Do You Carry Cheese?

After applying to a slew of job positions, I thought it was time to start thinking "outside-of-the-social-work-box." So a couple weeks ago I returned back to Trader Joes and requested another job application. I had obtained one of their job applications months ago, but was not serious about completing it. To ask, complete, and return it back to the store was a humbling experience. Humbling not because I think the work at any grocery store is beneath me, but humbling because it was a step in a direction that I had never really anticipated or planned out. When life puts a move on you, having the willingness to walk down an unintended path is humbling.

There were a few things about Trader Joe's that factored in my decision to submit an application.

- It's our favorite place to shop as a family. Lots of fun and tasty products sit on its shelves.
- It looks like a fun place to work. The employees (aka Crew Members) are friendly, laid back, and are always helpful.
- The store is nearby. I would say that the majority of the social work positions I applied for are outside of Orange County. Megumi and I have concluded that working close to home and avoiding a 2-3 hour total commute time would be good for everyone.
- By googling Trader Joes, I found out some other interesting things about this company (article from 2004):

- According to BusinessWeek, Trader Joe's pays above-union wages and generous bonuses. It contributes an additional 15.4% of each worker's gross pay into a company-funded retirement plan. As of 2004, pay for entry-level part-timers was $8 to $10 an hour; first-year supervisors average more than $40,000 a year. That equals $16 an hour, well above the $12 average pay in the retail industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures (2004). These employees also earn an average annual bonus of $950 and $6,300 in retirement-plan contributions as well. For assistant store managers, the average compensation package works out to $94,000 a year. Store managers get an average compensation package of $132,000, an amount that one analyst put on a par with what the manager of a giant Wal-Mart might make running a store that probably grosses six or seven times what a Trader Joe’s takes in.

- As of May 2010, Trader Joe's has a total of 341 stores in 25 states and Washington, D.C., with more stores being added regularly. One thing that makes Trader Joe's unique is the size of its stores—most locations average between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet.

- Despite the still relatively small size of its stores, Trader Joe's president, Doug Rauch, boasted that the company had "the highest sales per square foot of any grocery chain in America."

- Trader Joe's sells many items using its own private labels - many of which are quirkily named in accordance to the ethnicity of the food in question, such as Trader Jose's (Mexican food), Trader Ming's (Chinese food), Trader Joe-San (Japanese food), Arabian Joe's (Middle Eastern food), and Pilgrim Joe's (seafood). By selling almost all of its products under its own label, Trader Joe's "skips the middle man" and buys directly from both local and international small-time vendors.

- Trader Joe's promises that anything with a "Trader Joe's" logo contains no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, contains no MSG or trans fats, and is sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients

-I'm sure you've had a favorite item at Trader Joe's, only to return one day and no longer find it on the shelves. That's because TJ's stock is constantly changing as its buyers travel the globe looking for new and interesting products that can be brought back, packaged and sold profitably at a relatively low price.

- To make sure that workers keep up with the stock, stores hold weekly tastings for employees to sample the latest goods. "After the store closed, we would try everything from the wine to frozen pizza to candy," says Melody Derloshon, a former Trader Joe’s stock clerk who worked in a Northern California store. "It was like a buffet table." Workers also get a 10 percent store discount, which serves as both an added bonus and an inducement to keep employees acquainted with the products.

- Trader Joe’s workers give the impression that they enjoy being at the stores, which suggests to customers that they should get with it and have some fun, too. "The people who work in our stores are the front line, the first customer contact," says Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Pat St. John. "They are the soul of Trader Joe’s." They possess qualities that might apply equally to a cruise ship crew: outgoing, engaging, upbeat, fun-loving and adventurous.

- I also read that according to an insider, if during the first interview, the applicant does not smile within the first 30 seconds, they are screened out.

So with application and information in hand, I headed down to the store. After a few moments, I was introduced to a "Captain" (I guess it actually is a cruise ship), who was a middle-aged Indian lady dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. She looked at my application and saw my social work background and remarked "This looks good." She took alternating glances between the application and my face, and remarked "Obviously you like people...........and you have a great smile."

Mr. Cheese-Head became even a bigger cheese. She stated that although I did not have retail experience, she could teach me to stock shelves and use a cash register in 15 minutes. She remarked although they were not actively hiring, they are always looking for right kind of employee and that she would give me a call if they were any openings.

I walked away affirmed - perhaps for the first time in my entire job search. Finally, an organization which seemed to overvalue character over experience. Although she spent as much time reviewing my application as the other fifty or so human resources staff have with my other applications, she had a way of quickly looking for what mattered most for their company.

I might sound bitter or resentful and perhaps a bit proud, but I'm baffled how a organization will instantly screen me out because I don't have one year experience in a certain type of social work and not consider what kind of person it would take to endure much less enjoy 12 years in public child welfare and quit this secure job to go abroad to do human rights work (two-thirds of the time for no salary). Or what about the organizations that have told me/saw that I was overqualified and that they were worried about hiring me because I would leave once I found a better paying job. Little do they know that if the work mattered to me and if I loved the mission, I would do it for free - well at least for much much less.

I'm not an HR guy, but if I had my own organization, I would demand a way to look beyond the obvious and search for what truly is valuable in an employee.

In the culture of convenience and short-sightedness, I wonder if character matters anymore. For a quirky grocery store successful in its mission, apparently it still does.