Back in 2001 when I started working for Trader Joe’s, the company had a housewares department. Really.
They sold pots and pans, plates, bowls, glassware, can openers, cutting boards, trays and platters – you name it. And, as one would expect, the prices were great.
A lot of things were different back in those thrilling days of yesteryear, For one, nothing had barcodes. Everything was priced individually and manually entered into the cash register. We called out prices to the customer as we rang and carried on conversations. We also only received deliveries three days a week – M-W-F – from Boston to our Pennsylvania store. You really had to be good with your ordering. We were a talented lot, indeed!
But back to housewares.
Back in those early days, Trader Joe stores were fairly small – especially those that didn’t sell alcohol. In order to keep bringing in more food products – and expand the fresh produce section that was really minimal back then – the non-food items had to go. There just wasn’t the room for them.
But before any of that happened, it was a great section to work. Early in my start, we got in a bunch of coffee mugs – in green, kind of a mustard gold, and – if memory serves – a bluish color, as well. I bought a 4-pack 2 of the green and 2 of the mustardy gold for $4.99 and, a bowl for maybe $5.99. and a couple of platters, more bowls… ridiculously inexpensive – and I got my employee discount!
Besides the above bowl, I had a few others, but they’ve either been broken over the years or donated because we just had too many – especially after moving into a much smaller home with much less storage space. We’ve always had dozens of mugs in the house – holiday mugs, silly mugs, mugs from vacations, mugs from friends – but over the years, even as the others have dwindled down – I just sort of gravitated to these and stayed with ’em.
After 25 years, the two gold have broken or have otherwise disappeared, and we have the two green left. Two mugs that I pretty much exclusively use every day – even though we still have a score of different mugs in the cupboard at any given moment.
It’s the perfect mug. 12 fluid ounces, comfortable handle, tallish, microwavable… I never have to think about which mug I’m using.
Here’s to another 25 years of using them!