West Seattle Trader Joe’s: ‘Anniversary’ today

Today is a semi-momentous anniversary for a certain devoted group of WSB’ers: Exactly one year ago today, Trader Joe’s announced it’s opening a West Seattle store. (Here’s our original June 16, 2010, report with the news release and comments from property owner Steve Huling; we’d been watching the site since the previous April, when a city website mentioned the possible TJ’s.) As noted here 3 weeks ago, construction is under way – inside before outside, though now that all the permits are finalized, there’s exterior work too, and the banners with contractor information for J. Hughes Construction are brand-new today.

If you’ve missed our last few updates – though the company’s plans on file with the city mention a six-month construction schedule, a TJ’s spokesperson would say only that they’re expecting to open “in the fourth quarter” of this year.

Across the Sound in Kitsap County, TJ’s fans are counting the hours till 8 am tomorrow, when their first Trader Joe’s opens in Silverdale; just like here, some people are saying, “What’s the big deal?” so a Kitsap Sun food writer set out to break down that question.

10 Replies to "West Seattle Trader Joe's: 'Anniversary' today"

  • Bob Loblaw June 16, 2011 (9:08 pm)

    great post TR. you went above and beyond to help educate our community with this one. Thank you for pulling in the Sun’s piece to help and marking the anniversary (as silly as it might seem to some). I saw them hanging the banners this morning and wondered what they would be (driving by, eyes on the road, no time to look at the signs)
    .
    Look, I don’t “get” Whole Foods. But I know it has a loyal following. So I accept that and move on. Not my cup of tea, etc. And if you’re a TJ’s doubter/cynic and don’t “get” why others love the place, please read the Sun’s piece. if you’re a fan, save it and send it.
    .
    BV Coastal Merlot FTW!

  • chas redmond June 16, 2011 (10:17 pm)

    Two things – lime soda and large Virginia peanuts – for a song.

  • HunterG June 16, 2011 (11:14 pm)

    I know the community is awaiting this store, but I for one worry about local independents that it will take from. If a few years down the road other shops close down, don’t ask what happened. Trader Joe’s has nothing to do with supporting local farmers or companies and pretty much whores out other food companies to put their Trader Joe’s name on any product they want. Their tight lipped business practices are also something to raise an eyebrow at.

    Their prices are economical, which in a sh*tty society is desirable, but think of what it would be like to not have a choice because the Wamart of natural / specialty grocery put your other locally owned businesses out of….business. Do you care? Many don’t until the doors close and wonder “what happened?!?”

    Point blank – if you buy enough of anything it will be cheap and it wont be from anywhere in Washington or be supporting anything from where you live. It won’t help the environment because of all of the distance that food has to travel to get to that store to finally wind up on your table. So use those reusable totes all you want, that fuzzy eco-friendly feeling you get by using them is an illusion, it wont make up a miniscule fraction of what your carbon footprint will be by purchasing food from them.

  • Meghan June 17, 2011 (6:56 am)

    Oh, I can’t wait! No more trips to Burien!

  • Kayleigh June 17, 2011 (7:37 am)

    What local stores exactly are the alternative to Trader Joe’s? Aside from local produce, that is. Please don’t say PCC, because I rarely find what I need there, and the clerks are snotty to me.

  • Alki Area June 17, 2011 (8:45 am)

    WHY do people like Trader Joe’s? For the same reason some folks like PCC or Whole Foods, they carry DIFFERENT food. Safeway, Albertson’s, QFC, etc…all nice stores, but they all carry the same Campell’s Soup, Darigold milk, Craft Cheese and Cheerios. When you need that stuff, GREAT! But Trader Joe’s has unique and different food. Sure, they won’t fill ALL your needs, you’ll still end up at QFC for some basics, but it’s NICE to have a store with different stock and unique foods.

  • jiia June 17, 2011 (10:30 am)

    Okay, Trader Joe’s is not PCC or the farmer’s market but some of us need low cost healthy options. I’m not a big fan of the Trader Joe brand and I avoid anything made in china but there are plenty of other great organic options there. I get very suspicious when the primary argument used to get you to buy local/organic food is guilt. If you prefer to coddle local businesses whether they deserve a space in the market place or not – thank goodness for you. The rest of us have a family to feed and will be taking our dollars to Trader Joe’s.

  • Carrie P June 17, 2011 (10:36 am)

    Anybody know if it will be a Super Trader Joe’s, like in Ballard?

  • drummr June 17, 2011 (11:19 am)

    @Carrie

    I think when the news first broke they gave the specs of how big the West Seattle store was going to be which I compared to the Ballard store and as I recall ours should be a larger store.: )

    You could probably do a search to find this info from the blog.

    • WSB June 17, 2011 (11:34 am)

      This store is supposed to be 14,000 square feet; Ballard, according to what I came up with online, is 12,000 square feet. Give or take a few hundred sf in each case. – Tracy

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