New York City’s latest Trader Joe’s is also its most stunning. The new store, which opened in December 2021, occupies a 20,000-square-foot space tucked under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge. It’s a cavernous site with cathedral-like ceilings, tiled columns between food aisles, and new colorful murals that pay tribute to local landmarks, like the United Nations Headquarters and Roosevelt Island Tramway.
If the beauty of the new store isn’t enough, it also has historic roots as a marketplace known as Bridgemarket, says Nakia Rohde, public relations manager for Trader Joe’s corporate headquarters. Built in 1908, Bridgemarket served as a vendor’s market from 1915 through the 1930s, with local producers and growers bringing their wares by horse and wagon. Before Trader Joe’s moved in, the space was occupied by a Food Emporium supermarket, which shut its doors in 2015.
With so much history, you might expect shopping at this Trader Joe’s to be like stepping back in time. But inside, it’s modern and airy—with clean, well-lit aisles overflowing with produce, frozen foods, meat and poultry, and all the Trader Joe products that make the brand so popular nationwide. Banners for new items are on display, and prices are similar to those at the eight other Trader Joe’s in Manhattan. Customer favorites include Mandarin Orange Chicken, Unexpected Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter filled Pretzels, and Soy Chorizo, says Rohde.
The Bridgemarket store is the first Trader Joe’s serving the Upper East Side. Within a few blocks is a Whole Foods, a Morton Williams, and a D’Agastino’s, as well as several small specialty food shops. Despite something of a saturation of food sellers in the area, neighborhood support for the new store has been very strong.
In turn, Trader Joe’s has been a welcome neighbor. Every TJ’s is “a unique neighborhood store,” says Rohde. “Through the company's longstanding Neighborhood Shares program, the Bridgemarket Trader Joe's donates 100 percent of products that go unsold but remain fit to enjoy to a range of nonprofit, community-based organizations, seven days a week.” Next up for Trader Joe’s: a new store on 125th Street in Harlem will reportedly open in 2023.
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