The Cubist Epoch

Product Description

Oversize softcover

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The Cubist Epoch.
Douglas. COOPER
Manufacturer: Phaidon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OFVDY8

Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973): Sculptures and Drawings from the Cubist Epoch

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Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973): Sculptures and Drawings from the Cubist Epoch
Jacques] Marlborough Gallery [Lipchitz
Manufacturer: The Gallery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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JACQUES LIPCHITZ (1891-1973): SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS FROM THE CUBIST EPOCH
Marlborough Gallery
Manufacturer: Marlborough Gallery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Cubist Epoch
Douglas Cooper
Manufacturer: Bruder Rosenbaum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXEGMM

Book Description

Welcome back to the outrageous clip-art world of David Rees. His cult hit comic, Get Your War On, turned him into an underground phenomenon. His trash-talking karate comic, My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable, made him a publishing sensation.

Now, combining Rees's trademark gangsta vocabulary with the merciless absurdity (and eerie, quotidian accuracy) of Office Space and an uproariously profane sense of humor, Rees unleashes his volatile energy on a new comic that brings back the foul-mouthed cubicle slaves who starred in Get Your War On to (panel by panel) knock Dilbert on his ass and establish Rees as the Lenny Bruce of clockwatchers.

Customer Reviews:

TERRIFIC!.......2005-05-12

The FUNNIEST book ever! if you've werked in an office, u will love this book! If you haven't worked in an office, i hate you and you will STILL love this book! - hey i sound like an ad!

Incredibly Wicked, Funny, and On Target.......2005-04-10

I wish the offices I have worked in were this hilarious, and I could have used the Triangle Body Mode in many awkward situations.

In short, I laughed until I couldn't breathe and had to put the book down. An incredible, hilarious commentary on the depths of despair available 9:00-5:30 in your metropolitan area.

This Is Funny?.......2004-10-06

If this is Gen Y humor, it helps explain why SNL is still on the air. "My New Filing System" takes the art technique invented by Tom Tomorrow, adds a pointless storyline, stirs in an average of two cuss words per panel, and lets fly. If you subscribe to the school that 10,000 bad jokes might produce 1 laugh, this might be for you. For those who like their humor to be a little more, um, funny, skip this and go watch the chimps throw s**t at the zoo.

Rees is brilliant.......2004-05-21

Though Rees is better known for his Get Your War On comic, his wit and creativity are at their best in the Filing Technique series. Part of Rees' shtick is using public domain clipart instead of drawing the strips himself. And this tacky office clipart-you know, the blurry black and white pictures of office workers in plaid jackets talking on the phone-is a big part of the humor. There's something funny about dowdy office staff spewing obscenities.

You probably already know many of the characters in your own life-most of Rees' trash-talking clipart people are familiar enough to make part of you laugh in recognition and part of you consider hara-kiri. The clipart device also works well because Rees treats the pictures literally and builds absurd stories around them. Two women in front of a filing cabinet have intense and profane conversations about filing techniques; co-workers gathered around a workstation are business trainees who use the "spy computer" to learn about office politics; a shadowy man with a stack of dot-matrix printouts contemplates stealing the paperwork to start his own company.

So take a cubicle break and visit a world where management can drop a Triangle Body Mode at any time or can bring in Dr. Niles Fanderbiles to make sure your filing system is in the Realm of Excellence.

Even Better Than Get Your War On!.......2004-03-13

I loved David Rees' political satire, but this book is even funnier. If you like Office Space but thought the plot got in the way of the laughs, you'll love this. Anyone who has ever worked in an office (and doesn't mind profanity) can appreciate the humor.

My new filing technique is unstoppable in: "Horse Races"

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My new filing technique is unstoppable in: "Horse Races"
David Rees
Manufacturer: mnftiu.cc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VNDREW

Product Description

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 side stapled comic zine, self published by David Rees (Get Your War on)

Average customer rating:

My new filing technique is unstoppable in: "Horse Races"
David Rees
Manufacturer: mnftiu.cc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VN9P66

Product Description

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 with side stapled binding. Self published comic zine by David Rees (Get Your War On, My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable).

