Are Traders Joe’s Employees Instructed to ‘Flirt’ With Customers?
Trader Joe's is dispelling rumors that employees for the grocery store chain are instructed to flirt with customers.
Inside Trader Joe's podcast hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan broached the subject during a recent chat with Trader Joe's president Jon Basalone and CEO Bryan Palbaun.
"Here's an opportunity to put something to rest because you're saying be genuine and be nice," Miller said, asking: "Can you please tell us once and for all, are our crew members told to flirt with customers?"
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Both Basalone and Palbaun emphatically denied the rumor.
"Definitively, no. I think we just have such a unique environment in our stores that, to go into a Trader Joe's store and feel that everyone is genuinely interested in whether or not you are having a good day, compared to maybe other retailers, I could see how that might be misinterpreted," Palbaum stated.
"Bryan's right," Basalone chimed in. "I mean, you go through this world, and you run into so many people that aren't genuine, that aren't kind to you, that when you walk into a place when that's happening, it feels like, whoa, okay, I think they're flirting with me when actually, yeah, that's just what niceness feels like, you know?"
Is Trader Joe's Getting Rid of Cashiers?
Trader Joe's president Jon Basalone also shut down reports that Trader Joe's is doing away with cashiers and replacing them with self-checkout stations.
"That’s as false as false can be," Basalone said.
"Because we believe in people and we're not trying to get rid of our crew members for efficiency sake or whatever the, I don't know what the reasons are people put self-checkout in," he added.