Today, many Omahans (yes, that’s what we’re collectively called) are excited about the opportunity to go out and spend some of their hard earned dollars. We just got official word that a Trader Joe’s store is indeed coming to town. The Twitter stream and Facebook updates extolling this glorious day have been pretty steady.

Besides feeling a little genuine excitement about this store coming to town myself, the thing on my mind is how Trader Joe’s, which at its essence is a small grocery store, has such fans that are busy telling everyone they know about a future store coming to their neck of the woods.

I’ve been a fan for years, and a good friend of mine actually finds out today if he gets promoted to top dog at one of the stores in Tucson. I like them because they sell food I enjoy at a great price. And having worked in the grocery industry for nearly 10 years I appreciate how they do business. They just do things right. They also are a great place to work as well as shop. They sell a limited number of products in a small, efficient store and they focus on natural/organic items. The majority of their sales come from their own store brand.  They have a very defined operation, very minimal labor (for the grocery industry) and very dedicated customers. People are known to drive many miles for a trip to the store.

Where does the average business fit into the fan versus customer spectrum? When your customer leaves your store/office/location are they telling others about you or is it just another transaction?

Trader Joe’s is being welcomed into a community and there have been Facebook groups requesting that they come here for over a year now. How many other food retailers enjoy that market position?

Now that we’re all excited, let’s see how it all shakes out. And how soon we start calling for additional locations to spend our money.