Book Description

The Cost of a Deadbeat is a thought-provoking study that takes both a humorous and cynical approach to identifying and defining the major types of deadbeats, and the hidden monetary and emotional costs they bring to society.

With over forty years of experience in the workplace, author Michael Webb applies his business knowledge and observation skills to illuminate what most of us unknowingly tolerate each day from the selfish and lazy in our culture. In each chapter, Webb provides personal examples of DNA (Deadbeat Negligent Activities) and categorizes the types of deadbeats, such as:

Workplace deadbeats—slackers, sickies, tenure train riders, and slacking supervisors
Criminal deadbeats—pilferers, prisoners, cyber slugs, scam artists, and petty thieves
Daylight deadbeats—porky politicians, bumbling bureaucrats, and deadbeat voters
Cheater deadbeats—fraud finders, tax evaders, and bankruptcy bums
New generation deadbeats—poor parents and weak schools

The Cost of a Deadbeat will encourage you to join the fight against deadbeats by examining your own behavior and contributing common sense and decency to your own life.

Download Description

Workplace deadbeats--slackers, sickies, tenure train riders, and slacking supervisors
Criminal deadbeats--pilferers, prisoners, cyber slugs, scam artists, and petty thieves
Daylight deadbeats--porky politicians, bumbling bureaucrats, and deadbeat voters
Cheater deadbeats--fraud finders, tax evaders, and bankruptcy bums
New generation deadbeats--poor parents and weak schools

The Cost of a Deadbeat will encourage you to join the fight against deadbeats by examining your own behavior and contributing common sense and decency to your own life.

Customer Reviews:

An eye-opening, easy read..........2005-04-23

This was an easy read. It was concisely written using lots of examples, and addresses how the "what's in it for me" mentality has contributed to the corruption of our society. The financial analysis of the "cost" of deadbeats was surprising and provocative. I highly recommend this--it will open your eyes to how significant the "deadbeats'" behavior is to your own life.

Book Description

Tales of horror, so popular in modern literature and film, originated in the sexual decadence unleashed by the French Revolution. In a compelling new study of horror from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to modern Hollywood, one of America's most original critics shows that the moral order, when suppressed, reasserts itself as an avenging monster in the midst of the chaos and suffering of cultural revolution.

As the Age of Reason gave way to the Terror, not only in Paris but in Mary Shelley's own life, the first monster of the modern imagination was born. Like much of the English literary class, Shelley's family-including her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and her husband, Percy-had embraced the French Enlightenment, throwing off old restraints on sexuality. The result of their ruinous dissipation was Frankenstein, in which Shelley's monster rises in repudiation of the very rationalism that produced it.

The next monster to appear as moral decay spread from revolutionary France was the vampire, Frankenstein's rationalist fascination with electricity giving way to the romantic myth of blood. Jones follows the progress of horror from Victorian England and Bram Stoker's Dracula to Weimar Germany and Murnau's classic film Nosferatu. Bringing his account to the end of the twentieth century, he shows how the Western imagination has responded to the explosive force of the sexual revolution with horror of unprecedented intensity. In the Alien series and other contemporary horror films, the culture of abortion and pornography has unwittingly spawned a new and terrifying breed of avenging monster.

Customer Reviews:

a religious conservative theory of horror; controversial but informed and thought-provoking.......2006-03-10

How's this for a Grand Unified Theory of horror: All horror monsters (including aliens, vampires, plagues, and slashers) are the personification of the guilty conscience that punishes unrepentant sinners (especially those who've transgressed God's sexual code). The Monster is Remorse, which author E. Michael Jones defines as regret without repentance.

