Trader Joe's Opening in Bellingham, WA Soon!
The countdown can now begin for Trader Joe’s. The specialty grocery store announced Friday that Sept. 28 will be the first day of business at the Sunnyland Square shopping center on James Street. The store will soon be mailing out postcard-size fliers around the area with details, said Brian Casey, “commander” of the Bellingham store. The store will be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Since the company announced last year that it was coming to Bellingham, Trader Joe’s fans locally have been eagerly awaiting the opening. Casey said a steady stream of people have been dropping by the center lately for a peek at the progress.
“It’s been nice being a part of something that people have been so excited about,” said Casey, who has worked at Trader Joe’s for 14 years, most recently at the Everett store. “The excitement creates a fun situation every day I go to work. I feel like it’s a vacation at work.”
At the store Friday afternoon, workers were busy stocking shelves, and there was a line of people dropping off job applications. To date, more than 300 people have applied for 65 positions, and the company is still accepting applications. “So far, it’s been a smooth process. We’re training the people we have hired and getting everything in place,” Casey said.
The store is the anchor tenant of Sunnyland Square, which has been going through a $2 million remodel in the past year. At this point, other tenants include Papa Murphy’s pizza, Cruisin’ Coffee and Butterfly Life, a women’s fitness and nutrition studio. Trader Joe’s will be taking the space of the former James Street Red Apple supermarket.
At more than 12,000 square feet, the store will be larger than the Everett store but have the same array of products. Murals of local scenery are being painted on the walls to give the space a neighborhood feeling, Casey said.
Excitement over a Trader Joe’s opening is something Casey has seen and heard about before. He said petition campaigns, like the one Bellingham-area Trader Joe’s fans did to help bring a store here, are common. The chain looks for locations that have excitement about the stores.
“The Everett store had a fair amount of people drive there from Bellingham, as well as British Columbia,” Casey said. Currently the company has more than 280 stores in 23 states. Via BellinghamHerald.