The New Trader Joe's in Ballard
Alyssa March 13th, 2009
I had a little trouble finding the new Ballard Trader Joe’s at first. I was driving from the north and wasn’t expecting the Trader Joe’s logo sign to be on the south side of the building, so I didn’t see it. A block from the canal, I turned around and then saw their red logo sign on the gray Ballard Blocks building.
The parking garage entrance is also on the south side of the building. Having jockeyed for spaces at the Roosevelt location many times, I was happy to see lots of available spaces. But once I got out of my car, I was uncertain where to go to actually get into the store itself. There was no signage pointing out the store itself and all the signs saying “Trader Joe’s Parking” pointed in a direction that was opposite of where the store turned out to be.
I asked a guard walking by where to find the store.
“Over there,” she said, pointing, “by the red shopping carts.” Oh, of course. I should have thought of that.
I spoke to the lady at the Trader Joe’s demo station about some of the differences between this store and the Roosevelt one, and also observed the differences for myself. It’s a bigger store with wider aisles, a larger selection of wine and produce, bathrooms are more accessible to the public and there’s a much bigger demo station.
There’s quite a lot that’s the same though: good food at good prices, and that lovely free coffee at the demo station. Now that I know where it is, I’m happy this is my new home-base Trader Joe’s!
Trader Joe’s, 4609 14th Avenue NW, Seattle, WA, 206-783-0498
