Trader Joe's

Now that Trader Joe's has secured a property in Portland, the former Wild Oats store on Marginal Way, closed since the merger of that chain with Whole Foods in 2007, many Portland area shoppers will spend a lot less time traveling back and forth to Boston. And the many people who have never set foot in a Trader Joe's are in for a pleasant surprise not to mention some significant savings when it comes to buying fancy foods. Positioned between a traditional grocery store, a small specialty food store and Whole Foods, it offers about 3000 items and where law allows like Maine,  beer and wine. I have shopped at Trader Joe's in nine states in the past 20 years trying many of it's store brand products which the company tries to offer at the lowest price while keeping quality at a high level.   One question I have about the upcoming store is it's size, it's way bigger then any of the dozen or so stores I've been in, which begs the question ( I don't know if any of their stores on the west coast are larger in size or different from the small size typical ( think Smaha's in So Portland), so what's up and are will we see a super sized Trader Joe's? Maybe a little more upscale? With a Cafe?

I had hoped to get more pictures but was asked, actually told to stop, taking pictures of the store.

Luckily because we travel thru Worcester going to craft shows along the East coast several times a year, for my wife's pottery business (www.tobyrosenberg.com) we have a small larder of Trader Joe's product tucked away in our house at all times. Besides what you can see in our pantry, we usually have a least one of the large 3kg chocolate bars and bags of nuts and dried fruit, a killer brownie mix and in cold weather frozen desserts and just lots of stuff.

The Portland market is one that has been calling out for a Trader Joe's for several years now, having a large Facebook page drumming up support for the move. I've talked to the company's corporate headquarters a couple of times in the past inquiring about the possibility of our own store but the holdup has always been the supply chain, they like to keep a continuously linked route with small gaps to keep trucking costs low. Just wondering if they would ship directly to or import to Portland, might it offer a cheaper alternative to bigger East coast ports? Can't wait!