Neighborhood grocer Trader Joe’s plans to open 21 new stores in 13 states this year, including two in Pennsylvania, according to the company.
According to the store locator on the grocer’s website, the new stores will be located in Berwyn and Exton. The Berwyn store will be on Lancaster Avenue and the Exton store is planned on West Lincoln Highway.
Trader Joe’s already has 13 of its value-focused grocery stores in the Keystone State. They’re located in Ardmore, King of Prussia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Media, Wayne, North Wales, Camp Hill, and Jenkintown.
The California-based grocery store chain currently has 581 stores in 42 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to stores that recently opened in Tennessee and Washington, Trader Joe’s plans to open five more stores in California; two each in Washington, D.C., New York, and Pennsylvania; and one each in Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington.
With its expansion plans, Trader Joe’s continues a 2024 growth spurt when it opened 34 new stores. More than half of them opened in the fourth quarter, according to Grocery Dive, which said the company's expansion strategy is focused on bolstering the brand in states where it already has a presence rather than moving into new states.
The eight states that don’t have a Trader Joe’s are Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Trader Joe’s saw foot traffic up nearly 13 percent, an increase of nearly 9 percent from March 2024, according to the retail data analytics firm Placer.ai.