by Brian Clarey
Everybody loves Trader Joe’s. Everybody. Don’t even try to argue with me on this until you’ve gone in there and bought a chocolate bar as big as two iPads and a can of great, fair-trade coffee for a fraction of the price of a 12-ounce bag of Starbucks beans.
You can’t throw shade through a mouthful of cookie butter.
Winston-Salem’s had one since 2012, and Greensboro’s been hankering for one even longer. Progress on that front has been stalled in the Gate City due to what looks to me like a stubborn insistence on a single site near Friendly Center, one that requires rezoning in a neighborhood prepared to fight it.
That, and what I read as a lukewarm reception by the company.
But hey ho, another player emerged over the last month in the quest for maximum Joe: High Point. Yep, what started out as an April Fool’s joke in a weekly newspaper may become a reality.
But it takes more than a Facebook fan page to land a Trader Joe’s — just ask Greensboro.
Still… an ideal location would be the Palladium, near the intersection of Wendover Avenue and Highway 68, with plenty of suitable retail space and easy access to hundreds of members of the prime demographic for two-buck Chuck.
The working stiffs will stop by on the way home. The Greensboro folks who drive to Winston-Salem — and there are a lot of them, including my wife who’s good for a couple trips a month — for their Thai-lime cashews will have something a little closer to home. And High Point will have a rare feather in its cap: the only Trader Joe’s in Guilford County.
The fact that Greensboro wants one so bad just makes it all the sweeter.
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Here is the link for the Facebook group working towards bring Trader Joe’s to High Point: https://www.facebook.com/groups/130958710400748/?fref=nf
So well said, Brian!
Thanks, Brian Clarey. I think this means we’ve officially reached the level of “buzz.”
The fact that Greensboro wants one so bad just makes it all the sweeter.
Best line I’ve heard all week!
Agreed with all the comments above! I’d be more than happy to have Trader Joe’s.
Great article. Nice to see the local media coverage.
I’ve heard that Trader Joes is insistent on being located within a half mile of a Whole Foods, thus the single-mindedness regarding the Greensboro location. If High Point wants a Trader Joe’s I suggest they build a Whole Foods first!
I have no idea if that’s true, but it does hold up in Winston-Salem!