Trader Joe's

[Plutonic Panda]

The three or four times I went I have to park over by Sherry's Drug store and walk over. Maybe it was the hours I went. This was all in the first six months it was open.

The one in Norman suffered the same fate as I usually parked across the street in the CiCi's parking lot and walked over. Very busy location. I think the Norman store benefits from having Cellar Liquor store next door as well.

I am a person who takes the first available spot (my wife hates it). I don't like to drive around for ever parking lot stalking.

well, I actually kind of like it when a parking lot is full and I have to park in another lot and walk over. I think it is fun in a way, but that's just me. Never would've thought it gets that busy, but again, I wouldn't mind it.

[CuatrodeMayo]

FYI: Parking in a lot that belongs to one business then walking across the street to another business is a good way to get towed.

[ljbab728]

I go to Costco for the big bulk items (pet food, some food and household stuff), Ralph's (Kroger) for general stuff and Trader Joe's for snacks, cheeses, wine and their specialty items.

Here are some of the things I love at TJ's:

Chili tortillas -- chunks of chili peppers
Frozen orange chicken
Frozen brown rice packets
Frozen gnochi
Tortilla chips -- huge bag, delicious and cheap
Several of their salsas and dips
All types of cheese -- great and cheap!
Specialty Thai and Indian simmer sauces
Some really interesting crackers and cookies
All types of seasonal items
Lots of great deserts

Pete, this gives some good examples about what you mean about their food selection.

11 Trader Joe's Products We Can't Live Without

[betts]

I just heard today that the store may go in on the empty lot on the NE corner of 63rd and Grand. Rumor has it they want to face 63rd rather than be in the Plaza. If so, obviously they'll be a freestanding store. All rumor, of course.

[bchris02]

I just heard today that the store may go in on the empty lot on the NE corner of 63rd and Grand. Rumor has it they want to face 63rd rather than be in the Plaza. If so, obviously they'll be a freestanding store. All rumor, of course.

I have never seen a freestanding Trader Joe's. Usually they are always a part of another development. The location in the Plaza looks perfect for them. It looks very much like the locations I've seen in other places. I can see why they would want to be on 63rd though because of better visibility.

[BillyOcean]

I just heard today that the store may go in on the empty lot on the NE corner of 63rd and Grand. Rumor has it they want to face 63rd rather than be in the Plaza. If so, obviously they'll be a freestanding store. All rumor, of course.

The NE/4 currently has an office building located on it, but I do believe it just changed hands a couple of months ago. I'm thinking you are describing the property just east of this building that used to be apartments??? Is that lot large enough for the store and parking?

[bchris02]

The NE/4 currently has an office building located on it, but I do believe it just changed hands a couple of months ago. I'm thinking you are describing the property just east of this building that used to be apartments??? Is that lot large enough for the store and parking?

Trader Joe's aren't very large stores. They are about the size of a typical Aldi if not slightly bigger. If it is freestanding, it should fit on that lot.

[betts]

The NE/4 currently has an office building located on it, but I do believe it just changed hands a couple of months ago. I'm thinking you are describing the property just east of this building that used to be apartments??? Is that lot large enough for the store and parking?

Yes, that's the one. I have no idea if there's enough room for parking.

[David]

I have never seen a freestanding Trader Joe's. Usually they are always a part of another development. The location in the Plaza looks perfect for them. It looks very much like the locations I've seen in other places. I can see why they would want to be on 63rd though because of better visibility.

I only went to it a couple of times, but I am pretty sure the Trader Joe's I used to live by in DC was freestanding. Just looked it up on google maps and it looks like it is.

[shawnw]

Pretty sure the one by Sid in Seattle is standalone as well. When I visited (the last time he went to Seattle) we didn't go in, but walked by it several times. Don't remember it being part of anything else.

[Pete]

Below is an aerial showing the office building Chesapeake just sold in yellow and adjacent land still owned by CHK in pink. TJ's would need more than just the yellow area, as they are crazy busy and require tons of parking, which I bet is why they rarely do free-standing buildings.

That yellow lot is only .6 acres and it sold for $1.8 million (big loss to CHK) and with the need to add more land, I don't see any way this deal would make business sense. Plus, it would still leave a large hole where Crescent and the drug store used to be, and who is going to fill it?

