Aldi-owned US discount grocer Trader Joe’s seeks to inject humour into the business of food shopping with its Los Angeles’ branch.

The trend towards associating a shop with a place is one that has become pretty well established over the past few years. It is at its most obvious in supermarkets, in terms both of products stocked and the signage designed to foster the link between store and place.

Few retailers pull this off as well as Aldi-owned US discount grocer Trader Joe’s, which seeks to inject humour into the business of food shopping.

And one of the best examples in the chain is to be found on Los Angeles’ Vine Street, in the heart of Hollywood, where reference to films and film folk is made at every turn.

Whether it’s a pastiche of Clint Eastwood saying: “Go ahead… make banana nut bread” or a curvy-looking giant woman bestride a freeway next to the legend “Attack of the 50ft Appetite”, it’s actually quite hard to suppress a smile at what has been done.

The point that should be made is that while this is very good, a visit to any Trader Joe’s branch will reveal the same trait and on the basis of shopper numbers, it has found favour with consumers across the US. Localising a shop can be fun, as well as appropriate to a location.