Trader Joe’s is expected to open more stores in the coming year.
Fans of Trader Joe’s are slated to see a dozen new stores "opening soon," according to the grocery store chain’s website.
FOX Business reached out to Trader Joe’s for comment. A spokesperson told Nexstar the chain will unveil additional planned openings "throughout the year."
The 12 stores that Trader Joe’s has announced are spread across the country.
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Three of those are poised to open in California, while two more Trader Joe’s are coming to Washington state and the District of Columbia. The other five will be located in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Alabama and Maryland, according to Trader Joe’s.
They will add to the hundreds of stores that Trader Joe’s currently operates nationwide.
The exact locations of the 12 stores that are expected to open soon are:
California
Washington
District of Columbia
Tennessee
Pennsylvania
New York
Alabama
Maryland
Trader Joe’s is "growing at a pretty good rate right now, adding more and more stores," Tara Miller, the company's vice president of marketing, said in an October episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast.
She also said the chain was "growing at a pace that we can sustain."
Co-host Matt Sloan said Trader Joe’s looks "where people are" as it determines sites to open a new store.
"It could be an area where there is no currently available Trader Joe’s store," he said during the episode. "Although it might be an area that's really densely populated and traffic patterns are such that getting from one Trader Joe's to another neighborhood, it may be close, but it might take a really long time, that could be interesting."
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He said Trader Joe’s criteria for locations "are really about access and ease of getting into and out of, and the flow of traffic patterns."
Trader Joe’s is "not interested in growth by just buying another chain and putting a different sign on the building," Sloan also said.
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"It wouldn’t really feel like a neighborhood Trader Joe’s," he said. "So, we’re looking at things that are opportunities for us to make that neighborhood store a great Trader Joe’s for that area."
Trader Joe’s opened four stores in December, according to its store openings page. Those sites were located in Milwaukie, Oregon; Vista, California; Palm Harbor, Florida; and Alpharetta, Georgia.
The chain’s first-ever store, launched in 1967, is in Pasadena, California.
