We had spent ten days of indoctrination before the Grand Opening… I use the word
indoctrination to describe those first ten days, because the actual training was minimal.
Admittedly, most of the day-to-day work on the floor of a grocery store is menial. But I was
still struck by the ratio of time spent discussing values, compared to time spent discussing
process… What we did do, for hours, was listen to the Hawaiian shirts talk about Trader Joe’s
company values and the ways Trader Joe’s was different from other stores.59