Checkout lines at the new Trader Joe’s in Kent rarely dropped below 15-people deep during the specialty store’s highly anticipated grand opening Tuesday.
Some went as long as 30. It could probably be called a success.
The 13,000-square-foot neighborhood grocery store – which features imported and domestic foods and beverages – officially opened this week on the East Hill in the MarketPlace at Lake Meridian shopping center at the northwest corner of 132nd Avenue Southeast and Kent-Kangley Road.
Visitors walked below the store’s many murals, which incorporated Kent cultural icons combined with Trader Joe’s icons. The murals, painted by Trader Joe’s staff, took some creative liberties with locations, such as a Green River gorge image that doesn’t, strictly speaking, exist.
Many of the patrons were happy to have a local store, as they traveled from Kent, Covington and Black Diamond to the Federal Way Trader Joe’s.
One such patron was Dagmar Von Heydt, who traveled to pick up produce and other supplies from the new store.
“I love this store,” she said.
Rebecca Tripoli, a Kent resident, said she liked the Trader Joe’s prepackaged meals.
“There’s a lot of unique stuff that you won’t get at a regular store,” Tripoli said.
Kent’s Leonard Schacher said that while the prices vary between Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores, he still prefers the specialty outlet because “they just got a good reputation. They were the cock of the walk in Bellevue, anything you got there was highly thought of.”
Other visitors weren’t completely sold on the value of Trader Joe’s items, such as local high school student Sophie Rolfson, who thought the prices were higher than other grocery stores.
“I think they word it in a way that makes it seem better than it is,” Rolfson said.
Trader Joe’s began in 1958 in the Los Angeles area. Since then, Trader Joe’s has expanded to more than 400 stores in 36 states.
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