Jones's interpretive theory of horror is easy enough to apply, especially to what's been called the "have sex and die" cycle of films. Consider Halloween: P.J. Soles engages in premarital sex. She knows that she has violated the moral order, but she suppresses her guilty conscience, thus eschewing repentance. But the guilty conscience never relents, and returns in the personification of Myers. Myers is also Nemesis (another of Jones's metaphors), the Greek goddess of "retributive justice" who restores God's/Nature's moral order to balance. Appropriately, Jamie Lee Curtis, a "good girl," escapes Myers.

After positing his theory of horror, Jones attempts to prove its validity by tracing the "trajectory" (a favorite term of his) of "Enlightenment thinking" over the past 250 years, paralleling it to the trajectory of the horror genre.

Jones regards Enlightenment thought as the desanctification of Man. The Enlightenment redefined Man as a soulless animal, a biological machine in a mechanistic universe. Man-the-machine (a clockwork organge, as Anthony Burgess termed it) is not restricted by God's laws, and is thus free to improve himself (e.g., eugenics) and free to live according to his pleasure (e.g., free love).

Enlightenment thinkers believed that Man, once returned to his natural state, would be a Noble Savage bound by his own Reason, but Jones claims that Reason has proven a poor substitute for Religion. The Enlightenment trajectory (which encompasses de Sade, whom Jones often cites) has spread syphilis, AIDS, abortion, prostitution, pornography, divorce, and the genocides of Bolshevism and Naziism.

What has this to do with horror?

Jones believes that horror films are popular not because so many modern people are sinners, but because they refuse to admit it to themselves (i.e., no repentance). Thus, Monsters From the Id is informed by Jones's devout Catholicism: All sex outside of heterosexual marriage is desanctified, in violation of God's law. People subconsciously know that desanctified sex has caused many of their social ills and personal miseries, but because they refuse to repent, they suppress their guilty conscience. Horror is popular because it resonates with people's guilty conscience. Catharsis comes when people face "dark truths" they dare not consciously admit, even to themselves.

The idea of horror and catharsis is old, but not everyone agrees about which "dark truths" are being exposed. Film critic Robin Wood has a different Grand Unified Theory. Wood believes civilization requires some "basic suppression" (e.g., delayed gratification), but that "bourgeois morality" enforces "surplus suppression" (i.e., suppression beyond what's needed, done so that people will conform to roles deemed productive for patriarchal capitalism).

To get an idea of Wood's perspective, here's a sample: "The most significant development in film criticism and in progressive ideas generally ... has clearly been the increasing confluence of Marx and Freud, or more precisely of the traditions of thought arising from them: the recognition that social revolution and sexual revolution are inseparably linked and necessary to each other ... it is here, through the medium of psychoanalytic theory, that Feminism and Gay Liberation join forces with Marxism in their progress toward a common aim, the overthrow of patriarchal capitalist ideology and the structures and institutions that sustain it and are sustained by it."

Wood believes horror monsters are the personification of suppressed sexual desires. Jones believes horror monsters are the personification of suppressed sexual morality.

Jones questions Wood's trajectory. If Wood's interpretive theory is correct, then horror's popularity should parallel society's "surplus suppression" of sex. Instead, since the 1970s, horror's popularity has risen while sexual suppression has fallen. Jones offers this as proof that horror reflects suppressed morality rather than suppressed sexuality. (Wood might dispute that "surplus suppression" of sex has significantly diminished.)

Whatever the reason for horror's popularity, Wood and Jones seem to agree that horror will lose its appeal once its "dark truths" are no longer suppressed. But perhaps there are enough fears for everyone? Wood may concede Jones's point that Cronenberg's films reflect horror as suppressed sexual morality (Wood has called Cronenberg's work "reactionary"). But Jones is mute on I Married a Monster From Outer Space, a film that portrays "bourgeois morality" as stifling.

