Born in 1930, Joe Coulombe fell into the retail business after attending Stanford University as an undergrad and then to get his MBA. He met his wife, Alice, there, and they would have three children together.

To make extra money as a graduate student, Coulombe sold vacuums door-to-door, according to his memoir, "Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys."

In the early 1960s, the San Diego native was running several Pronto Markets, what he called a "copy of 7-Eleven," which didn't yet exist in California. Yet he knew he wouldn't be able to compete with the convenience store chain when they did arrive.

With the specter of "the 800-pound gorilla" that was 7-Eleven looming, Coulombe had to try something different, he told The Los Angeles Times in 2011.

An avid reader of Scientific American, Coulombe learned in 1965 that more Americans were going to college.

"The demographics were changing in the United States because of the GI Bill of Rights, which was the largest experiment in mass higher education in the history of the human race," he said in a 2018 episode of the "Insider Trader Joe's" podcast. "And I thought that these people would want something different."

Analysts predicted that the upcoming Boeing 747 jumbo jets would dramatically drop the price of international travel, according to The Los Angeles Times. From his days at Pronto, Coulombe knew that people who liked to travel also liked trying new products.

Coulombe decided to cater to this group — the "overeducated and underpaid," as he described them — by offering something more niche than the same basics available in every grocery store or mini-mart.

In 1967, the experiment began with the first Trader Joe's in Pasadena, California. It sold everything from discounted paperbacks and records to pantyhose.

Coulombe wrote in his memoir that he was one of the many 30-somethings drinking mai tais at the tiki bar Trader Vic's in the 1960s. He wanted to capture a similar "fun-leisure-party-prosperity" atmosphere at his store. A trip on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise also influenced him.

At salvage companies near LA's harbor, he found oars, netting, and other marine paraphernalia to deck out the store.

Employees were called crew members and captains instead of cashiers and managers. They wore floral Hawaiian-style shirts. A limited selection of Hawaiian music poured out of the speakers until the workers complained about the lack of variety, according to Coulombe's memoir.

The tiki-inspired theme continues in stores today.

At first, Coulombe planned for Trader Joe's to be tiny, just 4,500 square feet. Yet the building that housed it was almost twice that size. So, he expanded the wine section, bringing in 17 brands of California wines, whereas a gourmet competitor only had seven.

California's Fair Trade laws meant that Trader Joe's couldn't offer discounts on prices, so it hoped to lure customers with sheer variety. The store stocked dozens of brands of Scotch, bourbon, rum, and other liquor.

Coulombe also brought in French wines and managed to import them for cheaper than his competitors.

"I wanted to make sure that every family could afford a bottle of decent wine on the table every night," he wrote in his memoir.

In 1969, Trader Joe's started publishing a precursor to its Fearless Flyer newsletter. Then called the Insider's Wine Report, it helped the underage employees explain the bottles to customers, since they couldn't taste them themselves. A version for the store's food products soon followed.

Today, the Fearless Flyer gives shoppers detailed descriptions of new or seasonal products such as butternut squash mac & cheese or heart-shaped jelly beans.

In 1970, Scientific American once again swayed the course of Trader Joe's history. An issue dedicated to threats to the environment stunned Coulombe.

Around the same time, the manager of the new Trader Joe's in Santa Ana was evangelizing for health foods. Coulombe was intrigued by the idea that a healthier diet might positively impact the environment, too.

In 1971, the company started introducing health foods alongside its many wines and other alcohol. Customers could get fresh orange juice from the stores' squeezing stations. They could also pick up wheat bran and almond butter, a rarity at the time.

The next year, Trader Joe's created its first private-label product, granola. Over the next few years, it added its branding to dried fruits, nuts, vitamins, and cheese.

In 1976, Trader Joe's was still relying on recognizable brands for most of its products, like coffee, bread, and other basics. The small size of its stores meant space was at a premium, and this was when the company shifted its focus.

It got rid of items like soap and light bulbs. It stopped carrying many national brands, like Folgers coffee. Instead, the stores stocked rare items, like unfermented zinfandel grape juice, and gourmet goodies, like handmade berry pie.

