Trader Joe’s opening two new locations in Reno/Sparks, NV

[bryceleinan]

Trader Joe’s officially announced their new South Reno (Summit) and Sparks (Spanish Springs) locations. South Reno is at the Shayden Summit (former Summit Sierra), in the recently-vacated Orvis location. Spanish Springs is the recently-vacated World Market.

As @storewanderer and I could both tell you, the existing Reno location at McCarran and Virginia has more business than it knows what to do with it. Two additional locations would help the market out, since the only other store in the area is down in south Carson, off Topsy in Douglas County.

https://locations.traderjoes.com/nv/reno/278/

https://locations.traderjoes.com/nv/sparks/279/

[ClownLoach]

They are aggressively trying to address the overloaded locations. I suspect that after many years of just adding staff they're realizing with rising labor costs that it is just plain inefficient to keep throwing absurd amounts of labor at one store that is so busy it requires a full stocking crew during all open hours just to keep the shelves full and multiple deliveries throughout the day. It's probably cheaper now to add another location or two especially when they can probably run all three with the same staff that used to run a single location and eliminate all the small fill-in delivery loads

[storewanderer]

They are aggressively trying to address the overloaded locations. I suspect that after many years of just adding staff they're realizing with rising labor costs that it is just plain inefficient to keep throwing absurd amounts of labor at one store that is so busy it requires a full stocking crew during all open hours just to keep the shelves full and multiple deliveries throughout the day. It's probably cheaper now to add another location or two especially when they can probably run all three with the same staff that used to run a single location and eliminate all the small fill-in delivery loads

They'll build volume with the new locations. They will increase customer frequency by being closer to more customers. They will also increase customer frequency from people who didn't shop there because the single store "was too crowded."

They need to get a couple locations in the West/Northwest portion of Reno. That area is awful for grocery stores- no presence of WinCo, Smiths, Whole Foods, Grocery Outlet, or Sprouts. Two terrible Save Marts that don't do very well, three so-so Raleys that do very well, one marginal Raleys that doesn't appear to do all that great (former Scolaris), a poor Safeway that does okay, and a marginal Wal Mart that does fantastic volume. Multiple closed Scolaris boxes there ranging from store 2 to their second newest store which was I think store 29 that are now non-grocery uses (4th/Stoker, McCarran/Kings Row, Sharlands/I-80) or demolished (California/Booth- that one was a former Safeway). Also a closed Super Kmart that was very low volume that is now non grocery use (Summit Ridge/I-80).

[ClownLoach]

They are aggressively trying to address the overloaded locations. I suspect that after many years of just adding staff they're realizing with rising labor costs that it is just plain inefficient to keep throwing absurd amounts of labor at one store that is so busy it requires a full stocking crew during all open hours just to keep the shelves full and multiple deliveries throughout the day. It's probably cheaper now to add another location or two especially when they can probably run all three with the same staff that used to run a single location and eliminate all the small fill-in delivery loads

They'll build volume with the new locations. They will increase customer frequency by being closer to more customers. They will also increase customer frequency from people who didn't shop there because the single store "was too crowded."

They need to get a couple locations in the West/Northwest portion of Reno. That area is awful for grocery stores- no presence of WinCo, Smiths, Whole Foods, Grocery Outlet, or Sprouts. Two terrible Save Marts that don't do very well, three so-so Raleys that do very well, one marginal Raleys that doesn't appear to do all that great (former Scolaris), a poor Safeway that does okay, and a marginal Wal Mart that does fantastic volume. Multiple closed Scolaris boxes there ranging from store 2 to their second newest store which was I think store 29 that are now non-grocery uses (4th/Stoker, McCarran/Kings Row, Sharlands/I-80) or demolished (California/Booth- that one was a former Safeway). Also a closed Super Kmart that was very low volume that is now non grocery use (Summit Ridge/I-80).

Absolutely. At this point it seems they have tremendous momentum and I definitely agree that they lose shops because the store is too crowded. I would shop them more often if it was less of a hassle, and now I'm getting one of the largest stores they operate anywhere closer to home than my current store. And you're correct that if 50% of the customers migrate from store A to new store B, store A is not going to lose much in sales. I learned this in the San Diego area where I operated a overloaded store that was too small, too little parking. I opened another location just a couple miles down the road and half the customers immediately switched to the new store, but the old store only dropped about 15% of its sales. Yes I had two overheads now but it increased sales by a net 65%, took market share, and was more profitable overall. The secret is labor was basically the same to run both stores as when I only had the overloaded unit, and all the employees were happier since their jobs got easier with less crowds and much less restocking and cleanup needed. Plus customer survey scores skyrocketed along with basket size. I imagine Trader Joe's is having identical experience. More than half the customers of my current store will likely move to the new one, but I think everyone else will add more shops and make up for it at the expense of everyone else in the area.

