revenues are expected to top $500 billion. Putting Wal-Mart's revenues in perspective, they exceed the 2009 GDP of all but 18 of the world's 181 countries.

Why is Wal-Mart so successful? Millions of people voluntarily enter their stores and part with their money in exchange for Wal-Mart's products and services. In order for that to happen, Wal-Mart and millions of other profit-motivated businesses must please people.
]Walter E. Williams - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2007&month=05

 

[t_polkow]

How much money does wal Mart pump into China's economy vs the US economy?

I get such a kick out of you whiners!

Make up your mind:

"Older socialists dreamed of a world in which all classes would share in the fruits of the world. Yet when a permutation of this emerges, it is resented if it represents capitalism.

An institution beyond the imaginings of socialists of old:
Wal-Mart. Within Wal-Mart we see a cornucopia of goods designed to improve human well-being, at prices that make them affordable for all. Millions of jobs are created, and prosperity is spread throughout areas where it was sorely needed. An entity owned by share-holders, people of mostly moderate incomes who have invested their savings, worker-capitalists.

[Wal-Mart owns 8,300 stores, of which 4,000 are in 44 different countries. Its 2010 revenues are expected to top $500 billion. Putting Wal-Mart's revenues in perspective, they exceed the 2009 GDP of all but 18 of the world's 181 countries.

Why is Wal-Mart so successful? Millions of people voluntarily enter their stores and part with their money in exchange for Wal-Mart's products and services. In order for that to happen, Wal-Mart and millions of other profit-motivated businesses must please people.
]Walter E. Williams - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2007&month=05

Haven't been long in this country have you

 

[healthmyths]

What would happen if Walmart took the approach of Trader Joe's and have then:
instead of 245 employees per store.. Walmart has 25!
That means:
A) Walmart would let 1,971,911 employees go to match Trader Joe's 25 employees per store!
B) That means then $5 billion in payroll tax payments on behalf of employees gone!
C) That means at $300/week for 99 weeks unemployment benefits paid out by the govt: $59 billion!
D) That means $5 billion not coming in $59 billion going out total $65 billion cost by following Trader Joe's model!
E) That means the 1,971,911 would NOT have $41 billion to spend in the economy!

All because you pompous butts having NO obvious understanding of the fundamentals!

 

[PoliticalChic]

How much money does wal Mart pump into China's economy vs the US economy?

I get such a kick out of you whiners!

Make up your mind:

"Older socialists dreamed of a world in which all classes would share in the fruits of the world. Yet when a permutation of this emerges, it is resented if it represents capitalism.

An institution beyond the imaginings of socialists of old:
Wal-Mart. Within Wal-Mart we see a cornucopia of goods designed to improve human well-being, at prices that make them affordable for all. Millions of jobs are created, and prosperity is spread throughout areas where it was sorely needed. An entity owned by share-holders, people of mostly moderate incomes who have invested their savings, worker-capitalists.

[Wal-Mart owns 8,300 stores, of which 4,000 are in 44 different countries. Its 2010 revenues are expected to top $500 billion. Putting Wal-Mart's revenues in perspective, they exceed the 2009 GDP of all but 18 of the world's 181 countries.

Why is Wal-Mart so successful? Millions of people voluntarily enter their stores and part with their money in exchange for Wal-Mart's products and services. In order for that to happen, Wal-Mart and millions of other profit-motivated businesses must please people.
]Walter E. Williams - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2007&month=05

Haven't been long in this country have you

Haven't been smart in this country have you?



Is that why you haven't been able to dispute anything I've posted?

Hard to distinguish you from the tail end of a horse.

 

[whitehall]

Flash to dumb assed liberal bikers. Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe jobs are not career choices. They entry level jobs for kids and part time jobs for moms. Quit bitchin about how much corporations make and get an education.

 

[t_polkow]

I get such a kick out of you whiners!

Make up your mind:

"Older socialists dreamed of a world in which all classes would share in the fruits of the world. Yet when a permutation of this emerges, it is resented if it represents capitalism.

An institution beyond the imaginings of socialists of old:
Wal-Mart. Within Wal-Mart we see a cornucopia of goods designed to improve human well-being, at prices that make them affordable for all. Millions of jobs are created, and prosperity is spread throughout areas where it was sorely needed. An entity owned by share-holders, people of mostly moderate incomes who have invested their savings, worker-capitalists.

