Welcome to the PropG Pod's Office Hour. This is the part of the show where we answer questions

about business, big tech, entrepreneurship and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd

like to submit a question, please visit officehours.progimedia.com. Again, that's officehours.progimedia.com.

First question. Hi, Professor Galloway. My name is Eliana, and I've been listening to you

since I found winners and losers back in 2017. So I live in the New York area in Westchester.

And one thing I noticed during the pandemic is that while plenty of supermarkets around us were

offering online shopping and delivery, Trader Joe's never did such a thing. Now, you mentioned

in your writing that the grocery sector in order to stay relevant, any particular chain, will need

to offer online shopping and delivery. That's easy to make a lot of sense. The question is, how is it

that Trader Joe's has been able to buck this trend? How come they seem to be this exception to the

rule remaining a float while remaining a brick and mortar based company? Can other supermarkets or

stores of other kinds replicate their success? If so, how? Thank you so much. That's a really

interesting question. It kind of flies in the face of everything we've been talking about. I think

Trader Joe's simply put is an inspiration. I have a lot of personal goodwill for Trader Joe's.

My mom and I used to go to Trader Joe's in the 70s in the San Fernando Valley, and it was fun.

I would go to these huge wood buckets of chocolate covered almonds and cashews, and my mom would say,

okay, you can get a quarter pound, and I would sit there with my scoop saying, okay,

a few of these nuts and a few of this chocolate covered cashews, whatever it was, and my mom would

go get great wine for which we thought was great wine. My mom never made more than $40,000,

but we just loved it. I see Trader Joe's now. I see a line around the block for it. They've done

such a fantastic job. What they've said is rather than investing in the supply chain, they're

going to invest in the experience. I think all of retail is kind of bifurcating into what I call

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