Carts aweigh

it won't be long for Trader Joe's now

06/29/2011 2:04 AM

By Bonnie McGrath

4 Comments - Add Your Comment


Photo by Bonnie McGrath

I lost my bearings as I walked home west on Roosevelt Road tonight. (I had been at the free rum tasting and complimentary tapas event at Mercat in the Blackstone on South Michigan Avenue with my neighborhood friend Anita.) Bright fluorescent light was passing through the windows of the soon-to-be-here Trader Joe's at Wabash. Wow! Never have I seen that in that space. Then I turned and saw a vision in red: shopping carts. A slew of them--amid the uninstalled fixtures and the debris. A store very much under construction. But the opening is really getting close if they are stocking carts already.


It seems like just yesterday that I spotted a mere hole in the ground being dug adjacent to the historic building, to be used as new underground parking.

There is drooping wiring, protruding pipes and exposed dry wall in the store--which covers the first floor of a renovated two-story former bus depot, which the building was long ago in a former life.

So the red carts are there, under the blazing light; they are in the way, and also saying loudly: "Hurry it up!"


4 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Connie Elaine Remkus from South Loop
Posted: 07/01/2011 4:08 PM

I cannot wait! I will even help to get it set up faster. Thanks, Bonnie.


By Pat from Printer's Row
Posted: 06/30/2011 9:09 PM

I've been wondering when it will open. Thanks for the insight!


By Fluffy de Crossharbour from Winnetka
Posted: 06/30/2011 6:19 AM

you will notice the tremendous appeal of it's extremely low-cost wine and other boozola dept. and the characters it attracts. Afternoons bring them out: couples living solitarily, over 60, greyish-green hair, swollen eyes, distended tummies-- packing up their Trader Joe's bag with bottles of the stuff, like it's just eggs and bread...


By Stephen Reginald from South Loop
Posted: 06/29/2011 11:59 AM

Excellent! Thanks for sharing.