Not Exactly an Art Gallery, But Still...'The Art of Trader Joe's'
Julie Averbach remembers looking at a box of Caesar Salad at Trader Joe’s and on the label was a picture of Augustus of Prima Porta, a famous sculpture carved of the Roman emperor, which she recognized from her art history classes at Yale.
It was her “eureka” moment, as she gazed around the store and began to take in other arts references on its product packaging, handmade sale signs, newsletters, shopping bags and — well, everything.
“I became fascinated with the idea of discovering fine art in the everyday world and here before me was a treasure trove,” said Averbach, who had a double major in art history and psychology when she was an summa cum laude undergrad at Yale in the early 2020s.
She proposed as her thesis a comparison of the store’s unique and eclectic artistic environment to the Renaissance-era’s “cabinets of curiosities,” which were private collections of unusual art and objects from around the world that predate museums. Her professors felt it was a fresh idea worth exploring, and her thesis contributed to her receiving the Vincent Andrew Steichman Award.
Andy Warhol took a soup can and a Brillo box and brought supermarket items into galleries and elevated them into fine art. At Trader Joe’s, she said, it’s a grocery store that kind of fashions itself into a kind of art gallery. “Art is a part of Trader Joe's DNA, and it's interwoven into the brand in many different ways,” she said.
Averbach expanded and reimagined her thesis over four years into a self-published and self-designed book, “The Art of Trader Joe's: Discovering the Hidden Art Gems of America's Favorite Grocery Store,” which is available in hard and soft cover on Amazon. A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s said they were aware of the book but declined to comment.
For her research Averbach, who now lives in New York City, visited 175 of Trader Joe’s 600 stores nationwide, including its first, which opened in 1967 in Pasadena, California. She published the book in October 2024.
“Trader Joe's goes far beyond just the basic buying and selling of groceries by curating this memorable, engaging, interactive experience for the shopper,” she said. “In most chain grocery stores, for example, the signage is standardized and focused on the name of the product and the price.”
Trader Joe’s has a lot of signs, too, but they’re created in-house “and are also simply meant to amuse, educate and delight you,” she noted.
When classic works of art are used throughout the store, Averbach said, “they’re adapting and putting an original spin on them, infusing a sense of playfulness into these otherwise serious works of art. They’re melding these original artworks with Trader Joe's branding.”
Part of its artistic aesthetic also comes from the maritime narrative it creates of goods being shipped from different places from around the world. Indeed, much of the artwork comes from images from that Victorian era of exploration and trade.
“That’s why they have their products and produce in these wooden crates as if they were coming fresh off the ship,” Averbach said. “You see lobster traps, anchors, boating ropes and other sailing props. They're putting together this story that I think a lot of people enjoy on a subconscious level. It kind of creates intrigue, or delight, and perhaps making that customer stop more often at the shelves to look at stuff. At the very least, it makes them feel that they’re in a unique market atmosphere and not one of a chain.”
It includes informative signage, sometimes about the origins of foods, such as “Did you know that potatoes were first harvested in Peru?” But some signage has nothing to do with groceries at all but rather reflect each area’s history, landmarks and heroes, all represented visually by local artists.
That customized feeling is created behind the scenes.
“People don't realize that in most of the stores there are artists who are creating signs, murals and art objects by hand who have the license to infuse their own taste into the designs,” Averbach said. “That’s such an unusual investment for a grocery retailer to make.”
Stores in each state have their own individuality — and unique shopping bags — where the artwork reflects the community where that store is located.
The store in Orange has shopping bags with a nod to Louis Lunch in downtown New Haven.
Often the stores’ designers riff on art history from Georges Seurat's “Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte,” Grant Wood's “American Gothic” and Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” In a Darien store, Averbach came across a trash can that was transformed into a giant ketchup bottle, evoking Claes Oldenburg’s playful sculptures.
“It also just goes to show that at Trader Joe's, nothing is too mundane to become an art installation,” she said.
In a Manchester store, Averbach came across a chalkboard-style mural with photos of the employee’s pets with a drawing of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” admiring the adorable animals.
“One of my goals is to inspire people to look at the ordinary through a new light and how art is interwoven into our everyday lives,” said Averbach, who is CEO of smARTee, which offers museum tours on line. “Art is not something that you necessarily need to visit a museum or a gallery to experience. It’s part of our daily experiences, if only we take the time to notice it.”