the Problem with Joe

I used to live where I live now about (oi) 15 years ago. As I was much younger I don't have very many concrete memories of what life was like. However, I do remember stopping at the slightly more expensive grocery store in town at night to get something. I remember the plaza and the grocery store's facade and how the interior lights slipped out on the sidewalk and into the interior of our mini-van. I don't remember what we were buying or why, but I remember the feel of the place. Guess I was destined to be a planner.

As fate would have it, I now live within walking distance of that plaza from my past. The grocery store is out of business, the slightly upscale restaurant across the way has changed owners at least twice and the drugstore closed and is potentially going to be turned into a CVS.

The plaza still has a Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant, a donut shop that keeps truly sporadic hours, a Dollar Store, a Sally's Beauty Supply, and an improbably located Edible Arrangements.

Despite these amenities the plaza feels incredibly vacant, owing largely to the gaping hole/empty retail space where the grocery store used to be. It's kind of like a sledgehammer went through a wall. Yes, the wall is still standing and is still technically whole, but it needs to be fixed.

So, one can imagine my surprise and delight when over my housemate's Sunday dinner the idea was mentioned that a Trader Joe's was in talks to set up shop where the grocery store had been. This is a phenomenal idea as the nearest Trader Joe's is an hour away in Fresno, which seems rather far to drive to by little frozen tiny cubes of basil, no matter how much my dad raves about them. Meanwhile, when I am in L.A. I drive by at least three Trader Joe's.

Unfortunately, the rumor of a soon-to-open Trader Joe's was dispelled by another member at the gathering who had asked an employee at the Fresno Trader Joe's and that person had said that there is no truth to the rumor. And that corporate needed there to be at least 45,000 people or something in the area before they would consider building one. What their corporate people failed to recognize where the surrounding areas of my town, that yes are small, but also are not conveniently located near an access road to get to a freeway or highway to connect them to Fresno. Several of the neighboring towns are situated so that in order to get to Fresno, they have to drive through my town. Hmmm.

I've done a lot of research on downtown revitalization, one of my main areas of focus for my future urban planning practice and history has taught us that clearing out a bunch of land and plunking down a mall can backfire over time as the novelty wears thin.

However, with Trader Joe's, and this is not an endorsement of their company, but merely an economic observation, that store offers many goods and food stuffs that other stores do not carry in the area, due to lack of perceived demand. Trader Joe's is a niche market and frankly is a market waiting to be filled here by shoppers of all economic backgrounds. I worked for a neurosurgeon for a while whose wife enjoys gourmet cooking, I also have a friend who is going for his master's in plant biology who equally enjoys cooking, even if his income is much more modest and lucky duck that he is, lives in Fresno and enjoys frequenting his local Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is not a shopping mall, it is, pared down to its essence (no pun intended) a grocery store, but a specialty one at that. Unlike a mall, which people may grow tired of, it has the potential to increase profits as the population continues to grow and last time I checked people need to eat at least once a day. It also would be able to revive an area that is frankly depressed. It also can utilize a pre-existing structure with very little interior renovation. Most of the fixturing from the original grocery store is still in place. The lights are all on all day, which makes me twitch, but that's a story for another day.

The people at the top level at Trader Joe's Inc., Corp.? whatever- need to look beyond their narrow parameters and see what an opportunity a new location could be not only for them, but also for the surrounding area. Just sayin. . .