In the beginning...

In the beginning, in the year of our Joe nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, there was a land of sameness, where aisles of sustenance lay in uniformity and predictability. And lo, amidst this land, there was a good man, Joe Coulombe by name, a visionary and entrepreneur of great grocery foresight.

And it came to pass that Joe, wandering as if in the wilderness, though he was just in the far off land of Southern California, was struck by a terrifying vision most profound. For it was not within the confines of yon office walls that the revelation came unto him, but under the expanse of the heavens, beneath the sky wide and unending.

Yea, Joe had journeyed afar, even unto the bazaars of ancient Istanbul, and unto the vibrant markets of the Caribbean, where the air was thick with the scents of spices unknown and fruits of every hue. In these places, amid the labyrinth of stalls, amidst the patchwork of voices and tongues, did Joe behold a vision of a store most extraordinary.

And it was revealed unto him that this store would be unlike any in the land of America, a place where the riches of the Earth – spices, fruits, and snacks of every kind – would gather as in a bountiful harvest. This store would break the chains of convention and bring forth a new era in the quest for nourishment.

Thus was the genesis of Traitor Joe’s, a beacon of variety in a sea of monotony, a place where every shelf and every aisle sang a song of diversity and wonder, much like the lands from whence Joe had gleaned his inspiration. His customers would be devoted, and his crew would be unwavering in their loyalty.

And Joe saw that it was good, a beginning of something that would grow and flourish, much like the seed that falls on fertile ground and brings forth fruit a hundredfold. This was the dawn of Traitor Joe’s, a genesis of a different kind, where the spirit of the bazaar and the ethos of the globe-trotter would come to dwell in the heart of America. Amen.

ONE | And so it was that the vision of Traitor Joe’s, like a seed planted in fertile soil, began to take root and grow. Herein this, The Book of Joe, lies the tale of its genesis, the legend of Joe’s Seven Days of Creation, that the story of this bounteous venture might be told...