[Wal-Mart owns 8,300 stores, of which 4,000 are in 44 different countries. Its 2010 revenues are expected to top $500 billion. Putting Wal-Mart's revenues in perspective, they exceed the 2009 GDP of all but 18 of the world's 181 countries.

Why is Wal-Mart so successful? Millions of people voluntarily enter their stores and part with their money in exchange for Wal-Mart's products and services. In order for that to happen, Wal-Mart and millions of other profit-motivated businesses must please people.
]Walter E. Williams - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2007&month=05

Haven't been long in this country have you

Haven't been smart in this country have you?



Is that why you haven't been able to dispute anything I've posted?

Hard to distinguish you from the tail end of a horse.

We have enough of our home grown rightwing kooks here


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZRIO5PwG-E]The Beatles - Get Back (With Lyrics) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Katzndogz]

Trader Joe's is non-union. They have a different business model than Wal Mart.

While a typical grocery store may carry 50,000 items, Trader Joe's stocks about 4,000 items, 80% of which bear one of its own brand names.
Trader Joe's describes itself as "your neighborhood grocery store" or "your unique grocery store". Products sold include gourmet foods, organic foods, vegetarian foods, unusual frozen foods, imported foods, domestic and imported wine and beer (where local law permits), "alternative" food items, and staples like bread, cereal, eggs, dairy, coffee, and produce. Non-food items include personal hygiene products, household cleaners, vitamins, pet food, plants, and flowers.

Trader Joe's is not known for being a low cost store. It charges more than any supermarket.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Trader Joe's has the best Wine for the money bar none...amazingly priced.

well you have to keep the left drunk..When I lived in Arizona quick trips cigg prices where like $3 bucks higher then Walgreens across the street. now I know why.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Haven't been long in this country have you

Haven't been smart in this country have you?



Is that why you haven't been able to dispute anything I've posted?

Hard to distinguish you from the tail end of a horse.

We have enough of our home grown rightwing kooks here


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZRIO5PwG-E]The Beatles - Get Back (With Lyrics) - YouTube[/ame]

Still no rebuttal?

No response to posts that are, obviously, dispositive?


So....your new hobby is simply bloviating on a message board?
Wasting perfectly good electrons?
I'd rather see you go back to you old hobby, juggling chainsaws.

 

[slackjawed]

I appreciate living in a country where an owner of a business can choose their own business model and practices. That is freedom. When the public chooses to support one business over another based on those same business practices that is also freedom. I support freedom.

That said, I live 3.5 hours from either a Poppa Johns or a Trader Joes. Once in awhile I visit trader joes in Albequerque or Phoenix. There is a Walmart about an hour away, but I seldom go to Walmart.

I don't buy much. I raise my own beef, mutton and poultry. I hunt as well, and take an elk every year. It is superior to beef in my opinion. I live at 7000 ft, most veggies don't grow well here. So I barter for produce in season with farmers in the southern part of Arizona. Arizona pistachios are the best.
I like to shop where I can support local family owned businesses, always have.

None of those three businesses(walmart, trader joes or poppa johns) allow me to do that.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Nobody is forcing anybody to work or shop at Walmart.

 

[peach174]

The trade off for Trader Joe paying employees more wages.

Some of Trader Joe packages are smaller.
Bacon 12oz.,
Walmart still has 16oz bacon packages.

The more a company pays in wages and benefits for employees, the less it has to expand it's Stores to have more customers & employees.

The lie of the left, Walmart does not treat their employees well. There is a small minority who complain. The vast majority of Walmart employees are very happy with their jobs and they do not want to be unionized.

Walmarts provide products that are affordable to the poor and lower middle class people.
The employees get worker skills like retail experience, in order to move up to better paying jobs.

 

[Skull Pilot]

I have been to a Trader Joe's once or twice. Shitty produce selections and no butcher.

I guess if you want to live on frozen prepackaged crap it's OK.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Can you imagine the economic growth we'd have if Liberals dedicated just 10% of their whining and complaining to something more productive, or productive at all?

 

[peach174]

That's great! Free enterprise at work. See why, until Obama, America had the world's Number 1 economy?

You could break your own nose with your knee jerking up like that.

How about you post some PROOF that Obama controls what TJ's and WM pay. And, how about you look a little further back - like to the Bush crash and the Bush recession.

Or, you could just go right on pretending its all Obama's fault.

That Bush crash and recession was done by both parties. The Dems hands are not Innocent.

 

[healthmyths]

The trade off for Trader Joe paying employees more wages.

