Trader Joe's
Opened: 1997
Previous Tenants: A&P
Location: 155 Elm St, Westfield, NJ
Photographed: August 2019
It's time for our first store tour of a Trader Joe's here on The Market Report! (We'll have some more, but not for a long time.) This 15,000 square foot store was originally a street-facing A&P with parking lining the side, but Trader Joe's entrance is now on the side facing the parking lot. Check out some more history here. The original storefront looks to have been significantly altered.
Most Trader Joe's are pretty much the same, except for minor differences in layout. This one has dairy lining the left side wall with produce in the middle. The aisles diagonally fill the center of the store, with frozen foods on the far side. In the front corner of the store is a liquor department; under New Jersey's liquor laws, a corporation can only operate two liquor stores in the state. This is therefore one of only two Trader Joe's with liquor in the state.
This store suffered a roof collapse back in 2015 after snow accumulated on the roof. It reopened almost a year later, but to my knowledge looks substantially the same inside and out.
Produce, meat, and cheese lining the back wall. While I do find Trader Joe's a fun shopping experience, I am not a fan of how little produce is sold in bulk but instead it's all packaged.
A look at the first grocery aisle. The aisles are all set up diagonally...
Cheese and deli items on the back wall.
And frozen foods cutting approximately through the middle of the store.
The last grocery aisle before the liquor department, which takes up what would've been A&P's original front-end area.
Customer service and registers take up the rest of the side wall.
I like the New Jersey-themed road signs painted on the wall in the front-end here.
That wraps up our tour here! Tomorrow we're heading just a block and a half to the northwest to see Westfield's mainstream supermarket. Stay tuned!
PLUS... Today I have a surprise special report at noon. Come back to check it out!
Comments
Post a Comment