prices made his grocery stores a hit in California. As Trader
Joe’s, the chain helped push U.S. supermarkets to stock a wider
variety of foods at lower prices. Mr. Coulombe, who died Friday at
89 years of age, started the small chain of stores that later
became Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles in the 1950s. His appetite for
new experiences— as well as new foods and wines—drove him to stock
his stores with an unconventional mix of products unfamiliar to
many shoppers at the time, such as Dijon mustard and granola. He
cut out distributors to sell many of those foods at low prices. His
workers wore Hawaiian-print shirts and he decorated his stores with
nautical equipment—Mr. Coulombe wanted shoppers to feel like they
were on a voyage. Once an aspiring academic, Mr. Coulombe funneled
his passion for education into his stores, stocking them with foods
he sampled on trips to Europe. “I told him, ‘You succeeded. Instead
of hundreds of students, you taught thousands of employees and
millions of people, so you did a good job,’” said Leroy Watson, who
was the first employee at Trader Joe’s and later served as a senior
vice president at the company. Joseph Hardin Coulombe was born June
3, 1930, in San Diego. His father, Joseph Grant Coulombe, was an
engineer and his mother, Carmelita Hardin, was a schoolteacher. He
graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in
economics followed by a master’s of business administration in
1954. As an undergraduate, he began dating fellow student Alice
Steere, whom he married in 1952. Mr. Coulombe worked for Rexall
Drugs, a now-defunct chain of drugstores. He was put in charge of
developing a chain of convenience stores. He took his family on
drives around Los Angeles to scout neighborhoods where he might
open stores. His son, also named Joe Coulombe, learned his numbers
by counting parking spaces on these outings. Mr. Coulombe opened
Pronto Markets, a chain of six stores, in 1958. When Rexall decided
to exit from the retail business, Mr. Coulombe bought the Pronto
chain. “My basic customer is a schoolteacher making $28,000 a year.
They are on a limited budget. Our merchandise is geared to this
type of person,” Mr. Coulombe told Los Angeles Times in 1988. Mr.
Coulombe’s first stores were decorated with wooden hatch covers
from old boats and thick ropes. He introduced a line of baking
products called Charlotte and Madeline’sMORE OBITUARIES Marriott
CEO Arne Sorenson Dies February 16, 2021• Robert Glauber Probed
Causes of 1987 Stock-Market Crash February 16, 2021• Rupert Neve,
Whose Gear Recorded Churchill and Nirvana, Dies at 94 February 14,
2021• Carlos Menem, Former Argentine President, Dies at 90 February
14, 2021• Mellon Bank Asked William Eagleson to Make Its Mistakes
Vanish February 12, 2021• Appeared in the March 2, 2020, print
edition as '.' Would you like more stories like this? YES NO named
after his two daughters. In the early days, Trader Joe’s carried as
few as 1,500 products compared with the array of tens of thousands
at a typical grocery store. Mr. Coulombe wanted to democratize
access to foods that were expensive and hard to find at the time, a
list that in the 1960s and 1970s included maple syrup and baby
Swiss cheese. Mr. Coulombe also began sourcing products directly
from factories, cutting out suppliers and setting lower prices at
his stores. A connoisseur of wine, Mr. Coulombe often visited
vineyards in Europe, where he also scouted for new foods to sell in
his stores. He took his family on these wine tours and also sent
three or four employees and their families on scouting trips every
year. “You could mention a family event, and he could go around the
table and remember every dish that everyone had and the wine they
had with it,” said his son Joe Coulombe. “He had a remarkable
memory for those kinds of details.” He was known for a candid
leadership style, always answering his own phone. Mr. Coulombe had
a deep love for reading and education, having wanted to become a
professor. Mr. Coulombe sold Trader Joe’s to German discounter Aldi
Nord in 1979. He stayed on as chief executive until 1988, when he
retired. He served for some years on various boards, including
those of gourmet grocer Bristol Farms Inc. and apparel company True
Religion Brand Jeans. Trader Joe’s expanded across the U.S. to over
500 stores. Mr. Coulombe died in Los Angeles after what his family
described as a long illness. He is survived by his wife, three
children and six grandchildren.)
- Joe Coulombe S Passion For Selling Once Exotic Foods At Low Prices Made His Grocery Stores A Hit In California As Trad 1 (88.12 KiB) Viewed 88 times