Trader Joe's, and Stating the Obvious About Downtown

“Good intentions, but as long as I can’t find a place to buy toilet paper and Tide downtown, I’m going to need my car.”

(Hmmm. Quoting myself? Must be feeling particularly self-important today.)

Recognizing that this doesn’t exactly qualify as a news flash, if Ann Arbor wants to achieve a truly urban, high-density, livable downtown, there has to be a viable small grocery within easy walking distance of said density. Kerrytown and the People's Food Co-Op serve the Kerrytown district, but something more centrally located would be ideal.

In a previous post about loft-living downtown (the origin of the quote above), I also speculated that possible buyers at Liberty Lofts might have second thoughts, given the unknown factor of the tenant for the 20,000+ feet of commercial space currently vacant in that building. Don't you think a Trader Joe’s would fit the space, and serve the downtown and Old West Side community, perfectly?

TP and Frozen Pizza

Strip malls like the Lamp Post Plaza are not necessarily Trader Joe’s only habitat. Before the store opened here in Ann Arbor, my first encounter was with a Trader Joe’s in the Back Bay area of Boston (photo left). And I have friends living in Wrigleyville in Chicago, who for years have extolled the virtues of “Two-Buck Chuck.”

Think of what Trader Joe’s could offer downtown, all under one roof. Fresh produce, meat, and flowers. Bread, milk, and dairy. Cereals, coffee, beverages. Fantastic gourmet goodies. And many of the staples that, to my knowledge, are not currently easily available downtown – paper products, dish and laundry soap, pet supplies. Oh, and frozen pizza. Don’t forget frozen pizza. In taking an inventory of what Trader Joe's has to offer, the only necessities to my “modern” life that I found lacking (at least in the Ann Arbor location) were Pop Tarts and soft drinks.

Even though Trader Joe’s carries food-stuffs and products that appeal to a high-end lifestyle, their prices are not high end, which would be a boon for downtown residents on a budget. And I would think that, after dropping half a mil on a loft, many of these folks oughta be on a budget.

I know absolutely nothing about Trader Joe’s growth or business plan (though click here for an interesting article), and whether they would consider that Ann Arbor could sustain a second store. I do know that the 20,000 square feet of space at Liberty Lofts is expensive. When you consider that most grocery stores require a low per square foot lease rate/cost, I suppose it’s unlikely that a Trader Joe’s, or any comparable market, would open in that space. Or any other downtown, for that matter.

But a girl can dream, can’t she?