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Article: BAGGING A WINNING STRATEGY | Bargain wine helps Trader Joe's capture customers who value taste and frugality
- Article from:
- Daily Breeze
- Article date:
- October 12, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 Daily Breeze. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
Trader Joe's has long been the dream grocer for yuppie epicures in
search of Tasmanian feta cheese, carrot ginger dressing, organic
flourless sprouted seven-grain bread and kindred fare.
"The educated consumer," says Joe Coulombe, the Monrovia-based
chain's founder, in describing his target audience.
But the company's cramped stores _ which combine quasi-health food
offerings at cut-rate prices in rustic, tropical-like settings _
suddenly are getting the attention of mainstream shoppers pulled in
by an unlikely product: cheap wine.
Trader Joe's has sold more than 2 million cases of Charles Shaw
merlot and chardonnay since it began marketing the surplus beverage
at $1.99 a ...