The newest Trader Joe’s is set to hold its grand opening on Monday morning in the East Village, at 436 East 14th St., between First Avenue and Avenue A.
This will be the first Trader Joe’s to open this year, and the ninth overall in Manhattan.
This store opens three avenues east of the location near Union Square, on East 14th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues, which opened in 2006 and was the first Trader Joe’s in New York City. That location is perpetually crowded, with long lines that often wrap around the entire perimeter of the store.
“This [East Village] store will definitely help relieve pressure from that store,” said the new location’s manager, store captain John Martinelli, a day before its opening.
He said he has seen many people walking by with Trader Joe’s shopping bags, and has been asked often when this new store opens, so he hoped East Village residents would make this their new go-to location.
“All of them are going to be busy,” Martinelli said of the stores. “But this one’s so close that maybe it will get some of the people that walk by here.”
The aisles of the new location are extra wide, Martinelli said, allowing for two carts to fit plus room for other people. This will hopefully still give space for shoppers if it gets very busy or if long lines stretch throughout the store, he said.
Martinelli has been with Trader Joe’s for 14 years, and previously opened locations on Staten Island and in Murray Hill. This rollout has been the smoothest one yet for him, he said, with everything going ahead of schedule.
“It’s really nice to open this location because it’s an area we’ve been looking at for quite a while,” Martinelli said. He added that he was looking forward to the grand opening.
The new East Village location will also feature local art, by illustrator Peter Arkle, who has lived in the East Village since 2002. Over 180 illustrations appear on the store’s walls, each an image or sculpture or other work of art that Arkle observed in the neighborhood. Each image is numbered and a map near the entrance shows the location of each object in the neighborhood.
The new location will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