Monsters From the Id has been both lauded and excoriated. Most praise pertains to Jones's analysis of Frankenstein and the French Revolution, which fills over a third of the book. Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a feminist and Enlightenment advocate (and victim) of free love. Wollstonecraft moved to France in 1792 (the heady period following the Revolution) and practiced what she preached with an American, Gilbert Imlay. Wollstonecraft expected to settle down in America with her revolutionary soul mate. Instead, Imlay got Wollstonecraft pregnant, then abandoned her in Paris just as the Terror was intensifying.

After losing many friends to the guillotine, Wollstonecraft returned to England, married Enlightenment political philosopher William Godwin in 1797, and died the following year. In the interim, Wollstonecraft gave birth to their daughter, Mary Godwin.

Despite Wollstonecraft's misfortunes during the Revolution, Mary was raised with Enlightenment values, which were encouraged by her future husband, and free love advocate, Percy Shelley. Percy was married to Harriet, but like Wollstonecraft, Percy practiced what he preached. He first committed adultery with Mary, then altogether abandoned Harriet for Mary. Harriet, mother to Percy's children, committed suicide.

Here is where Jones's interpretive theory kicks in.

Mary was struck with remorse over her part in Harriet's suicide. But because Mary Godwin Shelley believed in Enlightenment values, she could not admit that she and Percy had behaved immorally. They'd only practiced free love; Harriet had made her own choice. Unable to confront, or even understand, her guilty conscience, Mary could not repent her sin and be free of guilt. So she sublimated her guilt in Frankenstein, a character who espouses Enlightenment values (a mechanistic universe in which men are free of moral restrictions) as a means to human progress and happiness. But instead of happy progress, Frankenstein is baffled to discover that his noble intentions result in a monster that destroys both the Enlightenment practitioner and the innocents around him. The monster is remorse, both Frankenstein's and Mary's.

Monsters From the Id is an uneven book. The section on Frankenstein and the French Revolution is intriguing and extensively-researched. The section on Dracula, Darwin, and syphilis is more speculative. Jones relies on circumstantial evidence to postulate that Stoker suffered from syphilis. In his section on "Blood and Berlin," Jones pays only cursory attention to Nosferatu, instead obsessing on homosexuality in Weimar Germany. (He unearths Samuel Igra's curious claim that Dollfuss was assassinated partially because he was about to expose Hitler as a male prostitute from 1907-1914.)

Jones often strays off topic (as when he discusses the 1954 Reece Committee investigating Foundations). He may counter that such tangents are required to establish historical context, so as to show the parallels between the Enlightenment and horror trajectories. Fair enough. But sometimes he establishes much historical context, only to show a tenuous connection to horror. I expect horror fans will feel cheated by Jones's scant analysis of German horror -- although fans of Dr. Laura should feel well compensated.

Jones's recounting of the Reece Committee does set the stage for his analysis of Jack Finney's Body Snatchers. Jones thinks it key that Finney's two lead characters are both divorced (from previous marriages), and that their victory over the pods parallels their decision to marry. When they re-acknowledge God's marriage code, the horror dissipates.

Jones's writing tends to be turgid and redundant. He belabors his points, citing more than necessary for us to understand his position. Perhaps he hopes to preempt hostile responses with a mountain of citations. Still, compared to most academic texts, Jones's verbiage is only middling. His prose could be tightened, but I've read worse.

Because Jones discusses the Illuminati's influence on the Enlightenment, some readers at Amazon have accused him of being a conspiracist. However, Jones alleges no conspiracies. Nor does he claim the Illuminati is extant. He only claims that the influence of the Illuminati (and of the Enlightenment) is extant.

Jones earned his PhD. in American literature at Temple University. Although Jones is something of an anti-Wood, Monsters From the Id also evokes David J. Skal's The Monster Show. Both books analyze horror's past 250 years within a historical/cultural context, often invoking similar topics (e.g., the impact of the Pill). Skal's book is more readable and entertaining, more focused on horror, yet also thematically broader (discussing the impact of war and economic depression on horror). But Jones and Skal appear equally well-versed on horror. Jones not only critiques old classics, but is informed about such modern gore fare as Blood Feast. It would be interesting to see Jones and Skal debate the meaning of the genre.

