Trader Joe’s opening two new locations in Reno/Sparks, NV

[storewanderer]

Okay- finally looked at the new store. I like how it is a square sales floor layout with straight up and down aisles that are basically all the same length. It seems a lot easier to find items since there is basically only one aisle for all of dry packaged staple grocery and other aisles are things like frozen, bread, liquor, nuts, snacks, non food... The produce area also seems more spacious and the meat area feels like it has way better variety than the older store. Lots of out of stocks but employees trying actively to fill the out of stocks. I noticed many items, all private label, that I've never seen before in the other Trader Joes in both Reno and Carson City so that was interesting.

I am not sure but this store didn't feel much over 12k square feet to me. It seemed smaller than I expected it to be. Orvis (who this building was built for) didn't have much inside so I may have had a misconception of the building size. I thought it was closer to 20k square feet.

I am looking forward to the store in Sparks as that is a much larger space.

One thing I noticed that stood out was after I paid- the amount of space between the end of the checkstands and the nearby wall- way too little of space. Congestion city. Too little of space to pass a cart (or person) standing out in the "road" there. I almost walked into the wall as I left the checkstand. With a cart that is a very sharp turn to point the cart toward the exit.

Everything you're describing is the new Murrieta store, especially that sharp turn checkout. That was a decent size Office Depot but they also only made the floor about 12K or so. The back room is enormous, and that is the remedy for the issues @veteran+ has been critical of in older stores.

The Murrieta store has absolutely destroyed the Temecula store one off ramp down. For the first time yesterday I parked right in front to dine at a neighboring restaurant. No cars at all in the vast side lot. It will be interesting to see how eventually the business should balance out between the stores. Murrieta is slammed but holding up well and filling those shelves constantly. Eventually people are going to realize now you can park next to the door in Temecula and walk right in, everything is in stock and no checkout line at all. They probably have to get rid of at least a hundred excess shopping carts too.

I imagine the same situation will unfold up there. You should expect Sparks to be exactly the same even though the building is larger. Now that TJs builds larger stores consistently they're also following a pretty exact prototype design.

I was near the other Reno Store and it still looked as busy as ever today. But I didn't go inside.

So maybe this 12k square foot thing is their prototype and they are working to get a consistent layout/merchandising specs on these new stores. That will probably really help them better control mix/assortment. At the older Reno Store it seemed like items just... disappeared... no rhyme or reason...

They did transfer the store manager from the old store to the new store. He had been running the old store for decades. Other than that it seemed to be mostly new hires running the new store. I did see some former chain grocer employees- one 30+ year tenure one at that. They probably made a good choice joining Trader Joe's.

[ClownLoach]

Okay- finally looked at the new store. I like how it is a square sales floor layout with straight up and down aisles that are basically all the same length. It seems a lot easier to find items since there is basically only one aisle for all of dry packaged staple grocery and other aisles are things like frozen, bread, liquor, nuts, snacks, non food... The produce area also seems more spacious and the meat area feels like it has way better variety than the older store. Lots of out of stocks but employees trying actively to fill the out of stocks. I noticed many items, all private label, that I've never seen before in the other Trader Joes in both Reno and Carson City so that was interesting.

I am not sure but this store didn't feel much over 12k square feet to me. It seemed smaller than I expected it to be. Orvis (who this building was built for) didn't have much inside so I may have had a misconception of the building size. I thought it was closer to 20k square feet.

I am looking forward to the store in Sparks as that is a much larger space.

One thing I noticed that stood out was after I paid- the amount of space between the end of the checkstands and the nearby wall- way too little of space. Congestion city. Too little of space to pass a cart (or person) standing out in the "road" there. I almost walked into the wall as I left the checkstand. With a cart that is a very sharp turn to point the cart toward the exit.

Everything you're describing is the new Murrieta store, especially that sharp turn checkout. That was a decent size Office Depot but they also only made the floor about 12K or so. The back room is enormous, and that is the remedy for the issues @veteran+ has been critical of in older stores.

The Murrieta store has absolutely destroyed the Temecula store one off ramp down. For the first time yesterday I parked right in front to dine at a neighboring restaurant. No cars at all in the vast side lot. It will be interesting to see how eventually the business should balance out between the stores. Murrieta is slammed but holding up well and filling those shelves constantly. Eventually people are going to realize now you can park next to the door in Temecula and walk right in, everything is in stock and no checkout line at all. They probably have to get rid of at least a hundred excess shopping carts too.

I imagine the same situation will unfold up there. You should expect Sparks to be exactly the same even though the building is larger. Now that TJs builds larger stores consistently they're also following a pretty exact prototype design.

I was near the other Reno Store and it still looked as busy as ever today. But I didn't go inside.

So maybe this 12k square foot thing is their prototype and they are working to get a consistent layout/merchandising specs on these new stores. That will probably really help them better control mix/assortment. At the older Reno Store it seemed like items just... disappeared... no rhyme or reason...

