CALIFORNIA, USA — If you've ever driven in a Trader Joe's parking lot on a Saturday morning, you already know how tough it is to get a spot.
Well, you're not alone. In an episode of Inside Trader Joe’s podcast titled "What's up with Trader Joe's Parking Lots," podcast hosts Matt Sloan and Tara Miller answer the burning questions about these little lots.
In the podcast, Sloan and Miller discuss the size of the store lots.
"We don't open stores with the world's most ridiculous parking lot on purpose," said Sloan.
"So we get accused of this all the time. That's not our plan. We try to get as much parking as possible. In some municipalities, we can't get any parking at all," said Miller.
You may have noticed that the Trader Joe's in East Sacramento on Folsom Boulevard now has a new lot with extra spaces. A spokesperson with Trader Joe's says they added spots to improve the shopping experience for customers.
Sacramento resident and student Maddie Pineo is a Trader Joe's regular and said she appreciates the extra space.
"Parking is always so hectic and chaotic here, the extra parking definitely makes it easier," said Pineo.
In terms of why lots seem to be smaller at Trader Joe’s, the podcast hosts say it's often based on square footage.
"But the number of parking spaces given a store, very basically, is determined by the square footage of that store's selling area," said Sloan.
"A 12,000-square-foot store will get far fewer parking spaces than a 70,000-square-foot store," said Miller.
They acknowledge that most of their stores are smaller when compared to other grocers, which usually means fewer spots. Sloan says some stores have larger lots when they can get them.
In the podcast, Miller said they wouldn't want to change their stores to be bigger since it would feel like a different store.
"The argument could be made, “Hey, Trader Joe's just make your stores bigger.” But that kind of changes who we are. We have small stores, so they come with small parking lots. If we had bigger stores, sure we'd have bigger parking lots, but we'd feel like a different store," said Miller.
Watch more on ABC10