Insightful and enlightening.......2005-10-22

Reviewers are correct that this book represents an essentially Christian (though non-sectarian) view of horror from the 19th century onward. If Christianity and extremism are synonyms for you (as it seems they are for at least one reviewer), you won't enjoy the book. However, if you're a theist of any stripe who also enjoys monster movies, TV shows, etc. I highly recommend this book. It offers insights that are available no where else.

The author pulls together biographical and textual sources and does an excellent job laying out his thesis that "Monsters are morality written backwards." After reading this book, I don't see how anyone could logically dispute his point. While reading I thought of dozens of example not covered in the text which also fit the thesis.

Finally, as for one review which says this book is about how "everything was better in the 16th century...the Illuminati, etc." There is simply nothing whatsoever like that in this book. This is not a conspiracy theory, it's a scholarly, historical examination of an interesting element of modern life from a theistic perpective.

This is one of the best books I've read this year. It's a solid four star book, but I'm giving it five stars because I'm annoyed by the witless trolls who leave useless one-star, one sentence reviews on Amazon.

Starts Out Promising-Then Slowly Putters Along.......2004-06-22

E. Michael Jones' book "Monsters from the Id" starts out very promising, but then half way through falters and eventually putters out. By the time I reached the end, when the book started to pick up steam again, I lost almost any interesting his assertion. His first three chapters in part I of his book are very engrossing. He crafts nicely his thesis about sin and horror. His focus on the Shelly's and their beliefs and practice lifestyle and how it affected her writing of Frankenstein is marvelous, and while I do not know if I completely buy his assertion, it is extremely plausible. His chapter on Stoker and Dracula is also very well done, but mid way through Part II when we get to the 1920s and Germany, he does not craft his arguments and insights as well. The book begins to drag I think he begins to make some overstatements about the condition of the time in regards to sexual liberation and homosexuality. While these behaviors had an impact on Germany after WW I, other problems persisted to weaken Germany as well, and more importantly, the liberal theology espoused prior to WWI and during it, as well as a 100 years of liberal German philosophy and theology weaken any moral fabric, allow a place for a Hitler to rise. Of course other problems are there as well, but Jones focuses so much on European decadence that he loses sight on demonstrating horror fictions part in the process. While his assessment is interesting, he seems to be off track from what the reader is expecting.

Hardly right wing, hardly extremist, just a book...........2001-08-05

Possibly due to its being more concise than Jones' last effort ( in addition to having a more attentive copy editor!) this volume transfers its message more pointedly. The thesis is merely an extension of typical criticism of a 'moral' bent on Frankenstein or Dracula ( the former as reflecting certain agonies of Enlightenment man, the latter's connection of sex, blood and death) beyond its usual limits, to artforms of the twentieth century, cinema especially. Far from promoting an ideology ( unlike Papal Sins, which can be guaranteed a reader ignorant of papal history, latin and theology, like its author) Jones simply picks up these films and novels as they exist and are argued in popular culture, sets them in their wider context and history, and proposes to one the fireworks that result. Not that his argument is faultless, it isn't, not even than you'll walk away feeling converted in any way, though you might, but, compared to the illiterate ravings of Papal Sins; the neo-paganism of WomanChurch; the consumate fatuousness of Curran and so on and so forth, Jones' thesis may even take on some rather shocking semblance of sanity!

Jones, in addition, hardly proposes a conspiracy theory of some Illumanist takeover, though prejudiced readers may well be desperate to misread in this manner, as his 'major' thesis, in Libido Dominandi for example, was that one's disordered sexual predelictions find themselves exploited for the benefit of the certain few, for political and financial gain. If this is a hairbrain conspiracy theory then plainly the media and advertising industries that we have at the moment are languishing in utter poverty...

