Ben Gilbert: preference

Transcript context

…Joe writes in the book *Friends*, "'Mack the Knife' has no competition. That's why I called it 'Mack the Knife.'" My years at Pronto Markets convinced me that where there is no competition today, there will be tomorrow. You must assume that competitors will open all around you. The answer is to design a store that has no competition. After 1978, after the end of fair trade, I paid no heed to nearby supermarkets, liquor stores, health food stores, or anything else. The whole strategy becomes double down on private label, double down on differentiation, become... One-of-one, become one-of-one. I love it. Obviously, I love it because this is how you and I think about Acquired. Trader Joe's is very much a reflection of the type of business we hope to build, and so I think all of this is preaching to the choir. How can you be more niche, but serve the shit out of your niche? How can you provide an incredible amount of value to your core customer base and not care about anybody outside your customer target? How can you be N of 1? How can you provide only the most unique thing? I can't decide if these are just the best principles to run a business, or if these are just the ones that happen to appeal to us almost as an act of vanity. It's probably not the best way to run a scale business, but it's an amazing way to dominate a niche. Well, yes, I think that's true. And if you can somehow find a scale business that you can run with these properties, it's amazing. That's when you get the Apples, the Costcos, the Trader Joe's.…

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