Many of the products were unbranded or came under the Trader Joe's label.

Coulombe aimed to give the products names that would amuse his educated, well-traveled customers. These included nods to historical, artistic, and scientific figures, including The Bagel Spinoza, The Peanut Pascal, and Heisenberg's Uncertain Blend of coffee beans.

Small stores and niche products meant that some items weren't always available. They might be seasonal, like its vintage dated canned corn. Coulombe called it "vinous thinking," treating food products like they were rare bottles of wine.

Customers still treat it like a treasure hunt, always on the lookout for an unfamiliar taste or the bargain version of a pricey cheese.

Today, about 85% of Trader Joe's products are private label, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're locally sourced. Some are supplied by brands like Coca-Cola, Taylor Farms, and Campbell's, Fast Company reported in January.

In 1979, Trader Joe's was bought by Theo Albrecht's family trust.

Theo Albrecht was brother to Karl Albrecht. The two expanded dozens of stores across Germany and then split the family business in 1961. Karl's business, Aldi Süd, would eventually lead to the Aldi stores in North America, while Theo's, Aldi Nord, became involved with Trader Joe's.

Coulombe remained with the company until 1989, The LA Times reported, and Aldi Nord allowed the day-to-day running of Trader Joe's to remain the same.

After stepping back from the company, Coulombe went on to serve as president and chief executive for several other retailers. He died in 2020 at the age of 89.

Trader Joe's continued to expand throughout the 1970s and '80s. Coulombe had targeted his ideal "unemployed PhD" customer by opening nearly 30 stores in Southern California, The New York Times reported in 2014.

The chain didn't move outside the state until 1993. By then, John Shields, Coulombe's Stanford fraternity brother, had become chief executive. Three years later, Trader Joe's headed to the East Coast, opening two stores in the Boston area.

When Shields retired in 2001, the company had 158 stores and its annual sales had exploded from $132 million to $2 billion.

Now, the store has over 500 locations in 42 states and Washington DC.

As Trader Joe's started focusing on its private label products, it did away with its vast selection of liquor. However, alcohol, and wine in particular, remained a core part of its identity.

In 2002, the stores began stocking a $1.99 bottle of wine. The secret of how they could sell a wine for so cheap involves its own saga.

Chuck Shaw started his Charles Shaw winery in 1974, making a respected gamay, Thrillist reported in 2017. After several mishaps, the winery went bankrupt in the 1990s, and Fred Franzia, owner of Bronco Wine Company, bought the trade name.

Bronco would take grapes grown in California's Central Valley and bottle the wine at a facility in Napa, where grapes are more expensive, Marketplace reported in 2017. That allowed the company to use the prestige associated with Napa at a fraction of the cost.

Though its price has risen over the years, the wine retains the nickname Two-Buck Chuck. Over a billion bottles have been sold, per The New York Times.

Though Shaw hasn't seen any of that money himself, he told Business Insider in 2018 that he's come to terms with that and is now thrilled to be associated with the wine.

Trader Joe's doesn't just have customers. It has fans who join Facebook pages and Reddit groups to enthuse about their favorite products.

Coulombe purposefully cultivated that response. "[W]e deliberately tried to make it a cult once we got a handle on what we were actually doing," he wrote in his memoir.

The excitement of discovering new products, the chance that your favorite item will be out of stock, and the excessively friendly staff all contribute to that feeling, the hosts of the "Sounds Like a Cult" podcast said in a 2022 episode.

Celebrities from Hillary Duff to Travis Kelce have raved about the chain or been spotted lugging shopping bags full of groceries.

For many people, its comparatively low prices are the biggest draw. Others love the ease of its wide selection of frozen meals.

Last year, Trader Joe's set off a frenzy when customers tried to snap up its $2.99 reusable mini canvas tote, an item that became as coveted as some Stanley cups.

Despite its early adoption of reusable totes and environmentally friendly reputation, groups like the Humane Society, the Climate-Friendly Supermarkets program, Green America, Friends of the Earth, and Toxic-Free Future have given the company low marks for some of its environmental practices or a lack of transparency around its animal welfare policies, for example, Fast Company reported in January.

