Funeral services were held Thursday for John V. Shields Jr., the retired CEO of Trader Joe’s who was instrumental in taking the company national.
Shields, 82, died Oct. 31 after a lengthy illness.
Following a career at Macy’s and then Mervyn’s, Shields was asked by Joe Coulombe — the founder of Trader Joe’s and Shields’ fraternity brother at Stanford University — to succeed him as CEO in 1989. During Shields’ 12-year tenure, Trader Joe’s grew from a California company with 36 stores and sales of $132 million to a national player with 175 stores and sales of $2 billion.
Shields said in an interview cited in SN he did not see much expansion for the company beyond 100 West Coast stores, “[so] we had to make a geographical leap to the East. Very few retailers have successfully done this. After a serious study, we became convinced the 500-mile corridor from Boston to Washington D.C. was truly Trader Joe’s country.”
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Shields retired in 2001. Survivors include two sons, two daughters and five grandchildren.
Date: November 07, 2014