They did transfer the store manager from the old store to the new store. He had been running the old store for decades. Other than that it seemed to be mostly new hires running the new store. I did see some former chain grocer employees- one 30+ year tenure one at that. They probably made a good choice joining Trader Joe's.

Temecula was about 25 miles from the next closest store unless you bought a helicopter. The site was extremely small, looked to me like at one point it was only about 5,000 Sq ft and then expanded by another 1,000 or so into a former Oreck vacuum dealer shop. It was wildly overcrowded and had all the problems @veteran+ calls out including tents and staging of freight in the alley as they attempted to stock the aisles all day. The parking lot out front was inadequate although there was a large side lot few used behind WinCo and a Chevron. So now Murrieta being in a mega big box center with Sam's Club, they have practically unlimited parking less than 5 minutes from the Temecula store. And because it's at the I-15/215 split the odds are that now only Temecula residents will stay at that site along with a few county border towns like Rainbow and Fallbrook. Everyone else including Menifee, Hemet, Murrieta, Sun City, and parts of Elsinore will all switch to Murrieta because it's closer.

This is similar to what happened when Costco opened in Murrieta, they expected it would take a third of Temecula business but instead it blew up immediately (their highest grossing US Grand Opening in company history) and took more like half plus grew the business into those underserved points North. Murrieta is now by far the higher volume Costco despite being stuck in the new small 151K prototype, I'm sure they're already planning on expansions which the new building is designed to easily accommodate by pushing all refrigeration and receiving out of the original footprint as seen at other expanded stores.

I doubt they hired very much new staff. They seem to have split the staff between the two sites and I'll bet the payroll spend for two stores minus managers is the same as the one overloaded store. They're doing a great job of working down these old crowded stores and getting larger modern sites open.

What I don't care for is their new decor. It is all computer printed stick on wallpaper type graphics if you look closely. They used to have artist positions in each market who would help decorate new or remodeled stores. Now it all is done on a computer somewhere, printed, and glued to a wall then a faux wood frame is nailed in around it to create a illusion of dimension. But if this obvious cost cutting is needed to support enlarging the fleet and replacing the rest of the old stores then so be it. I haven't heard anyone complaining that they want their old small stores back.

[storewanderer]

According to a newspaper article for the new store in Reno, they only transferred 15 employees from existing stores. The other ~70 employees are new hires. But some of those new hires I saw have grocery experience, decades of it.

I noticed the cheaper (smaller) but still attempt at localization on the wall decor. I think some portions of the wall decor were actually painted on though and clearly localized. I'll have to look again next time I go there. Maybe over time they will try to liven the stores up a bit. The store still felt more "finished" to me than these new builds out of the conventional chains lately that don't feel overly finished.

[ClownLoach]

According to a newspaper article for the new store in Reno, they only transferred 15 employees from existing stores. The other ~70 employees are new hires. But some of those new hires I saw have grocery experience, decades of it.

I noticed the cheaper (smaller) but still attempt at localization on the wall decor. I think some portions of the wall decor were actually painted on though and clearly localized. I'll have to look again next time I go there. Maybe over time they will try to liven the stores up a bit. The store still felt more "finished" to me than these new builds out of the conventional chains lately that don't feel overly finished.

Yeah I couldn't speak to Reno or how that market works. Here what is happening is interesting, these chains had built up sizeable hub stores in Temecula that were intended to draw from a broad area 20+ miles radius. That worked when the surrounding towns were all rural, but now they have outgrown Temecula and are underserved. So Murrieta and Menifee are finally getting the retail investment they deserve as their populations have soared. When the stores open they take the lion's share of the business, leaving Temecula with only their own traffic and rural areas to the far distances off 79 South.

[bryceleinan]

Okay- finally looked at the new store. I like how it is a square sales floor layout with straight up and down aisles that are basically all the same length. It seems a lot easier to find items since there is basically only one aisle for all of dry packaged staple grocery and other aisles are things like frozen, bread, liquor, nuts, snacks, non food... The produce area also seems more spacious and the meat area feels like it has way better variety than the older store. Lots of out of stocks but employees trying actively to fill the out of stocks. I noticed many items, all private label, that I've never seen before in the other Trader Joes in both Reno and Carson City so that was interesting.

I am not sure but this store didn't feel much over 12k square feet to me. It seemed smaller than I expected it to be. Orvis (who this building was built for) didn't have much inside so I may have had a misconception of the building size. I thought it was closer to 20k square feet.

I am looking forward to the store in Sparks as that is a much larger space.

One thing I noticed that stood out was after I paid- the amount of space between the end of the checkstands and the nearby wall- way too little of space. Congestion city. Too little of space to pass a cart (or person) standing out in the "road" there. I almost walked into the wall as I left the checkstand. With a cart that is a very sharp turn to point the cart toward the exit.

LoopNet shows TJ’s at 14,873 SQF, not sure how big the back room is.

[storewanderer]

Other exciting news is Handel's Ice Cream opens near the new Trader Joe's tomorrow.

It is a local single unit franchisee.