Work under way to bring Trader Joe's to Larkspur

I don't know when the new interchange will come into being, but until then traffic congestion could be unreal. Does Larkspur have an interim plan?

Well, at least the in-store traffic in the Montecito store will be less....and we might be able to park too.

we need more low paying retail jobs so more low paid workers can commute by car to Marin from Napa, Sonoma and the east bay. Brilliant !

Do we need 3 Trader Joes in a county of 250,000? I don't think so.

What great news for Larkspur. Trader Joes is an exceptional store. For those miserable complainers who don't like Trader Joes there is no need to disparage it. For the rest of us normal people -- thanks for coming to town!!

Abbie wrote:

Do we need 3 Trader Joes in a county of 250,000? I don't think so.

Yes

I occasionally shop at Trader Joe's in San Rafael and Novato when I have other business there. It is not my first choice for groceries, but they have good deals on some items, but their produce is unacceptable. The location in Larkspur is very inconvenent for people who live in southern Marin. It involves a mandatory drive on the state freeway (101) which we like to let the Novato/Sonoma commuters use, they need it , we don't. Also I read that the City of Larkspur was going to make Joey pay for traffic signal improvements, I wonder what happened with that ?
Even though that location is technically in the City of Larkspur, it is in east Larkspur on the other side of the freeway and hard to access for people who live in old Larkspur proper. My mother lives in Larkspur and does not drive a car anymore but likes to shop at Joeys once in a while, but she said it would be easier to take a bus to San Rafael than to east Larkspur.

Abbie wrote:

Do we need 3 Trader Joes in a county of 250,000? I don't think so.

--There's plenty of us here that need those jobs too, don't have to look far these days.

So let's see, Trader Joe's is about to open this August yet Whole Food's expansion of it's second store in Mill Valley hasn't even begun despite the fact they announced plans to open there almost two year ago. That's a lot of missed tax revenue on food sales Mill Valley could have been collecting these past few months. What's the real hold-up Whole Foods????

Sorry, I love TJoes but that is a traffic nightmare already. They should not be allowed to do that to the community. There are surely other options. Or they should be required to come up with a solution for the congestion before getting a go-ahead.

Why is it that TJ's seems to always pick some place with limited parking? That lot is going to be jammed, just as Montecito is.

What a shame--the old Lucky store on Blithdale in MV would have been perfect for them.

Rational approach wrote:

Why is it that TJ's seems to always pick some place with limited parking? That lot is going to be jammed, just as Montecito is.
What a shame--the old Lucky store on Blithdale in MV would have been perfect for them.

No, the old lucky store is too big. TJ doesn't open large stores like that. It apparently is not cost effective for them.

Cal native wrote:

<quoted text>
No, the old lucky store is too big. TJ doesn't open large stores like that. It apparently is not cost effective for them.

Not true, Petaluma TJ store is big. Also the old Albertson site in Fairfax would have been awesome location. Unfortunately the parking and the traffic is going to be a nightmare in that Larkspur location.

goverment spending wrote:

<quoted text>
Not true, Petaluma TJ store is big. Also the old Albertson site in Fairfax would have been awesome location. Unfortunately the parking and the traffic is going to be a nightmare in that Larkspur location.

they have their reasons. Most of the newer TJs are small. Including the nice new one in Novato. The one in Petaluma could be because they had no choice . Before bed bath and beyond they had a , what was it , Petrinis? Something like that. It was nice. Traffic will be bad regardless . It's a badly designed location. That's what you get when you build on an old quarry with one road access. Add to that the back room dealing that landed the ferry building there instead of further out where it should have been to avoid dredging and slow speed entry.

PaulB22 wrote:

I occasionally shop at Trader Joe's in San Rafael and Novato when I have other business there. It is not my first choice for groceries, but they have good deals on some items, but their produce is unacceptable. The location in Larkspur is very inconvenent for people who live in southern Marin. It involves a mandatory drive on the state freeway (101) which we like to let the Novato/Sonoma commuters use, they need it , we don't. Also I read that the City of Larkspur was going to make Joey pay for traffic signal improvements, I wonder what happened with that ?
Even though that location is technically in the City of Larkspur, it is in east Larkspur on the other side of the freeway and hard to access for people who live in old Larkspur proper. My mother lives in Larkspur and does not drive a car anymore but likes to shop at Joeys once in a while, but she said it would be easier to take a bus to San Rafael than to east Larkspur.

Blah blah blah blah blah !

I live in San Rafael so the traffic is not a concern to me. However, I can't begin to imagine what the traffic is going to be like, especially during the holidays. I don't know how Trader Joe's was able to pull that off. Me thinks that someone at TJ's was giving a lot of bjs

Steve K wrote:

I live in San Rafael so the traffic is not a concern to me. However, I can't begin to imagine what the traffic is going to be like, especially during the holidays. I don't know how Trader Joe's was able to pull that off. Me thinks that someone at TJ's was giving a lot of bjs

There are times, usually during the evening commute, when that entire area is gridlock. I think a lot of Einsteins think they're going to save a minute or two by exiting 101 and reentering on Cal Park. That was before the freeway widening, so we'll see. It could be OK. Or we could have gridlockX10.

And my guess is gridlockX0.

the other merchants at Montecito and their customers are delighted to be able to share the congestion and parking problems

Yeah, I like TJ's business plan: bring in a national brand, if it sells well, copy it, then sell their own Private Label in order to make more margin....TJ's has a good public reputation, but in fact, they are worse than WalMart....cut throat