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By Mike Allen
March 9, 2024 (Santee) -- Trader Joe’s, purveyor of its own wine label Charles Shaw (formerly “Two Buck Chuck”) and prepared gourmet entrees, said that its next store will be at the former Best Buy site at 9680 Mission Gorge Road in Santee. It will be the chain’s 16th store in San Diego County.
In late December, the Monrovia-based grocery chain had announced Santee would be the location for a new store, as ECM reported, but declined to say anything more. But word leaked out that the old Best Buy site between Navy Federal Credit Union and Discount Tire is the new address.
The company acknowledged the new store on its website, but declined to say when the actual opening will occur. A request for comment from the company was not immediately returned.
Workers have been at the old Best Buy site for weeks renovating the 30,000 square foot, former electronics outlet to three separate spaces. Trader Joe’s is taking over 15,000 square feet, but the owner of the parcel isn’t saying what the remaining space will hold.
Santee Councilman Ronn Hall said the confirmed location for the store was no secret, but the company insisted on keeping it on the down-low for some competitive reasons.
He said many residents had been asking to have a Trader Joe’s open in Santee for years. The closest store is at Grossmont Center in La Mesa. The next closest stores are in the College Area and Poway.
Trader Joe’s was founded by a former drugstore executive, Joe Coulombe, who launched a small chain of convenience stores in 1958 in the Los Angeles area called Pronto Markets. In 1967, he revamped the style and product offerings along with the name. Today the company, owned by the same family that owns the Aldi grocery chain, has 569 stores nationwide and more than 50,000 employees. The same Wikipedia citation estimated annual revenue for 2020 at $16.5 billion.
While many large supermarkets may carry more than 50,000 products, a typical Trader Joe’s carries only 4,000 items, many of them made by the same brand name companies, but sold under Trader Joe’s private labels.
Santee has been active in attracting established national chains to its city, mainly in and around the Town Center Parkway retail hub. According to the city’s website since 2019, it’s added 31 chains. Among the latest are Popeyes, Chevrolet and WoodSprings Suites, which are all under construction.
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