[bryceleinan]

Went to the new Trader Joe’s today in South Reno, this store is a drastic improvement over the original Reno location and what we have in Carson City. Store was clean and well stocked, every register was open, and while the store was busy, it wasn’t stiflingly overcrowded. I liked the art up on the walls, especially the Geiger Grade and Galena Creek Bridge signs (I’ll have to find pictures of them). It’ll be even better when Sparks opens up.

It would be nice if Carson relocated into the former BBBY location across the street, even if they did have to get it subdivided - I think people are going to get spoiled by the size of the new Reno and Sparks locations.

[storewanderer]

Went to the new Trader Joe’s today in South Reno, this store is a drastic improvement over the original Reno location and what we have in Carson City. Store was clean and well stocked, every register was open, and while the store was busy, it wasn’t stiflingly overcrowded. I liked the art up on the walls, especially the Geiger Grade and Galena Creek Bridge signs (I’ll have to find pictures of them). It’ll be even better when Sparks opens up.

It would be nice if Carson relocated into the former BBBY location across the street, even if they did have to get it subdivided - I think people are going to get spoiled by the size of the new Reno and Sparks locations.

I like the Carson City Store but I feel like it doesn't have as good of a product assortment as the old Reno location has.

I'm looking forward to seeing Sparks- I think it will be bigger than any other.

I had enough nasty treatment from customers at the other Reno Trader Joe's that I largely stopped shopping there unless I could slip in late at night when it wasn't busy. One of the pushiest most nasty groups of what announce themselves as bay area transplant ("from where we had so many Trader Joe's and now there is only ONE here and everyone is in the way and they are out of things" - oh just shut up) customers go into that store and while 90% of the customers are just minding their own business and shopping 10% of them are exceedingly pushy, whiny, arrogant, and annoying all at the same time to spoil the experience like nothing I've ever seen before.

I am not sure who these are going to take sales from. I have to think Raleys ONE is going to be hit but I'm not sure how much more you can even take from that store given how little business it does, with the new South Reno Trader Joe's location- maybe Safeway gets hit a bit. I don't see Smiths getting hit and the South Meadows Sprouts already isn't doing much business so I'm not sure it has many customers to lose at this point. I expect the Sparks Sprouts which is doing a lot better and looks pretty healthy inside to be severely hurt by Trader Joe's in Sparks and other than that in Sparks I am guessing the customers Trader Joe's gets in Sparks will be a small customer loss for a wide variety of other stores.

The bigger question is how much will business drop at the current Reno Trader Joe's as a result of these two new openings. I see a scenario where it doesn't lose many customers at all, but let's see what happens.

Next Trader Joe's needs to figure out how to get a location in Reno around the California Ave./Booth Street shopping center. That would be fantastic.

[bryceleinan]

Went to the new Trader Joe’s today in South Reno, this store is a drastic improvement over the original Reno location and what we have in Carson City. Store was clean and well stocked, every register was open, and while the store was busy, it wasn’t stiflingly overcrowded. I liked the art up on the walls, especially the Geiger Grade and Galena Creek Bridge signs (I’ll have to find pictures of them). It’ll be even better when Sparks opens up.

It would be nice if Carson relocated into the former BBBY location across the street, even if they did have to get it subdivided - I think people are going to get spoiled by the size of the new Reno and Sparks locations.

I like the Carson City Store but I feel like it doesn't have as good of a product assortment as the old Reno location has.

I'm looking forward to seeing Sparks- I think it will be bigger than any other.

I had enough nasty treatment from customers at the other Reno Trader Joe's that I largely stopped shopping there unless I could slip in late at night when it wasn't busy. One of the pushiest most nasty groups of what announce themselves as bay area transplant ("from where we had so many Trader Joe's and now there is only ONE here and everyone is in the way and they are out of things" - oh just shut up) customers go into that store and while 90% of the customers are just minding their own business and shopping 10% of them are exceedingly pushy, whiny, arrogant, and annoying all at the same time to spoil the experience like nothing I've ever seen before.

I am not sure who these are going to take sales from. I have to think Raleys ONE is going to be hit but I'm not sure how much more you can even take from that store given how little business it does, with the new South Reno Trader Joe's location- maybe Safeway gets hit a bit. I don't see Smiths getting hit and the South Meadows Sprouts already isn't doing much business so I'm not sure it has many customers to lose at this point. I expect the Sparks Sprouts which is doing a lot better and looks pretty healthy inside to be severely hurt by Trader Joe's in Sparks and other than that in Sparks I am guessing the customers Trader Joe's gets in Sparks will be a small customer loss for a wide variety of other stores.

