Memo to Trader Joe’s: The Early Bird Catches The Worm
There are plenty of things that bother me about the Trader Joe’s on 14th Street, but one thing that boggles my mind are its hours of operation. It’s open from 9am-10pm. And every morning, by 8:55am, there is a throng of eager customers waiting to get in and beat the crowd.
This is the 50+ (in both number and age) deep crowd that gathered outside the doors this morning. It’s too bad that most days, by the time this crowd is forming, I’m already at work. When people tell me that I should shop during “off hours” to avoid the crowds, almost all of these “off hours” are while I’m at work.
I just wonder why they have to open so late. Whole Foods is open at 8am, a block away. There are some grocery stores in this city that are open 24 hours a day (admittedly, I’d never ask that of Trader Joe’s - they need time to clean up from the tornado that rips through their store every day). We New Yorkers aren’t late risers. This isn’t Portland, Oregon! We’re not hippies! We have jobs!
There are very few Trader Joe’s that open at 8am across the nation. Most of them are in California and Arizona, where their stores close earlier (9pm). Their standard opening time is, it appears, 9am. I don’t quite know the reasoning behind this, but what works in other places doesn’t always work in New York (see also: building a store in Manhattan and being forced to reconfigure the store to add more checkouts within weeks of opening).
If there was any Trader Joe’s that would be ripe for extended hours, it would be one where people literally wait outside just to get in, like a private club. Come on, Trader Joe’s. You can get up an hour earlier! Wake up and smell the coffee. I know just where to get it, too: the sampling station!
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Life in NYC. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Jacob says:We New Yorkers aren’t late risers. This isn’t Portland, Oregon. We have real, honest-to-goodness 9-to-6/7/8/9 jobs here.
Really, Chris? As of this morning, I could have sworn I was the only professional in Manhattan who was at work by 9AM most days (except for the I-bankers who go in early to deal with Nikkei fallout). There’s even an urban legend that on 9/11 only four attorneys died, because the other four hundred weren’t at work yet. Maybe advertising’s different, though. Not that any of this has much to do with the East Village clientele of Trader Joe’s….
February 19th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Chris says:Jacob: You could be right. I could be at the only company in New York where we’re actually at work at 9. If that’s the case, I should find a new job!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Jill says:This Trader Joes generates the most profit per square foot of any NYC retailer (I read this a while back somewhere, possibly New York magazine but I’m not entirely sure). Based on that they don’t need to change a thing.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Chris says:Jill: If that’s true, wouldn’t they be able to be even more profitable if they extended their hours?
February 19th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Ed says:Um… why bother extending store hours when the shelves are just going to sit bare that much longer.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Louise says:What they need is another, and a bigger site. The former Barnes & Noble site on 21st and Sixth will have been vacant a year next month. B&N’s former CD/Music annex on 22nd would be perfect for a Trader Joe’s Wines but that requires a change in law from Albany, as a chain can only have one store in NYC!
Wider aisles, and hence hopefully a more genteel clientel would be welcome.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Don says:So true. I only go there right at 9AM, grab what I need–no idle browsing–and get the hell out. The thing is: no Trader Joes anywhere in America is big. They’re all kinda small. Something to do with the business model. The Barnes and Noble idea is a great one, but it will never happen.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:15 am
mark says:jump on the 4/5 and take the 15 min xpress subway ride to boro hall … walk 4 blocks to the TJ’s at Court & Atlantic. problem solved.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:22 am
BaHa says:I once overheard a salesman turning his area (the East Village) over to another salesman, telling him “Don’t bother to come here before noon. No one’s up.” Seriously, I don’t know a single person who is at work at nine. I feel for you.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:26 am
mxbe says:I consistently shop at TJUQ and it never ceases to annoy the hell out of me that I do! The ridiculous lines, traffic jam of carts and narrow aisles that make maneuvering through the store difficult. Added to that bare shelves and staff more interested in their conversations with each other and antics… After a couple of years you’d think they’d actually TRY a little harder to accommodate their loyal shoppers. This is one of the smaller TJs I have visited around the country contrary to what someone else wrote. It’s undoubtedly the worst in many categories, just a pathetic attempt to address the glaring problems evident from day 1. I shop there for the prices but truly hate the place in every other respect.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Gatton says:I live in Portland, don’t consider myself a hippie, and go to work at 7:30. For now, I do have a job. For all the disparagement, I guess we’re smart enough to know we don’t want to waste an hour waiting in line, so we have eight Trader Joe’s in a metro area of 2 million.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
If There Were 25 Hours In The Day… says:[…] Ranting about Trader Joe’s…oh why can’t you just open your doors at 8am? [VillageIdoit] […]
February 20th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Blee says:This is just a guess, but I THINK what’s going on is that they have such minimal storage space, they need all the DOWN time to restock the shelves
I mean, towards closing time the sidewalk in front of the store is always crowded with carts piled with boxes of merchandise - something I never see at other city grocery stores.
The store is also so cramped, they probably need the down time so that workers have the ROOM to restock the shelves.
I can’t imagine how that store could remain open 24 hours the way it is now.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Courtney says:Just to let you know, I was at Trader Joes on 9th in San Francisco on Monday, at 2:30 in the afternoon, and it was CRAZY PACKED. I thought it was odd it was so crowded then. A bit annoying. I think too many people in SF DON’T have 9-5 jobs.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:35 am
Sarah says:I love many Trader Joe’s items but I have just given up on that store. Every six months or so I weaken and go to see if it’s just as bad, and, yes, it’s just as bad.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:21 am
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