This NYC Trader Joe's Is The Busiest In Existence

Even if you know when to shop at Trader Joe's for the best experience, visiting this tiki-riffic grocery store is generally always an exercise in practicing patience and goodwill towards your fellow humans. The parking lot is small and treacherous, the aisles are packed, the lines are long, and, no matter where you look, you just can't find that limited-edition item you fell in love with during your last shopping trip.

Now, take the "normal" chaos of a Trader Joe's shopping trip and multiply that exponentially. You've just captured the vibes of shopping at the 72nd and Broadway store in New York City's Upper West Side, the location that Trader Joe's itself calls the busiest in the chain. This Manhattan hub encompasses three stories, two of which are underground shopping levels. The uppermost level is the streetside entrance. There are four escalators for both pedestrians and shopping carts, as well as two elevators that frequently get crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with strollers and wheelchairs. You will purchase your groceries at one of 28 checkout registers, the line for which wends its way all throughout the store ... and sometimes extends to street level!

It's not uncommon for shoppers to either get in line immediately and shop as they wait or to tag-team the experience with a friend or family member who waits in line while the other person grabs the groceries. Staffing the store takes three times as many employees as a normal TJ's store. Note that it isn't the biggest store in the chain, either ... the Manhattan location clocks in at 12,500 square feet, while larger locations may come in around 15,000. By anecdotal accounts, the shopping experience is overwhelming and possibly overstimulating, but employees are deft at keeping things moving.

New Yorkers are used to crowds — the experience is part and parcel of living in one of the largest and most vibrant cities in the world. Is the location at 72nd and Broadway especially busy, however, or are surrounding stores absolutely booming on a similar level? Several folks have asked that question after being told at a spate of Big Apple Trader Joe's locations that their store was actually the busiest in the country. On Facebook, commenters seemed confused by conflicting reports (which didn't take into consideration the official word from TJ's back in 2021).

"[S]taff at the UES, Columbus/UWS, and Dekalb Market in Bk have each told me they were the busiest stores in the country. lol," one commenter remarked. "Downtown Brooklyn TJ's could give it a run for the title tho [sic]," another seasoned shopper added. "Which is it? Gotta be Union Sq[uare]," commented somebody else, adding onto several observations that the Union Square store was a particular hellhole.

At the end of the day, it may not strictly matter which Trader Joe's store is the technical busiest in New York City, because it sounds like many of them are super packed. "Busiest" is, of course, not a strictly quantifiable term — do we refer to the most foot traffic? The highest sales? On the list of secrets about Trader Joe's you'll wish you knew sooner, perhaps having a sense that New York stores are just built different is valuable knowledge for anybody moving or visiting.