Trader Joe’s opens in Tampa this Friday

Click the photo to see the source article.

I’ll probably wait for the initial mania to die down or go during the middle of the day — that’s the beauty of having reasonably high rank and a telecommuter in one’s organization — but if you’re in the Accordion Bay area and are dying for Two Buck Chuck, exotic chocolate at Hershey prices, and a slew of interesting sauces, you’re probably already making plans to go to the grand opening of Tampa’s first Trader Joe’s this Friday. It’s located at 3808 W Swann Ave., just west of Dale Mabry, at its regular daily hours, which are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m..

It will have all of 70 parking spaces, about two dozen of which are designated for compact cars. In anticipation of Trader Joe’s mania and some likely asshattery, the City of Tampa is dispatching a half dozen police officers to help direct traffic and keep the shenanigans to a minimum, and the store itself has hired three off-duty cops to keep the peace on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There will be gridlock, and hopefully, there wont be much more than that.

My advice: wait for the hype to die down in a couple of weeks. If you can’t do that, could you pick me up a bottle of their house port?

Find out more about the grand opening at the Tampa Bay Times.