Just four months into 2025, Trader Joe’s looks poised to rapidly expand its number of stores.
Earlier in April, the specialty grocer opened two locations — one in Seattle and another in Murfreesboro, Tennessee — marking its first additions to its store fleet so far this year.
Trader Joe’s announced on April 7 plans for seven upcoming stores, bringing its total number of announced yet-to-open stores to 20.
All these upcoming stores will be in states where Trader Joe’s already has a presence. Five will open in California, the state that’s home to more than a third of Trader Joe’s roughly 580 locations.
Trader Joe’s started this year with a store count of 579 locations stretching across 42 states and Washington, D.C.
A handful of the coming-soon locations will help fill in states where the grocery chain has a sparse presence. Oklahoma, Alabama and Louisiana are each set to welcome their third Trader Joe’s, while South Carolina will greet its fifth.
Trader Joe’s has 20 more stores slated to open in 2025
If Trader Joe’s store expansion follows last year’s trajectory, the grocer could far exceed its 2024 growth spurt, during which it opened 34 locations. More than half of those stores debuted during the last three months of the year.
Already, Trader Joe’s has doubled its store growth plans from the end of January, when it had a dozen upcoming stores in its pipeline.
This rapid expansion comes as Trader Joe’s has seen positive foot traffic. In March, the grocer saw foot traffic up nearly 13% compared to the prior month and up nearly 9% from March 2024, according to retail data analytics firm Placer.ai. Georgia, Utah and Nevada experienced year-over-year foot traffic increases of more than 20%, followed by Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Oregon and Colorado all recording double-digit growth, Placer found.
Last month, Placer released a report noting that Trader Joe’s and Aldi were increasing their hold on shoppers, with both chains seeing a smaller share of customers visit other stores just before or after stopping at their locations in 2024 than in 2023.
