Sublime

The dollar store is one of many business models given to us by the South, like Walmart but far more modest and even cheaper. Dollar General began in 1939 in Scottsville, Kentucky, as J. L. Turner and Son. In the mid-’50s its name was changed to Dollar General, and in 1968 the company went public. Family Dollar is younger. It was founded in 1959 in

Leroy found a hippie outfit in Venice—I think it was called Mom’s Trucking—which would package the bran. But bran is a low-value product. They couldn’t afford to deliver it. Since they also packaged nuts and dried fruits, however, we somewhat reluctantly added them to the order. And that’s how Trader Joe’s became the largest retailer of nuts and dr

We brought it to Los Angeles, had it bottled (Pilgrim Joe’s label), and we didn’t just break the price—we destroyed the price!

we became the best place in the world to buy a good bottle of wine for less than $2.00. That’s a position we held for the rest of my days at Trader Joe’s. It absolutely addressed our prime market, the overeducated and underpaid people of California.

Vic is a pointy-faced man of about forty with slicked-back dark hair who looks like a weaselly sort of hood, or maybe just a weasel, with his small eyes and vicious smile. Before landing here at the DMV, Vic worked as a bouncer, a roadie, a security guard, a fitness trainer, an auditor, and a head cook—name a job where you got to intimidate people