[tomokc]

That office building on the NE/C sold - as Pete said - recently to a Texas-based group, along with a building a short distance south on Grand Boulevard, what used to be the headquarters of Joy Reed Belt.

This site at 63rd & Grand would hardly be large enough for a modern convenience store selling gasoline. Also, I don't know if street-facing retail on 63rd would be embraced by NH. I would like to see this little office building eventually torn down and become part of a larger development integrating the grass parcel to the east and the older condominiums & apartments to the north and northeast. That would be a big, complex, mixed-use development, but the right group would find a receptive NH city hall, especially after the past decade.

[Jeepnokc]

I have never seen a freestanding Trader Joe's. Usually they are always a part of another development. The location in the Plaza looks perfect for them. It looks very much like the locations I've seen in other places. I can see why they would want to be on 63rd though because of better visibility.

The TJ off of Memorial in Cambridge MA is freestanding

[OkieHornet]

this is the back of the trader joe's in dallas on greenville. it's stand-alone and this is their parking lot.

[Pete]

The stand-alone TJ's out here frequently have cars backing up into the street, waiting for a space.

It's so bad that I hate even driving by those stores and absolutely never go in them.

[Dan]

I understand and appreciate Pete's explanation from earlier in the thread about of why out-of-state, risk-averse CRE pros would cluster a Trader Joe's near a Whole Foods (and a mile from a Sprout's). But as a local, I don't care; that still seems really stupid to me.

I'd put it on (1) Broadway, around 13th St. or so, (2) 23rd street, somewhat close to Broadway or (3) SE corner of NW 36th and Western. It'd kill in any of those places. In fact, even if they do put a Trader Joes in Nichols Hills, I'd put another one in either of the first two locations, and it would still do well.

[shawnw]

Option 3 is very intriguing to me. Hadn't considered that one before...

[Pete]

They will certainly have multiple locations, especially since they are smaller stores.

Here's how they could be distributed:

1. 63rd & Western
2. Midtown / Downtown
3. NW Expressway & Rockwell
4. Memorial and May
5. I-240 Penn
6. Norman
7. Edmond

[tomokc]

Dan, I haven't done grocery site selection before, but I don't think Broadway at 13th or 23rd would work because both are on the geographic edge of their target customer, although 13th Street a little less-so. The killer site for my money would be either NH Plaza or the Midtown area bounded by 10th, 13th, Walker & Robinson.

[warreng88]

What are the boundaries of Nichols Hills? Could they put it on the SE/C of 63rd and Grand where that office buiding used to be facing north so they still have 63rd street frontage?

[Tavia]

I-240 and Penn would be exciting for me!

[warreng88]

They will certainly have multiple locations, especially since they are smaller stores.

Here's how they could be distributed:

1. 63rd & Western
2. Midtown / Downtown
3. NW Expressway & Rockwell
4. Memorial and May
5. I-240 Penn
6. Norman
7. Edmond

I really wish they would clear out the strip shopping center on the SE/C of 23rd and May and put it there. Then I could walk to it instead of driving to Sprouts.

[Pete]

What are the boundaries of Nichols Hills? Could they put it on the SE/C of 63rd and Grand where that office buiding used to be facing north so they still have 63rd street frontage?

Nichols Hills is only north of 63rd.

Also, I know there are covenants in the Whole Foods lease that prohibits most food businesses from that entire area.

[CaptDave]

They will certainly have multiple locations, especially since they are smaller stores.

Here's how they could be distributed:

1. 63rd & Western
2. Midtown / Downtown
3. NW Expressway & Rockwell
4. Memorial and May
5. I-240 Penn
6. Norman
7. Edmond

I have no idea about the zoning of this parcel of land, but there is a location on Penn just north of 150th I thought would make a great location for Trader Joe's - TONS of rooftops within walking distance, not that anyone would, and on a main thoroughfare. In my perfect world, the building would be pushed to the sidewalk and parking in back and have space for a couple specialty shops. This goes again my normal preference to fill empty strip malls before building new ones, but that location seems perfect.

[zachj7]

KC only has two. I don't think we will have more than 2 for a while. Only other reason would be to have one in Norman and Edmond but that's unlikely. I bet they start with 1 for a while.