(NEXSTAR) — Trader Joe’s, a grocery-store chain known for its individually priced bananas and often “challenging” parking lots, is planning to open at least a dozen new locations in 2025.
For those who have been wishing for a Trader Joe's in Lafayette, it's not good news.
The company’s website currently lists 12 planned locations “opening soon” across seven states and Washington, D.C. (A representative for Trader Joe’s confirmed to Nexstar that all of those locations are expected to open in 2025.)
More upcoming locations will be added to the list as they are announced “throughout the year,” according to a company spokesperson.
The cities where shoppers can expect a new Trader Joe’s to open in 2025 — as well as the addresses for those stores — currently include:
The Trader Joe’s website did not offer additional details about projected opening dates.
When selecting a location for a new store, Trader Joe’s marketing executives Tara Miller and Matt Sloan explained in a recent episode of the “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast that the company seeks out spaces that meet specific criteria for population density, traffic patterns and parking availability, among other factors.
The two also emphasized that Trader Joe’s is very deliberate about its “controlled growth,” and may even deliberately avoid moving into spaces that housed former chain grocery stores, as it wouldn’t “feel” like a Trader Joe’s.
Letter-writing campaigns or petitions to bring a Trader Joe’s to a certain area will also usually fall on deaf ears, Miller and Sloan suggested.
“Our decisions, they're business decisions. We're excited when people are excited about us, but that's really not what's driving the decisions about what brings a Trader Joe's,” Miller said.
For anyone wondering, there are also no plans for the foreseeable future to bring the signature Trader Joe's banana-pricing model to Alaska or Hawaii.
“And also, just for clarity sake, we're still focused on those 48 contiguous states,” Sloan said.
