The Meaning Behind Trader Joe's Employees Wearing Hawaiian Shirts

Over the years, Trader Joe's has developed a cult-like following among grocery shoppers. For many, Trader Joe's is a grocery store that they can't help but gravitate towards. The chain offers selective and unique offerings at relatively affordable prices. Who can resist its frozen meals like cauliflower gnocchi and orange chicken?

Even the checking out experience at Trader Joe's can feel special. For many customers, it seems like Trader Joe's employees are extra nice — at times, even flirtatious — while ringing them up. This has led to online discussion about whether it's the grocery chain's policy that Trader Joe's employees have to be overly nice. However, employees put the rumors to rest by telling Glamour that flirting is not part of Trader Joe's official training. Furthermore, let's keep in mind that pretty much every retail-based company encourages its employees to be friendly with customers, and Trader Joe's workers are about as likely as anyone else to find you romantically interesting. But regardless of how nice a Trader Joe's employee is being at any given moment, chances are better than average that they're donning a Hawaiian shirt. The famously colorful garments have become emblematic of Trader Joe's and its goal of being a fun, unique grocery store.

When you are shopping at Trader Joe's, you very well might run into an employee wearing a bright, colorful button-up shirt with various plant and floral prints. Coming in red, yellow, blue, green, and more, these Hawaiian shirts are as iconic as Trader Joe's products to some customers.

The Hawaiian shirts are uniform for the employees — also known as crew members — because they tie in with Trader Joe's nautical theme. The shirts are worn by "our Crew of adventurous traders on the culinary seas," according to Trader Joe's website. "We search the world over for fantastic, interesting items to bring home for our customers to discover. "

Trader Joe's crew member titles are also tied to the nautical themes. Instead of store associate, assistant manager, or manager, employees are given the titles of merchant, mate, and captain. According to a Reddit post about the floral uniform, an alleged Trader Joe's employee said in the comments the Hawaiian shirts are reserved for captains. Other crew members typically wear plain shirts with flower prints on the back, which is also a nod to Trader Joe's nautical theme.

The Hawaiian shirts aren't the only nautical-themed prop at the grocery store. In fact, Trader Joe's founder Joe Coulombe explained on the "Inside Trader Joe's" podcast that the nautical theme was born from several inspirations, including a book called "White Shadows in the South Seas" and Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride. "That is why, to this day, the employees wear Hawaiian shirts," said Coulombe.

Instead of a public announcement system, workers at Trader Joe's locations use a bell to communicate. As Trader Joe's explains on its website, the bell rings once for an additional cash register to open up to help speed up the checkout line; it rings twice if a question at checkout needs to be answered, and ringing the bell three times is essentially calling a store leader or captain over. Nautical bells were also how maritime traders communicated with each other.