Under the Sun of Satan.......2001-01-05

Slowly and by degrees the world is inching towards an understanding that the "Enlightenment" was at best cleverly orchestrated agit-prop, at worst a self-indulgent, wanton grab for power.

This is a wonderful book. Jones confidently, wittily and effortlessly dissects the manners and morals of the likes of Shelly and Godwin. My only wish is that Jones in the future would broaden his canvas to convey the horror that has been the legacy of the Enlightenment not just in the realm of sex but in the entire culture.

That said, this is cultural criticism at its best. A treat! It reminded me of Dostoyevsky's "The Devils." It demands a place on your shelf along side the likes of Eric Voegelin, Marion Montgomery, Jean Brun and Thomas Molnar.

Average customer rating:

Reward's for being creative.

Good book with spells and NWPs galore!

Unique in the good way

Very good book for all types of Spellcasters

A necessary book to spells casters

Player's Option: Spells and Magic (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, Rulebook/2163)
Richard Baker , and David O. Miller
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books | Changeling | Dungeons & Dragons | General | Mage | Military Strategy Games | Strategy | Vampire | Werewolf
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Player's Option: Combat & Tactics (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, Rulebook/2149)

TOME OF MAGIC (Advanced Dungeon and Dragons/2nd Edition : Accessory Rule Book)

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The Complete Wizard's Handbook, Second Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement/PHBR4

Arms & Equipment Guide (AD&D 2nd Ed Rules Supplement, DMGR3)

ASIN: 0786903945

Customer Reviews:

Reward's for being creative........2000-08-26

I was searching for a way to create magical items with a mage and picked up this book and found it defines this and more. I was able to hunt for magical components and this book helped with the research factor.

I wanted to find a few off-the-wall components and this book helped to define a good way to do that. It was helpful in answer magic related questions about Mages and what an Enchanter is good for or an Invoker. This book is a must if you plan of playing or running Mages, it is very helpful.

Good book with spells and NWPs galore!.......2000-04-12

Spells & Magic is a good, well-written, fairly well organized book packed with spells for both wizards and preists, along with numerous NWPs.

Unique in the good way.......2000-01-09

Unlike "Skills and Powers" and "Combat and Tactics", "Spells and Magic" does not introduce a wholly new set of rules that the other two books in the series are infamous for. "Spells and Magic" so rarely deviates from the original rules and presents so much expanded materials ( rather than totally new), you will soon be immersed into the originality of the effort. While this is basically a second take on The Complete Wizard's Handbook, it accomplished its goals so much better and quicker that it has plenty of leftover space to introduce several new subdivisions of the magic-user class and many other useful innovations. My advise as for Spells and Magic? Opt for this rules expansion - steer clear of its comrades.

Very good book for all types of Spellcasters.......1999-10-07

This book is a great source of information for any type AD&D game, this book includes detailed info about all types of Spellcasters and includes too the system of Character Point's already seen in the Player Option's:Skills&Powers but expanded and woth more option's this time for all Spellcaster. There is a system that you can create your own spellcaster type and almost create a new class, by choosing it advantages, disadvantages special powers and special traits. The books also include a system and a table of critical hit caused by magic. The book is very interisting and very good it worth the price you pay. Get it if you can.

A necessary book to spells casters.......1999-07-09

The new spells and the new rules of this book made the mechanics of the game more realist and more "playable". An important acquisition for every spellcaster and most adventurers.

Average customer rating:

Poorly Written Book on an Interesting Subject

Simply Outstanding!

Although not perfect it is the only thing out there!

