The World’s Busiest Trader Joe’s is in NYC

This is pretty much everything but Bagel Spice.

The busiest Trader Joe’s store in the world spans three levels and features three times the number of employees of the average location to handle the endless lines that sometimes stretch out onto the street.

And if you thought this rafter-filled shop was somewhere in NYC, you’d be right.

Despite only serving the city that never sleeps since 2006 — that’s the year the Southern California institution’s first branch opened to much fanfare at 142 E. 14th St., just off Union Square — the quirky alternative, tiki-themed traditional grocery shopping has been a big hit with New Yorkers.

And while you may be convinced that your neighborhood branch is much more crowded on a Sunday afternoon, nowhere in the Big Apple beats the scene at 72nd and Broadway on the Upper West Side, according to reports.

The often oversubscribed store at 2073 Broadway features four escalators (including trolleys, to make it easier to move between floors), two elevators and three times the registers of your average TJ’s location.

Being a crew member in the favorite neighborhood means being an expert at crowd management and navigation to keep things from descending into chaos. Think Zabar, only on the road, but with more space and lines that are harder to cut.

And because you’ll be spending most of your visit underground, don’t count on cell phone reception for open price comparisons, or last-minute inbound inquiries from home—customers report finding themselves in a without obstacles on a regular basis.

In a ranking of every Manhattan Joe’s location compiled by Washington Square News, the Cacio E Pepe Puff building next door to Papaya Gray’s ranked near the bottom.

Reviewers called it “weird”, saying it “spreads out like a maze” and that the flow “just feels wrong”.

“The exit made us understand the value of urban planning. After shopping here, you’ll want to relax in nearby Central Park,” wrote critics Joey Hung and Sabrina Choudhary in 2021.

Trader Joe’s was launched in the late 1960s in Pasadena, California, a short drive from downtown Los Angeles.

The company was bought by Aldi founder Theo Albrecht in 1979 and is still owned by his descendants. There are currently more than 600 stores from coast to coast.

The average Trader Joe’s ranges between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet. The 72nd and Broadway branch is thoroughly average in at least one way, with just 12,500 square feet of space.

The smallest location is on Boylston Street in Boston—a claustrophobic 5,200 square feet.

Trader Joe’s is known for fitting into unusual locations—from a decommissioned movie theater in Houston to a former bank branch in Brooklyn’s tony Cobble Hill neighborhood.