We have reported previously on the new Trader Joe’s being built at Third and Fairfax, in the new Gilmore Station complex owned by the same company that owns the original Farmers Market across the street.
Well, let the shopping begin! The store is open, and one of our roving correspondents took these photos of it yesterday.
This Trader Joe’s has wider aisles for shopping, at the request of Trader Joe’s aficionados.
Unfortunately, the store does not have an entrance from the street. That’s a piece of poor urban planning for which Los Angeles is infamous around the world. Hopefully it’s a mistake we won’t continue to repeat in the future – especially in neighborhoods like ours, which are ranked as among the most walkable neighborhoods in the nation.
The Gilmore Station complex will also house a Mendocino Farms sandwich shop, a restaurant, and a couple smaller stores – none of which are open yet. According to the Mendocino Farms contact page, their shop will open on May 31.
Uh, I just walked through from the parking lot to Fairfax and back again; you can access the TJ’s entrance from the street without having to go around via Third. Just stroll through the sottoporteggio to the little plaza. It’s not too bad for LA. There’s even some bike parking, though not enough. And way too much car parking: that lot is huge; in a transit-rich neighborhood with lots of walking, at least a third of it could have been used more productively.
The parking lot is really not that huge…especially considering what the parking situation will be like when Mendocino’s and the other stores finally open. Still, the TJ’s is beautiful (as much as a new TJ’s CAN be beautiful)!! No more shopping at the Vons on Fairfax for me!