Two Trader Joe’s employees have revealed the real reason parking lots are the source of so much frustration.
Anyone who frequents Trader Joe’s can agree that the parking lots present a problem, and while you might have thought you’d never know the real reason behind the parking lots being branded a “hot mess”, two company employees have now revealed the logic of small parking spaces.
The grocery store has a podcast has a podcast titled ‘Inside Trader Joe‘, which is hosted by employees Tara Miller and Matt Sloan. The two discuss Trader Joe’s related topics like product hacks and why the channel has no online shopping.
An October 2022 episode that resurfaced offered a reason why the specialty grocer’s parking lots were so small.
Anyone who frequents Trader Joe’s can agree that parking lots present a problem, with customers sharing their frustrations at every opportunity.
Tara started by asking Matt, “What’s going on with our parking lots? »
“Like many Trader Joe’s things, it goes back to the very first location, the Arroyo Parkway store in Pasadena, which had and still has difficult parking.
“And by that, I mean it’s small and it’s crowded. That size factor, it’s small, and the occupancy factor, a lot of people park their cars, well, those are the two reasons why our parking lots can be, well, a little tricky,’ a- he declared.
Tara offered her own explanation, adding that the grocery stores were on purpose to be small. She said it’s because the company wants to stay true to its personal nature, compared to big-box stores.
Tara said: ‘It’s usually very crowded, maybe not even more crowded than you might find in a regular grocery store. But if our stores are 10,000 square feet and those stores are 70,000 square feet, it makes it look like there are more people. But what does this have to do with parking?
Matt then explained this because when a store is designed you allocate parking spaces for the size of a store.
So, since Trader Joe’s stores tend to be relatively small, its parking spaces are limited, making it a nightmare for customers.
“When you’re designing a parking space or allocating parking spaces for a retail store, it’s all based on the size of the store.
So, since Trader Joe’s stores tend to be relatively small, its parking spaces are limited, making it a nightmare for customers.
“So you mentioned how small our stores are compared to other grocers. Well, it’s true and it can have an effect on the number of allocated parking spaces,” he explained.
Tara even gave an example.
She said, “A 12,000 square foot store will have far fewer parking spaces than a 70,000 square foot store.”
Matt replied: ‘Yes. Now, let’s say the 12,000 square foot store seats 500 people and the giant store seats 100 people, the parking lots are going to be very different.
Tara then pointed to the reactions of Trader Joe’s parking lots on social media, where people are calling them “the worst” and even calling them their personal “hell”.
She said: ‘If you spend any time on social media looking at things on Trader Joe’s, you’ll find that there are many conspiracy theories about our car parks and people around the world seem to really think, not all world, but a number of people, that we deliberately make horrible parking.
And Tara is not wrong, many customers have flooded social networks and shared their frustrations regarding the parking lots.
One person commented, “Why are all the parking lots at Trader Joe miserable?!”
“Trader Joes parking lots are the worst,” someone else wrote.
Another user said, “Trader Joes parking lots are my personal hell.”
And Tara is not wrong, many customers have flooded social media and shared frustrations about parking lots
“I hate all Trader Joe parking lots,” another person said.
“Why are Trader Joe’s parking lots so bad,” one user added.
Someone else asked, “Is it just me or are Trader Joe’s parking lots the worst?”
Is it a law that Trader Joe’s parking lots have to be horrible? another person said.
And for those wondering why stores just can’t get bigger, Tara has an answer for them, too.
Tara explained, “The argument could be made, ‘Hey, Trader Joe just expanded your stores. But that kind of changes who we are. We have small stores, so they come with small parking lots.
“If we had bigger stores, of course we would have bigger parking lots, but it would feel like a different store.”
She noted that people often accuse the grocery store of deliberately creating small parking lots to cause frustration.
Tara responded to these claims with, “That’s not our plan.” We try to get as much parking as possible. In some municipalities we cannot park at all.
Matt added: “Parking can be an energized experience. And thank you for taking on the challenge of finding this place when you shop.’