Mike Hallatt, the founder of Pirate Joe's, once owned a small Vancouver shop with shelves lined with marina sauce, sweet potato chips, and almonds, all bought from Trader Joe's. The chain had no stores in Canada, so Hallatt would cross the border to Washington State to buy the snacks, sauces, and toiletry items.

Trader Joe's sued Hallatt and barred him from its stores. In 2017, he closed Pirate Joe's for good.

"Many times I've thought I've got to just give this up, this is ridiculous," he told The Guardian in 2017. "Then people would come up to me and thank me for doing it. That was the curse: We had so many people who love what we were up to, and yet it was just so devilishly hard to do."

Tourists from other Trader Joe's-less countries still bring back suitcases full of snacks home.

In 2024, a traveler who returned from the US with 20 bottles of Everything but the Bagel seasoning had to surrender them at the airport in South Korea, CNN reported. The mix contains poppy seeds, which the country doesn't allow anyone to bring in.

Crew members often talk with customers while they ring up their purchases. It's not flirting, just friendliness, a national director of public relations for Trader Joe's told Glamour in 2021.

In 2016, The New York Times reported that one employee said he was reprimanded for not smiling genuinely enough. "We do not fire crew members for trivial reasons," Trader Joe's said in a statement at the time. "We pride ourselves on operating our business with integrity and adhering to the law at all times."

In his memoir, Coulombe wrote that the average full-time employee at Trader Joe's made the median family income in California. This wasn't fully altruistic, he wrote, the "policy was grounded partly by the desire to stay un-organized by the Retail Clerks Union."

Concerns about workers' physical safety and the company's response to sexual harassment complaints led Hadley, Massachusetts employees to form the first Trader Joe's union in 2020, Fast Company reported in January.

In the years since, the National Labor Relations Board has filed dozens of unfair labor practice complaints against the company, saying it fired workers or closed stores in retaliation for organizing. In 2024, Trader Joe's joined SpaceX, Starbucks, and Amazon in arguing that the NLRB is unconstitutional.

Coulombe consciously cultivated Trader Joe's reputation for unique, worldwide products from early on. That included importing Brie from France and maple syrup from Quebec.

As the store started bringing in more international foods under the Trader Joe's branding, "we fell back on some useful naming devices," Coulombe wrote in his memoir. "All Mexican products were Trader Josés. All Japanese products, Trader Joe-San."

In 2020, customers circulated an online petition asking the company to remove the names.

Trader Joe's said it had "made the decision several years ago to use only the Trader Joe's name on our products moving forward," USA Today reported in 2020.

"We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions," Trader Joe's said in a statement at the time.

In 2024, Taste magazine spoke with several creators of small- and medium-sized food brands who said Trader Joe's solicited products from them and expressed interest in partnering up, only to come out with similar items soon after.

One founder said the company had created knockoffs of unique products from culturally diverse brands. "Ethnic foods are specialized items," the founder said. "There's so much history and culture and tradition that you can't do simple knockoffs like you do with everyday items like ketchup or mayo. You need brands like ours to educate you."

"Our common practice is to deal directly with producers or growers rather than purchasing through brokers, distributors, sales agents, or other middlemen," Trader Joe's told Business Insider at the time.

Over the course of a week in July 2023, Trader Joe's recalled cookies contaminated with rocks and broccoli cheddar soup containing insects, NBC News reported at the time. Just a few months earlier, the company removed its instant cold brew from the shelves over fears that the containers also held shards of glass, per The Takeout.

Several items in Trader Joe's lineup have been pulled for containing plastic, including its steamed chicken soup dumplings in 2024 and its organic acai bowls in February.

In general, food recalls increased by 15% between 2020 and 2024, according to TraceOne. These include outbreaks of listeria, salmonella, and hepatitis A, all of which have affected Trader Joe's.

Food-safety lawyer Bill Marler told Fast Company that Trader Joe's recalls may be linked to the way it sources its own private label. "If you buy from suppliers at low prices, but you don't ask how they could get the price so low and something goes sideways, that's on you," he said.

Trader Joe's did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.