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Trader Joe's

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Trader Joe’s:

Environmental Risks Which Have Impacted the Company’s Business Operations

Peter R. Radulovic

BSNS 652 Sustainable Business Practices
EMBA – 2
Instructor: Dr. James L. Miles Sr.
August 7, 2011

Trader Joe’s consumer business operations have been chosen for evaluation since it sells specialty grocery items and merchandise to the general public. As a result of its unique business operations, Trader Joe’s faces many environmental issues or risks which may have an impact upon its business operations. Trader Joe’s located in Monrovia, California is a privately held chain of retail specialty food stores with approximately 361store locations in 29 states. Unlike traditional grocery store chains which stock tens of thousands of different items, Trader Joe’s focuses on about 4,000 items of which 80 percent bear one of its own private label brand names. Trader Joe’s widely viewed as a “green” company prides itself on being “your unique neighborhood grocery store” which offers low priced products which contain natural and organic ingredients.
Trader Joe’s is a product driven specialty business which offers many grocery items which are not normally found at the average grocery store. This type of business environment presents unique challenges, implications and environmental risks which can have a direct effect upon the company’s business operations. In order to live up to its credo “great food + great prices = value” Trader Joe’s has developed relationships with numerous suppliers which makes it difficult to monitor the contents and ingredients of many imported items and establish specific environmental policies and standards beneficial to its operations, the consumer and the environment.
The business practices which have made Trader Joe’s operations so successful have also created a corporate structure which has been resistant to

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