Poorly written, poorly edited

The Trader Joe's Adventure

The Trader Joe's Adventure: Turning a Unique Approach to Business into a Retail and Cultural Phenomenon
Len Lewis
Manufacturer: Kaplan Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Retailization: Brand Survival in the Age of Retailer Power

ASIN: 1419500139
Release Date: 2005-09-01

Book Description

Learn about the best practices and merchandising expertise that made this $2.6 billion maverick one of the greatest success stories in grocery retailing.

Despite its laid-back style and iconoclastic way of doing business, Trader Joe’s is one of the savviest and most successful niche retailers in the world. With stores that are about half the size of the average neighborhood supermarket, this unassuming chain generates sales per square foot that are twice the industry average. In The Trader Joe’s Adventure: Turning a Unique Approach to Business into a Retail and Cultural Phenomenon, author Len Lewis tells the incredible story of this famously tight-lipped chain. From its Hawaiian-shirted ""crew"" and campy décor, to its trademark ""Two-Buck Chuck"" wine and affordable gourmet products not found anywhere else, Trader Joe’s provides an entertaining and rewarding shopping experience that has attracted legions of loyal customers. Beginning with the chain’s founding more than 45 years ago, to its current position in the retail spotlight, The Trader Joe’s Adventure traces the critical business decisions that have made Trader Joe’s a phenomenon.

Readers will learn how: •The chain has turned loyal customers into its best advertising. •Trader Joe’s doesn’t choose the most expensive, high-profile locations for its stores. •Offering private-label items has fueled its growth. •Cutting out intermediaries and negotiating better pricing and quality hasn’t alienated manufacturers. •Paying high wages has nurtured a dedicated and reliable workforce. •Controlling expansion drives Trader Joe’s growth strategy.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly Written Book on an Interesting Subject.......2007-03-16

Being that I enjoy Trader Joe's and the unique concepts behind it that have made it so successful, I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I only made it about 100 pages into this book and then I had to just put it down. I was getting so sick of the same repetitive statements and sentences and kept waiting for the real information and "meat" to turn up. But it never did...only simple statements, with not much to back them up. It was like reading the back cover of the book over and over and over and over. Not worth your time, money, or energy. Go to a Trader Joe's in person and you'll gain far more info than you will reading this book.

Simply Outstanding!.......2007-02-09

What a great book--on two fronts. First, I have learned to love my local Trader Joe's even more. And second, it is an outstanding case study of an organization from whom information is almost impossible to gather. If you are in business, or shop at Trader Joe's, this book is a "must read!"

Ed Rigsbee, CSP
Author, "PartnerShift-How to Profit from the Partnering Trend"

Although not perfect it is the only thing out there!.......2006-12-21

Trader Joe's has become a part of the culture for those looking for upscale groceries. For those who want to understand how Trader Joe's has gotten in the psyche of the United States this is a great book. It is short and to the point talking about how Trader Joe's evolved and the strategies they used. It offers excellent business advice. The book is very well written and stays on task. If you are interested in the Trader Joe's experience or retail grocery in general this is the only book out there.

Poorly written, poorly edited.......2006-04-17

It is ironic that an organization so careful about image and customer service should be the subject of so poorly written and edited a book.

The author, a grocery industry "expert" refers to "Jewel T" rather than "Jewel Tea" stores. He speaks of a firm's general "council" rather than "counsel." At best, it is a pitiful first draft.

And as someone else mentioned, there are quite a few sentences that are repeated several times in the text.

Don't buy it. I felt ripped off after finishing it -- and I just invested time, having taken it out of the library.

If you must, read the cover blurbs and call it a day.

The Trader Joe's Adventure.......2006-03-19

While this may not be a great book, it's certainly worth reading if you want insight into creating a unique business. As any savvy entrepreneur knows, part of success comes from understanding the philosophy that drives great businesses and this book delivers a nice analysis of the ideas that have fueled the Trader Joe's phenomenon.

Although it might seem like puff writing to an MBA student, a creative entrepreneur will find it loaded with reminders of why buildiing a one-of-a-kind business is soul-satisfying work of the highest order.

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