Some of Trader Joe packages are smaller.
Bacon 12oz.,
Walmart still has 16oz bacon packages.

The more a company pays in wages and benefits for employees, the less it has to expand it's Stores to have more customers & employees.

The lie of the left, Walmart does not treat their employees well. There is a small minority who complain. The vast majority of Walmart employees are very happy with their jobs and they do not want to be unionized.

Walmarts provide products that are affordable to the poor and lower middle class people.
The employees get worker skills like retail experience, in order to move up to better paying jobs.

Well I'm glad someone understands the DIFFERENCES in markets!
Walmart is not a warehouse store like Costco. NOR is it a specialty higher prices store like Trader Joes!

Walmart addresses a need and to do that they need millions of employees that contrary to the lies.. Are paid an average of $10/hour!

Costco/Traders are two ends of the spectrum... YET we expect Walmart to meet THEIR operating benefits i.e. fewer customers,fewer locations and definitely fewer employees per location!

That discrimination is totally lacking when the CostCo/Trader Joe's executives get on their high horses trying to tell others how to operate THEIR businesses!

Why don't CostCo/Trader Joes build 8,000 stores? Why don't they keep their prices higher then Walmart at the same time?
Because there are only so many people in each market segment.. Far more people that can shop at Walmart versus can shop at Trader Joes or CostCo!

To me these CostCo/Trader Joe's executives are WAY out of touch with realities of the market place!

 

[clevergirl]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

These are not "low cost retailers". The business model of Costco is unique in the food and perishables industries- buying warehouses full of manufactured goods and being their own distribution center allows them to sell at reduced costs. But what most consumers really do? They spend more than they normally would shopping at a traditional market-thereby increasing sales volumes. Costco has negatively impacted the retail channel that supplies other small business.

Trader Joe's is another unique business model that caters to what I call the "oozy-groovy" crowd. What they offer is specialized foods and wines appealing to the health conscious crowd- THAT is where their success is built in. Their wages are a-typical- not unique for a specialty retailer.

Below are the "averaged" hourly wages from these two retailers. What averages cannot consider is that these two retailers are located only in areas where growth and condensed populations exist. Walmart's go everywhere- including into rural areas, bringing their averages down.


Cashier Assistant (Front End Assistant) - Hourly 64 Costco Wholesale Salaries $11.84/hr
Stocker - Hourly 43 Costco Wholesale Salaries $12.61/hr
Costco Wholesale Salaries | Glassdoor

Crew Member 125 Trader Joe's Salaries $13.00
Crew74 Trader Joe's Salaries $12.58
Trader Joe's Hourly Pay | Glassdoor

 

[healthmyths]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

These are not "low cost retailers". The business model of Costco is unique in the food and perishables industries- buying warehouses full of manufactured goods and being their own distribution center allows them to sell at reduced costs. But what most consumers really do? They spend more than they normally would shopping at a traditional market-thereby increasing sales volumes. Costco has negatively impacted the retail channel that supplies other small business.

Trader Joe's is another unique business model that caters to what I call the "oozy-groovy" crowd. What they offer is specialized foods and wines appealing to the health conscious crowd- THAT is where their success is built in. Their wages are a-typical- not unique for a specialty retailer.

Below are the "averaged" hourly wages from these two retailers. What averages cannot consider is that these two retailers are located only in areas where growth and condensed populations exist. Walmart's go everywhere- including into rural areas, bringing their averages down.


Cashier Assistant (Front End Assistant) - Hourly 64 Costco Wholesale Salaries $11.84/hr
Stocker - Hourly 43 Costco Wholesale Salaries $12.61/hr
Costco Wholesale Salaries | Glassdoor

Crew Member 125 Trader Joe's Salaries $13.00
Crew74 Trader Joe's Salaries $12.58
Trader Joe's Hourly Pay | Glassdoor

HEY!!!! Don't ARGUE with FACTS because hyperbole is the ONLY thing most of these people understand!
THANKS for your input!

Also... Suggestion! Don't forget that the Employers are paying 13% on top of that wage and that concept needs greater awareness even by people as
adept as you!
Most Americans do NOT know that their employer matches the employees' SS/Medicare AND that employer pays the taxes that pay unemployment!
As a result using the minimum wage argument of $7.25 is fallacious especially when the idiots advocate $9.00 like Obama did!
You and the rest of us continually must explain that this 13% additional payment adds to the minimum wage discussion and as a result what it does do
is stymies employment growth!