'No Plan' To Open Trader Joe's In Bayside, Despite Locals' Pleas

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — When Patch broke the news that the Stop & Shop in Little Neck will permanently close next month, a chorus of locals said they hoped Trader Joe’s would move into the Northern Boulevard site.

Despite these pleas, Trader Joe’s told Patch it has “no plans” to open another Queens store in Bayside — or the World’s Borough at all.

“We don’t have any plans to open an additional store in Queens,” a spokesperson told Patch in a statement. The popular grocery store, however, is constantly assessing real estate, so this “could change” in the future, but there are no plans in store right now, they added.

Trader Joe’s currently has two outposts in Queens, one in Long Island City — which opened this summer — and another in Rego Park.

For Baysiders, however, the closest Trader Joe’s locations (depending on traffic) are actually in Long Island, including one shop in Garden City and another in Hewlett.

While the current Stop & Shop building in Little Neck is probably not destined to be a Trader Joe’s it could reopen as another grocery store — though Stop & Shop doesn’t know anything about that, since a spokesperson for the supermarket chain told Patch that what comes next for the plaza is up to the landlord.