The bigger question is how much will business drop at the current Reno Trader Joe's as a result of these two new openings. I see a scenario where it doesn't lose many customers at all, but let's see what happens.

Next Trader Joe's needs to figure out how to get a location in Reno around the California Ave./Booth Street shopping center. That would be fantastic.

Reading the article in the Gazette-Journal, it sounds like they eventually put one in West Reno:

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/money/bu ... 881570007/

The area you mentioned near Reno High would be good - I don’t know where else they could stick one. Had Saint Mary’s / ROC not taken over the old Scolari’s on Robb, that would have been an ideal location.

[storewanderer]

Reading the article in the Gazette-Journal, it sounds like they eventually put one in West Reno:

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/money/bu ... 881570007/

The area you mentioned near Reno High would be good - I don’t know where else they could stick one. Had Saint Mary’s / ROC not taken over the old Scolari’s on Robb, that would have been an ideal location.

I'm not sure where else they can get one in West Reno either. Keystone isn't the right place in my opinion but it could actually work/make sense. In N Out is making it work, the location feels perfectly safe and doesn't have a cleanliness/loitering problem unlike most businesses on that lower part of Keystone. Also noticed Raleys on Keystone has LOTCOP cameras now so there are obviously issues in that parking lot on upper Keystone. Never seen LOTCOP at Raleys before.

[storewanderer]

Okay- finally looked at the new store. I like how it is a square sales floor layout with straight up and down aisles that are basically all the same length. It seems a lot easier to find items since there is basically only one aisle for all of dry packaged staple grocery and other aisles are things like frozen, bread, liquor, nuts, snacks, non food... The produce area also seems more spacious and the meat area feels like it has way better variety than the older store. Lots of out of stocks but employees trying actively to fill the out of stocks. I noticed many items, all private label, that I've never seen before in the other Trader Joes in both Reno and Carson City so that was interesting.

I am not sure but this store didn't feel much over 12k square feet to me. It seemed smaller than I expected it to be. Orvis (who this building was built for) didn't have much inside so I may have had a misconception of the building size. I thought it was closer to 20k square feet.

I am looking forward to the store in Sparks as that is a much larger space.

One thing I noticed that stood out was after I paid- the amount of space between the end of the checkstands and the nearby wall- way too little of space. Congestion city. Too little of space to pass a cart (or person) standing out in the "road" there. I almost walked into the wall as I left the checkstand. With a cart that is a very sharp turn to point the cart toward the exit.

[ClownLoach]

Okay- finally looked at the new store. I like how it is a square sales floor layout with straight up and down aisles that are basically all the same length. It seems a lot easier to find items since there is basically only one aisle for all of dry packaged staple grocery and other aisles are things like frozen, bread, liquor, nuts, snacks, non food... The produce area also seems more spacious and the meat area feels like it has way better variety than the older store. Lots of out of stocks but employees trying actively to fill the out of stocks. I noticed many items, all private label, that I've never seen before in the other Trader Joes in both Reno and Carson City so that was interesting.

I am not sure but this store didn't feel much over 12k square feet to me. It seemed smaller than I expected it to be. Orvis (who this building was built for) didn't have much inside so I may have had a misconception of the building size. I thought it was closer to 20k square feet.

I am looking forward to the store in Sparks as that is a much larger space.

One thing I noticed that stood out was after I paid- the amount of space between the end of the checkstands and the nearby wall- way too little of space. Congestion city. Too little of space to pass a cart (or person) standing out in the "road" there. I almost walked into the wall as I left the checkstand. With a cart that is a very sharp turn to point the cart toward the exit.

Everything you're describing is the new Murrieta store, especially that sharp turn checkout. That was a decent size Office Depot but they also only made the floor about 12K or so. The back room is enormous, and that is the remedy for the issues @veteran+ has been critical of in older stores.

The Murrieta store has absolutely destroyed the Temecula store one off ramp down. For the first time yesterday I parked right in front to dine at a neighboring restaurant. No cars at all in the vast side lot. It will be interesting to see how eventually the business should balance out between the stores. Murrieta is slammed but holding up well and filling those shelves constantly. Eventually people are going to realize now you can park next to the door in Temecula and walk right in, everything is in stock and no checkout line at all. They probably have to get rid of at least a hundred excess shopping carts too.

I imagine the same situation will unfold up there. You should expect Sparks to be exactly the same even though the building is larger. Now that TJs builds larger stores consistently they're also following a pretty exact prototype design.