TRADER JOE'S - Frustration R Us....

I love Trader Joe's. It's a fun friendly store, and the items they offer are really quality stuff. Some things I just can't find anywhere else, like the 'clear' (as opposed to tomato-drenched) salsa. Likewise 'two buck Chuck' (actually three bucks in our state), a very drinkable wine. Go here for an article about TJ's...

What I *don't* love is the fact that they are continually opening new stores, including new ones in Illinois, and THEY ARE ALL IN UPSTATE ILLINOIS!!!!! Am I shouting? In the words of Sarah Palin, "Ya'betcha!!!"

I once wrote to them, asking if they were going to open a store in central or downstate Illinois. After all, this is a long state, and even our state capital is more down-state than central. What's more, east-central is home to the University of Illinois @ Champaign-Urbana, a favored area of many, many 'most desired' lists. Students and staff come to the U. of I. from all areas, and many - if not most - are familiar with TJ's from their own home areas.

The reply I got was very annoying - they pretty much inferred that they were very selective in choosing what areas TJ's is located. It sounded to me that they were saying all but the greater Chicago area was undesireable. If it were any store but TJ's I'd mumble a few expletives and forget I'd ever heard of them, but TJ's really is special. Here is their own map of how they cluster the 11 or so stores in Illinois. (If you're unfamiliar with Illinois locale, just look at the Great Lakes... Illinois is that kinda 'flaccid' state at the lower left. Use the focus tool in upper left hand side of the map to pull back the mapview - move it closer to the '-' range to see dramatically how close the clusters are.)

If it weren't so bloody hard to organize pretty much anything, I'd help stage a march or something, but if someone could suggest an alternative, I'm listening...