Trader Joe’s Picks Up Pace of Openings
October is proving to be a busy month for Trader Joe’s. The grocer has opened 10 stores since Oct. 1, with geographical representation across the United States.
The latest store at 16701 Mill Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, Wash., welcomed shoppers on Oct. 25. The previous day, residents in and around Sugar Land, Texas, got to check out their local Trader Joe’s at 13550 University Boulevard.
That means the site in Leesburg, Va., didn’t have long to be billed as the most recent Trader Joe’s, since it was unveiled on Oct. 22 at 506 Fort Evans Road, hot on the heels of another unveiling in South Pasadena, Calif., on Oct. 21. Earlier in the month, the retailer generated enthusiasm in local markets in Sparks, Nev., Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Coppell, Texas, South Lake City, Utah, Canyon Country, Calif., and Chandler, Ariz. Other stores are in the works, too, including outposts in California's Northridge and Marina, as well as in Sandy Springs, Ga.
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The topic of where, exactly, Trader Joe’s pinpoints new locations came up on the latest episode of the "Inside Trader Joe's" podcast. Co-hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan addressed the frequent question posed by Trader Joe’s fans: “How do I get a Trader Joe’s in my neighborhood?”
That depends, said Sloan, VP of marketing for the chain. “Although it might be an area that's really densely populated and traffic patterns are such that getting from one Trader Joe's to another neighborhood, it may be close, but it might take a really long time, that could be interesting,” he explained. “The numbers of people, well, more typically is better. So, dense population, or people coming from a larger trade area, that area over which people will reasonably travel to get from where they live to come shop at hopefully what becomes their neighborhood Trader Joe's."
Miller, the grocer’s marketing director, agreed that Trader Joe’s has been in acceleration mode, reflected in the recent openings. “We're adding lots of stores, even though we're a company that's been in business for close to 60 years at this point. We are growing, and we are growing at a pretty good rate right now.”
That seems to the case headed into the midpoint of the 2020s and beyond. “Again, we're not growing by acquiring, we're growing by one store at a time, very deliberately. We're looking at what I think more than 1,000 sites right now, which just boggles my mind because of course, for sake of clarity, we don't have anywhere near 1,000 stores right now,” said Sloan.
Added Miller: “And we don't have any plans to have 1,000 stores in the near future. We are growing at a pace that we can sustain. While we find locations making sure that we're in the right place, we're also growing people, we're growing leadership. Most of the crew we hire when we open a store is new crew. And so those are folks who then have to be trained to work at a Trader Joe’s. So, it's a process, right? It's not something that just happens overnight.”
With more than 500 stores in 40-plus states, Trader Joe’s is No. 33 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century.
