These Michigan Cities Have No Hope of Ever Getting A Trader Joe’s

For years, there have been so many communities in Michigan that have been petitioning to get a Trader Joe’s location in their town. Trader Joe’s even has a place on their website where you can suggest to them areas to open the location.

As far as I know, no other grocery companies are doing anything like this, but I am curious to know how effective that model is. How strongly does Trader Joe’s actually take those suggestions into account when deciding where they want to place their stores? So, are there some cities that just have zero hope of ever getting a Trader Joe’s?

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According to one article on delish.com, which allegedly comes from a former employee, it’s quite possible that your city may never get a location because of one specific bullet point. Allegedly Trader Joe’s selects certain cities to have a location for very specific reasons, as the author described in the article:

It's actually very strategic as to where stores are placed. Here's the basic secret sauce for a city to get a store: Trader Joe's often are placed in larger, college towns (as in more than a few colleges and universities, ideally), where the majority of residents are college-educated, with a median income somewhere in the $100k area. Basically, they want to sell to young, educated folk with plenty of Cookie Butter-spending money.

Unfortunately, if this is true, some areas will just never see a location, which is strange to me. Trader Joe's isn't actually as expensive as it comes across, and at times there are good deals on unique items.

The best thing people can continue to do is keep requesting a store through their website. That, or give it the ole' Area 51 treatment and get hundreds of people to Naruto run at Trader Joe's headquarters and request it in person...they can't stop all of you.

READ MORE: 11 Fruits You May, or May Not Know Grow in Michigan's Fruit Belt