In the early 1960s, retailer Joe Coulombe was running a small chain of convenience stores in Southern California. Facing growing competition from 7-Eleven, he knew he had to take a different approach. Noting the rise in education levels across the U.S., he identified a clear niche: the better-educated, well-traveled—yet still modestly salaried—shopper. In 1967 he opened a new store in Pasadena, "because Pasadena is the epitome of a well-educated town." He created Trader Joe's specifically for "overeducated and underpaid people, for all the classical musicians, museum curators, journalists."

Coulombe reinforced his vision with a distinct visual identity. It helped that he collected Victorian print ephemera. When he started the company's newsletter he repurposed images from his personal collection. “All this stuff aimed at the subliminal,” he explained in 2005, “so that when the well-educated person walks down the aisle, they know—without anything shouting at them—that this is a store designed for them.”

Julie Averbach was still a student when she noticed that a box of Caesar salad carried an image of Augustus of Prima Porta, the first sculpture of the Roman emperor. Soon she realized the entire store—its products, signs, and murals—was filled with artistic references. “The whole place,” she said, “was a trove of art.”

Between her junior and senior years, she took a gap year. During that time, she watched the documentary Helvetica and had a revelation: typography was an art form that shaped everyday life. After that, she began studying Trader Joe’s more closely, drawn to the creative lettering and fonts on its packaging.

That curiosity became her senior thesis in Yale’s History of Art department, framing Trader Joe’s as a contemporary cabinet of curiosities. She has since expanded her research—after visiting more than 150 stores—into a really fun book: The Art of Trader Joe’s.

‍“When buying groceries at Trader Joe's, we're also collecting art, whether we know it or not. Some of the store's most striking artwork hides in bathrooms, parking lots, and even on trash cans. Nothing is too mundane to become a work of art at Trader Joe's.”‍

‍BOOK: The Art of Trader Joe's‍

‍AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Julie Averbach | The Art of Trader Joe's