Earlier this month, Trader Joe\u2019s celebrated the grand opening of a new store located on the ground floor of an apartment complex in Sherman Oaks. <\/p>\n
The chain isn\u2019t new to the neighborhood, however. Just across the street is another Trader Joe\u2019s \u2014 a \u201clegend\u201d that has served customers since 1973, store representatives said. <\/p>\n
The initial plan was to close the old location when the new branch was ready \u2014 both are off the 101 Freeway on Riverside Drive. But in the end, the company decided it might be \u201cfun\u201d to keep both open, according to Matt Judd, the new store\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur business in this city has been so tremendous, so we decided to keep them both,\u201d he said. \u201cThe city deserves it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new store is about 40% bigger than the one across the street, with a large selection of products and more aisles for customers to browse, Judd said. It also offers parking in an underground garage \u2014 a big draw for customers wary of navigating the old cramped parking lot. <\/p>\n
On Friday around noon, customers flowed in and out of the neighboring stores. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The new store is about 40% bigger than the one across the street.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one\u2019s way better,\u201d customer Steve Emrick said as he grabbed a shopping cart to head into the new store. \u201cThe other store can get pretty congested, and the parking was not as tight here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another shopper, Jacob Ruiz, said he frequented the older location, but was excited to visit the new one for the first time. He said parking was a breeze, and as he left, he swore he\u2019d \u201cnever go back\u201d to the other location. <\/p>\n
But he also didn\u2019t think the expansion was completely necessary for the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot here. They should venture out to other neighborhoods,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Both stores were still crowded \u2014 Judd said he expected lots of customers to stay loyal to the 1973 Trader Joe\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Olga Virov said she\u2019s shopped at the smaller store for about 20 years. She was impressed by the parking options the new store offered, but since she normally walks to the grocery store, she didn\u2019t see the need to make the switch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one is more convenient. It\u2019s cozy, and it\u2019s easier for me to get to, so I prefer to go to this one,\u201d she said of the older location. \u201cI am not planning to go to that one unless I am shopping at the mall.\u201d <\/p>\n
Melany Figueroa-Garcia stopped at the older Trader Joe\u2019s on a grocery run. She said she plans to keep shopping there, calling it cozier. Plus, she said she thinks the parking system at the new location is confusing. But she did like the option of a bigger location. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf this location doesn\u2019t have something I want, I walk over to the other location and get it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
In a statement to The Times, Trader Joe\u2019s said that both stores are expected to remain open. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is always to bring delicious products at great values to as many people as we can,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe best way to do that is to open more stores.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, Trader Joe\u2019s celebrated the grand opening of a new store located on the ground floor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2451,8468,2961,224,5337,20035,20038,20032,20033,20037,16502,20036,20034,19153,11004,625,20031,14164],"class_list":{"0":"post-21761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-customer","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-matt-judd","16":"tag-neighborhood","17":"tag-new-l-a-trader-joe","18":"tag-new-store","19":"tag-old-location","20":"tag-one","21":"tag-other-store","22":"tag-parking","23":"tag-product","24":"tag-statement","25":"tag-street","26":"tag-trader-joe","27":"tag-way"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}