Well, from all reports the new Brooklyn Trader Joe’s is a big hit. On opening weekend they did more than a half a million dollars in sales.
Many people I’ve spoken with seem to like the landmark bank building, the wide aisles, the high ceilings, the well-organized space and plentiful cashiers. In terms of design it is miles ahead of the their location on East 14th Street, which people say is a crowded and unpleasant place to shop during busy hours.
Deep Joanna, an OTBKB source, who works inside store said that TJ’s acknowledges that mistakes were made in the design of the first NYC store on 14th Street. The Court and Atlantic shop is the East Coast flagship store.
Seems that the California chain has set its sights on the Upper West Side. Plans are in the works for another store on 72nd Street and Broadway not far from the famous Gray’s Papaya.
With Fairway, Citarella, Zabar’s and Whole Foods, it remains to be seen whether the Upper West Side will be quite an enamoured of the California food store. I mean, it’s not like you can’t get good cheese, organic produce and meats, condiments, snack foods and all variety of frozen and prepared foods up there.
Brooklyn really needed TJ’s. Other than the Food Coop, Fairway, Pomegranite (the new kosher superstore), Sahadi’s, D’vine Taste, Blue Apron and other specialty shops, there’s not much to brag about in the grocery department in Brooklyn.
Trader Joe’s has given Brooklynites lots to talk about.
I should have explained that I was moved by a question asked in an email from the Municipal Arts Society: “Why do we love Trader Joe’s but hate Wal-Mart?” Both are national chains, not locally-owned stores.
Now I’m sure some people would say that Wal-Mart is a bad corporate citizen, but to be honest – and I go to the Trader Joe’s on 14th Street (much closer for those of us in Williamsburg) – I know nothing about Trader Joe’s corporate practices.
I am currently wearing a great black cashmere v-neck sweater I got a couple of years ago at the Wal-Mart near my house in Apache Junction, Arizona. I don’t regularly go to Wal-Mart (they’re too big to get through easily) but sometimes have gone to them and always get decent merchandise at a cheap price. (For many years I lived across the street from one in Gainesville, Florida.)
I suspect some chains that some Brooklynites like, from Trader Joe’s to Whole Foods to American Apparel to Target and Ikea, are guilty of some corporate practices that we might not approve of. Yet if a Wal-Mart tried to get into Brooklyn, many of the readers of this blog would be up in arms. I don’t think any bloggers would be as supportive are as they are of Trader Joe’s.
Yet why? Is Wal-Mart uniquely bad? Or is it that classism is at work here, and Wal-Mart is associated with people, um, like Sarah Palin?
There are many poor people in Brooklyn who would welcome the low prices of Wal-Mart. Brooklyn now has three Target stores and is about to get another one that is an easy walk down Flatbush Avenue (maybe five minutes) from another Target. I don’t see that big a difference between Target and Wal-Mart.
I’m not trying to argue that we do need a Wal-Mart in Brooklyn, just wondering why, as the MAS question went, we love Trader Joe’s but hate Wal-Mart.
If this were a Wal-Mart, would you feel the same way? Why not?