TJ Mascots

Oliver the Bruin lives at Trader Joe’s Los Angeles in Westwood, on Glendon Ave — directly next door to UCLA. The choice is no accident: ‘Bruin’ is the universal nickname for UCLA’s sports teams. The word itself has a long history. ‘Bruin’ is a term for a bear, originating from Middle Dutch ‘bruun’ (‘brown’), and became the proper name of the bear character in medieval European fables, most famously in the Reynard the Fox cycle (12th–13th century). It’s long been used as a synonym for a brown bear in English literature, and as a sports-team mascot — UCLA, the Boston Bruins, Brown University, and many more.