Replies to post #113932 on LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[dukeb]

From the TJ's Wikipedia page:

Trader Joe's is named after its founder, Joe Coulombe. The company began in 1958 as a Greater Los Angeles area chain known as Pronto Market convenience stores.Coulombe felt the original Pronto Markets were too similar to 7-Eleven, which he described as the "800-pound gorilla of convenience stores", and was concerned that the competition would be too heavy.

Coulombe developed the idea of the Trader Joe's South Seas motif while on vacation in the Caribbean.The Tiki culture craze was still widespread in the United States in the 1960s, so in a direct nod to the fad, the Trader Joe's name itself was a spoof on Trader Vic's, the famous tiki-themed restaurant that had opened its first southern California location in the Beverly Hilton in 1955.

As for the theme being "weird" I'd say that many successful retail operations have a schtick or an oddball mascot.

Were you around when "Crazy Eddie" stores were in their hayday? If not, take a trip over to YouTube and watch some of their TV ads which focused on Crazy Eddie selling things at such low prices that he was one step away from being committed to a psychiatric ward. Now that's weird.

And don't get me started on the dancing and talking spokes-giraffe that was the mascot for Toys R Us.