The opening weekend of Trader Joe’s in Syracuse was hard to miss as the small parking lot in front of the new grocery store was packed with cars and police who came out to keep order in the lot.

The parking lot was organized mayhem, with a mixture of children, families, students and people young and old coming out to try the new diverse supermarket experience.

Trader Joe’s newest location is in the Raymour and Flanigan Plaza at 3440 Erie Blvd. East, and had its grand opening this past Friday. Originally founded in 1958, the grocery store giant now has locations all over the country. The store is 4.8 miles, or roughly 12 minutes, away from the SU campus, according to Google Maps.

Jocelyn Yan grew up five miles from the original Trader Joe’s in Pasadena, California. Now that it’s here in Syracuse, Yan feels a little more at home.

“I’m really happy that Trader Joe’s came to Syracuse,” said Yan, a senior television, radio and film major. “Having the same products you’ve had as a kid growing up, I guess it’s like a piece of home when you’re so far away from home and your family.”

Yan came to the opening weekend of Trader Joe’s with two of her friends, Aimee Leong, a senior political science major, and Hannah Simon, a fifth year magazine journalism major. All three were extremely excited to have Trader Joe’s in Syracuse for three main reasons — it’s cheaper, it’s more diverse and it’s super close to campus, they said.

“I hate Wegmans,” Yan said. “It’s so expensive and I hate the store layout too. Plus, the people that work there are kind of rude in my experience.”

Once inside, customers were immediately greeted with bursts of color. Trader Joe’s works hard to maintain a fun connection between their workers and their customers. Many of the employees wore Hawaiian t-shirts that went hand-in-hand with the store’s low key, fun atmosphere.

“I know that the workers at Trader Joe’s are very personable,” Yan said. “I think that helps with service, I think it’s a good thing that’s very casual.”

The store is vegetarian and vegan friendly, and offers foods from all areas of the world. Simon said she saw just as many Indian food choices as Mexican food choices, all foods she enjoys.

“And they have a really great variety in stuff like prepared foods which as a student I could see being really useful,” Simon said. “If you’re tired coming back from class and you don’t want to cook a whole meal, the prepared food looks really good.”

Simon said that although she isn’t sure if the food is actually healthier, she said she has more faith in the ingredients used in their pre-packaged foods.

“The way (pre-packaged food is) prepared and the type of ingredients they put into it sounds better to me,” Simon said. “I feel like it’s a step up from a lot of the things at the grocery store. Even like the frozen foods like the vegetables that they chose and the different preservatives are a lot better.”

At the back of the store, employees were handing out free samples of some of Trader Joe’s most popular brand food items. Leong said she tried pumpkin brittle and a peanut butter crunch spread that were “delicious.”

Other popular Trader Joe’s food options include Speculoos Cookie Butter, $2 wine called Two Buck Chuck, pumpkin macaroons, frozen tikka masala and a variety of dips like spinach and kale Greek yogurt dip.

The store places a strong emphasis on organic, fresh fruits and vegetables. Customers will have a hard time not finding something new among the shelves that they may not have even realized existed, Leong said.

Said Leong: “If you’re looking for something different on the shelf, definitely go to Trader Joe’s because I feel like you’ll find something different every time.”

Published on October 6, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Madysan: mgfoltz@syr.edu | @madysangabriele