Now that we are just days away from Costco opening in Duluth, it's time to look ahead to the next big retail store that many people hope to come to the area, Trader Joe's.

If you're not familiar with Trader Joe's, it's a small grocery store, where a typical grocery store might stock tens of thousands of items, Trader Joe's sells just a fraction of that, maybe 4,000 - 5,000, and most of those items are Trader Joe's brands.

Pronto Markets opened in 1958, and in 1967 they changed their name to Trader Joe's, today there are over 530 stores across the country and nine of those locations are in Minnesota, and only one of them is outside the Twin Cities area, and that's in Rochester. But, will Duluth be next?

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Rumors have been swirling that Trader Joe's might be eyeing the Duluth area, and a new location could be on the horizon. A request for more information about a new location in Duluth resulted in the following response from the company, "While a store in Duluth isn’t currently a part of our two-year plan, it is certainly possible that we would open a store in the area later down the line. We don't comment on our scouting & selection process, but I can say there are a variety of factors that go into our location-scouting process—it has to be the right place/right site at the right time."

So you're saying there's hope? In fact, they go on to encourage us to reach out and request our very own Trader Joe's, "While customer requests aren’t the only factor that determines where we look next, we urge customers interested in seeing a TJ’s in their community to fill out an online store request form. We consider all requests. After all, as a neighborhood grocery store, we want to be in communities that want us as a neighbor!"

Well considering the long road travelled to get the Costco built in Duluth, it might take a minute to get Trader Joe's to open a location in the area, but sooner or later I'm sure it will happen, Duluth seems like a perfect location for the grocer, so stay tuned.

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