Trader Joe's
Opened: ca. early 2000s
Just across route 9 (called Boston Turnpike here) from the Shaw's we saw last week, we're here to tour the Trader Joe's in Shrewsbury! As we can expect, the store is much smaller than Shaw's -- in the 15,000 square foot range rather than Shaw's at 64,000 -- but, according to Placer.ai, gets about the same number of monthly visits.
The store is a pretty standard Trader Joe's, and appears to have opened between 2000 and 2007.
We enter to produce and meat on the left side, with frozen in the first few aisles. Dairy lines the back wall and continues down the last aisle, with cheese and deli items on the right side. Baked goods are in the front right corner.
This strikes me as one of the more inviting Trader Joe's I've been to, although I couldn't tell you why. Typically, I find Trader Joe's stores to be on the boring side because they're so similar, although there are certainly standout ones in unusual settings and the like.
Trader Joe's must be the only big-chain supermarket that's still using exclusively open freezer cases, right? And I assume they do that so that the products, which are largely based on impulse buys, are easier to browse and grab quickly.
Refrigerated produce lines the left side of the store.
Hmmmmm, I'm not sure this sign (below) lands. This appears to be an attempt at showing local pride, with skiing and snowboarding on Wachusett Mountain. Actually, Wachusett Mountain is a good 20 miles away. So I get what they're going for, but I don't know that it's working.
As usual, the grocery aisles are to the right of the frozen foods, and they're all on the diagonal. I'd estimate there are around three grocery aisles here, although of course they're not numbered.
Demo station (left below) was closed up for the coronavirus, but here's a look across the back wall of the store with dairy on the right side.
And cheeses, of course!
I do like the displays Trader Joe's always has.
Baked goods to the left below, with customer service and the rest of the front-end extending beyond that.
Opened: ca. early 2000s
Previous Tenants: unknown
Cooperative: none
Location: 77 Boston Tpk, Shrewsbury, MA
Photographed: January 19, 2019 and October 11, 2021
As I mentioned, there's a lot of grocery stores very nearby, so we're going to take a look at the next one a few blocks east tomorrow!
I think the reason they use the open cases is twofold. It lets them quickly stock the cases, and it's easier for them to rearrange and rework the case for new products. They carry many more seasonal items than the average store, and this lets them easily move things around.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. Good points.
DeleteThis is a very nice Trader Joe's, although I rarely come across one that isn't. I would say this store is more inviting due to the warm yellow walls. TJ's tends to go with either yellow or light blue walls. Blue creates a much less warm and welcoming environment as far as I'm concerned. This store also has a good amount of wood paneling which adds to the warmth. The lighting, however, is pretty terrible, as it is in most TJ's. A little too harsh and artificial. More like what you would find in an office setting. The Hoboken TJ's has great lighting, the likes of which I haven't seen in any of their stores.
ReplyDeleteThat "Rest of store" sign is pretty hilarious. It's little touches like this that makes TJ's unique and fun. Surprised to see no signage of any kind at the checkouts. The Edgewater store has each checkout named with a local street name and Hoboken has each of their 20 registers numbered since the checkout line is single file (which I love). Yesterday 19 or the 20 registers were open with a double line waiting to check out. (The volume there is insane).
An interesting note about the displays... TJ's managers and employees decide what goes on the displays. Not corporate. The approach here is to let the store itself choose the products that will most resonate with local customers as opposed to feature the deals the company was able to make with a particular supplier of manufacturer. This is a huge contributor to the success of the chain. Something Barnes & Noble is doing once again to tremendous success which is making their stores relevant again but that's a whole other store. Another side note... TJ's has a great assortment of greeting cards. Designed exclusively for the chain, they are very unique and simply can't be beat at 99¢ each!
Some typos above! Turns out I did hit publish after all, which was by accident. My whole comment disappeared at one point and I thought I had deleted it. Was about to start all over but it's here!
DeleteI agree about the light blue walls. To me, it feels like a Pathmark because of the Path to Savings decor package. And I'm with you on the lighting, too, although I do think generally decor and facility is pretty no-frills in Trader Joe's (other than, of course, the graphics themselves on the walls). But they're focused on efficiency, I think, so they're not doing particularly creative designs or fixtures or decor.
DeleteAnd yes, I love the "rest of store" sign!