Trader Joe’s Workers Are Happier Than Whole Foods Workers. Here’s Why.

Trader Joe’s outscored Whole Foods on all seven measures of employee happiness in a recent survey.

One shopper exits as another arrives at the Trader Joe’s Chelsea store. Photograph: Will Jelbert

I live in Chelsea, home of art galleries, gays, a market and pier, the most Chipotles in one neighborhood, and a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

I am a grocery store whore. As unfaithful to one store as it gets, although in my previous life I was extremely faithful to Whole Foods. That was until I moved to Chelsea.

I was sure that the good vibes I felt each time I shopped at Trader Joe’s couldn’t just be attributed to the free coffee and samples or the free love 60’s — 00’s music played at perfect mid-volume, although music is a shortcut to empathy and empathy is a shortcut to happiness.

But I couldn’t put my finger on why the TJ’s staff were so goddamn happy, while their counterparts four blocks away at WF seemed glum by comparison.

I had to figure this out because I have spent the last five years studying happiness around the world. During that time, I have translated psychology and philosophy into practical exercises for happiness. What I…