Trader Joe’s grows N.Y.C. presence, moves in on Whole Foods' turf

Jun 2, 2016, 12:00pm EDT

Teresa NovellinoEntrepreneurs & Enterprises Editor, Upstart Business JournalNew York Business Journal

Trader Joe’s is the latest supermarket company to tighten its grip on New York City’s fast-changing grocery scene, with newly announced plans to open a second store on the Upper West Side.

The grocery store chain has signed a lease for the ground floor and lower level of 670 Columbus Ave., at the southwest corner of West 93rd Street, where it will compete with a Whole Foods just four blocks north, DNA Info reports. That adds to a store it already operates in the neighborhood at 72nd and Broadway (which is just two blocks south of Fairway’s flagship store). The new store is expected to open within the first six months of 2017 and will be approximately 12,100 square feet.

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New York City is becoming a popular market for Trader Joe's which is planning a new store…more

DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG

Trader Joe's move follows already-announced plans to open a new store in Kips Bay this summer at 200 East 32nd Street. The new stores will bring the Monrovia, California-based chain’s New York City store count to six, and perhaps seven sometime soon, as DNA Info reports that it is also eyeing an East Village outpost on 14th Street between Avenues A and B.

The move comes with the local grocery scene in flux over the past year. There was the A&P bankruptcy that left a third of stores unsold, Fairway’s financial troubles that led it to reorganize under Chapter 11, and the ongoing competition from online grocers, meal kit services and food delivery startups.

In addition to Trader Joe’s, Mrs. Green’s Neighborhood market is also expanding here. Its Westchester County-based parent company, Natural Markets Food Group, plans to expand its Mrs. Green footprint into Manhattan and Brooklyn, with plans to open two or three more stores in the next 18 months, the company’s chief executive told us last month.