The city’s Trader Joe’s in Hayes Valley is still scheduled to open by the end of June.
The SF Bay Area is no stranger to deserts — deserts here connoting scarcity of resources, that is. Since 2021, over six Walgreens locations have closed in San Francisco, leaving residents to travel further for their prescriptions, as well as acquire certain location-specific vaccines and other medical goods. An analysis conducted by ABC7 found that 600 neighborhoods across the SF Bay Area are in low food access zones, a.k.a. referred to as a “food desert,” meaning residents are half-a-mile or more from a grocery store; this figure represented a 40-year-high when that figure was published.
For San Franciscans in Hayes Valley, news that the neighborhood’s much-hyped Trader Joe’s location is still expected to open on time is a welcome update.
Regional manager for the grocery chain Melanie Chesley gave an update on the building’s construction during a Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) meeting held on March 27th. Chelsey noted that the location is in the process of hiring new employees to work the yet-opened location, which will sit on the first-floor at a condo building at 555 Fulton Street.
“As you can imagine, it is a very complex process to open a new store, but we are at a point where you can see through the window we have cash registers in there, refrigeration is in there,” Chesley said during the HVNA meeting, per the SF Standard. “We’re moving quickly. There’s a hiring sign out front and [we] have a hiring event [Thursday, March 28th]..”
The nearest Trader Joe’s location in relation to Hayes Valley is the store at 555 9th Street — which requires a spirited 25-minute, 1.1-mile walk to reach. The new Trader Joe’s, too, will be a welcome, more affordable grocery touchstone to the area’s more upscale and costly grocers.
($7.50 for a loaf of bread? In this economy, with the threat to our democracy growing more severe with each passing day? Absolutely not.)
Chelsey also revealed that a dedicated 77-spot parking structure for the location will include at least one parking lot attendant during store hours — “the parking attendant will be there always to make sure everything goes smoothly getting in and out.”
To mitigate excess noise, supply trucks are set to enter into a loading dock — “with a door that closes” — and will only be offloading the trucks once inside.
With the nearby Safeway location at 1335 Webster Street closing sometime next year, the soon-to-be-opened Trader Joe’s in SF’s Hayes Valley couldn’t have come at a better time.
Barring any dietary restriction, Make sure to snatch a frozen cacio e pepe gnocchi when it opens… because they truly are *chef’s kiss.*
Feature Image: Courtesy of Compass
