At last! Trader Joe’s opens in Germantown
Even the store’s manager — or “captain” — had to marvel at the sight.
“I showed up at 5:30 this morning, and there were already people in line,” Noah Stevens said as he looked at the steadily growing queue outside the new Germantown Trader Joe’s, which finally opened to the public Sept. 14. “For a grocery store.”
Stevens moved from northern California to lead the Germantown store, and he said he’s never seen the level of excitement at any other Trader Joe’s compared to here.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Stevens said, smiling and shaking his head.
Four years in the making, the California-based grocery chain’s long-awaited Memphis area store is finally a real thing. And fans, hungry for a first taste of their favorite food store, were going bananas.
“I’ve been waiting for this day since I moved back to Memphis,” said Teresa Wright, an East Memphis resident who was second in line at 4:45 a.m. “I had sworn I would never move anywhere that did not have a Trader Joe’s.”
Wright grew up in Memphis but lived in Massachusetts for years. That’s where she got the Trader Joe’s bug, which she carried with her when she moved to Houston.
Wright was browsing her photos from the Houston Trader Joe’s opening as she waited in her camp chair shortly before Sept. 14’s opening.
The selection of things like cheeses, crackers and nuts are what Wright likes most.
Sitting one spot ahead of Wright was Tonya Wagner, whose 3:50 a.m. arrival gave her the distinction of first in line and first in the door.
And she’s never even been in a Trader Joe’s.
“Never been to a Trader Joe’s before,” said Wagner, a southeast Shelby County resident who lives just north of Olive Branch. “I’ve heard all the hype and have seen them in other cities, so I thought I’d come out and participate. I see great prices already from the outside looking in.”
Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo marveled at the Trader Joe’s allure as well. He compared it to the drawing power of another of the city’s signature businesses, the nearby Apple store.
“I can’t tell you how many people say they’re coming from all over,” said Palazzolo, who was joined by alderman and mayoral challenger John Barzizza and other aldermen.
Ron Maxey
“People have relatives in Mississippi and Arkansas, and they’ll come over for a weekend to shop here. It’s a phenomenon I can’t fully grasp.”
Palazzolo said bringing Trader Joe’s to fruition was a long process because of the complicated nature of the development. The store, at 2130 Exeter in the Germantown Collection shopping center, is the site of the old Kroger store.
“You’ve got multiple parcels and multiple owners,” he said. “You had a former grocer in here as well, so there was just a lot of different discussions. You had one developer come in who wasn’t able to make it all happen, then you had a second developer come in. It was really just four years of patience and working with people.”
Palazzolo also hailed the economic power of businesses like Trader Joe’s and Apple.
“It’s all about creating a vibrant economy and bringing in revenue to make sure we keep our tax base stable,” he said. “Projects like this will create revenue to handle the debt service to pay for a new school.”
The city is building a new elementary school off Forest Hill-Irene Road south of Poplar Pike to accommodate growth. That growth is a point of contention in the city’s November mayoral contest.
But Sept. 14 was more about excited grocery shoppers than schools or revenue or politics.
A loud cheer broke out among Hawaiian shirt-clad crew members and shoppers as Stevens finally cut the lei at 8 a.m. to usher in the line of shoppers who, by this time, stretched back to the Gould’s hair salon and wrapped around the corner. The center parking lot was jammed, though few other businesses were open yet.
Within minutes, the store’s aisles were packed with lei-wearing customers dashing for everything from cheese to chuck, as in Three-Buck Chuck (wine).
“If you had a picture of my face, you’d see it,” said Stevens, the store captain. “I’m beaming with pride.”