State College is Getting What?
Here’s a little lesson about Nielsen and their DMAs. They don’t always make a lot of sense. Take State College, Pennsylvania for example. Officially, they are part of the Johnstown-Altoona DMA, but in reality, it’s a separate entity. And as we already know, the Johnstown-Altoona DMA is significantly smaller than the great and mighty Albany-Schenectady-Troy DMA.
We have the capital of the great state of New York, universities, colleges, hospitals, General Electric, and emerging nanotechnology. State College is the home to Penn State. On its own, it’s a very small town. But I’ve been told that when there’s a football game, Joe Paterno stadium turns into the third largest city in Pennsylvania.
Still, it’s a tiny market. In the 2000 census State College itself has a population of about 40,000 and Centre County in which it resides has just over 135,000. Despite their diminutive size for the vast majority of the year, State College has a Wegman’s, and that’s fine. It’s been there for a while. I’ve visited. It’s a very nice store. Good for them.
But I happened to stumble into a bit of news that I found quite upsetting.
State College is getting a Trader Joe’s. I know. You’re sick of hearing about Trader Joe’s and I’m sick about writing about them. Frankly, given the news that Albany wasn’t in their two-year plan for expansion, I was relieved. That meant that I could focus my energies on some other quixotic effort instead of trying to court one of my favorite food stores.
You want to hear something funny? The folks in State College also have a Facebook group. It is called Bring Trader Joes to State College, PA. And you know how many members it has? 721. Albany’s much louder WE WANT A TRADER JOE’S IN THE CAPITAL DISTRICT has 1,730 members.
So perhaps one should believe the director of national publicity for Trader Joe’s Inc., Alison Mochizuki, when she says:
It’s really an honor that people actually do have these Facebook pages and write us letters…Unfortunately, wooing does not go into our decision-making process of selecting a location.
This opening isn’t mere conjecture. You can see the list of Trader Joe’s locations that are coming soon from their site. I’ll save you the visit. They are Chicago, IL; Louisville, KY; Pittsburgh, PA; Spokane, WA; Staten Island, NY; and State College, PA. But one of these things is not like the other ones.
Part of me is now just plain angry. I mean, what the hell? This itsy bitsy market in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania gets to have a Wegmans and a Trader Joe’s? It’s no wonder some people up in the Capital Region get an inferiority complex.
The one bit of good news to come out of this, is that now I have yet another Trader Joe’s to visit when the family takes long-distance drives to see our relatives in the northeast. Because despite the amazing deals at Adventure in Food Trading, I still can’t beat Trader Joe’s for cheap but tasty, first cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil. 100% pomegranate juice, organic whole grain pastas, brown jasmine rice, dried sour cherries and natural peanut butter are all things I can find at local retail markets, but at up to twice the price (or more) of Trader Joe’s.
Anyway, I thought you should know. Now back to my previously scheduled silence on the matter for the next 600 days.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
Aww man. That’s just plain disappointing. Probably because it’s not just Trader Joe’s, but a whole bunch of other stores that inexplicably go to places surrounding the Albany area, yet refuse to plunk down here.
Grr.
Well thanks a lot- this pretty much ruined my day….
I just have to put in my two cents for the “I am totally underwhelmed by Trader Joe’s” camp. Meh.
It’s not sheer population volume, it’s demographics. The population in State College is more likely to shop at a Trader Joe’s or Wegmans. Unfortunately the CapReg just doesn’t meet the numbers those businesses are looking for.
exactly! So happy to find this blog, ok with the capital region for a lot of aspects of quality of life, but the food standard here drives me crazy.
I have become a stereotype, resorting to shipping up bagels and pizza dough from south shore long island. I direly miss seafood, and have gotten food poisoning from price chopper twice.
ugh, with all of the farms around, the various ethnic groups, and the proximity to NYC, you’d think we’d have the best cuisine possible, but alas. I once read how Albany is a perfect microcosm of the way America lives, our food consumption is so American here it’s sad. Bacon and hydrogenated oils all the way, and with our new healthcare cuts, the USA food consumption scenario is just a nightmare.
Well, I will keep enjoying the amazing farmers markets here, good to find some likeminded peeps, keep up the good ranting.
Daniel,
I’ve been following this news also, and I share your discouragement. The Capital District for many reasons would be an excellent place to open a Trader Joe’s! So, I am discouraged, but not beaten. It has been several weeks since our group, “We Want Trader Joe’s in the Capital District” has contacted the company. Given the statement by Ms. Mochizuki, I’ve taken some time to reevaluate our strategy. Yet even during this time I still receive “reports” from some of my “troops” with contacts inside Trader Joe’s that they are still actively looking in the Capital District. I suggest we hang on to this glimmer of possibility, because what is the alternative? The motto of our group is “because we deserve better.” So far we do NOT have better! So we must take the punches of seeing towns like State College, PA get a Trader Joe’s and keep working and selling and promoting until we see Albany, NY listed in the “Coming Soon” section of the Trader Joe’s website. Through creativity and hard work, our community has come a long way in reinventing itself. That process must continue until we can all shop locally for the wonderful items you listed. We owe this to ourselves, and I owe this to my membership and to the 2,230 neighbors who signed our online petition http://www.petitiononline.com/WWTJ/petition.html.
Bruce Roter, President
We Want Trader Joe’s in the Capital District
http://www.wwtj.org
I drive an hour every week both ways to get my groceries at wegmans. I can’t wait to patronize trader joes as well. Many people within an hour radius do the same. State College with be an amazing market, corporate won’t be sorry they chose happy valley!
I can not disagree more with the comments about State College. Traveled there many times, work related always, and trust me, the “locals” of Centre and Blair county may try out the store, but they will not be willing to blow their budget on gourmet items on a regular basis. Its just not in the “meat and potatoes” genes of this particular area. Having grown up in NEPA, I can attest to this. Wegmans at this point is not anything new for this region, and by comparison, the State College store is quite small. If they (Trader Joes) were looking for better areas of PA, outside of the Philadelphia market, Lancaster or Central PA would have been a really great choice. Lancaster in particular is becoming a Philadelphia suburb of sorts, very eclectic, high end shoppes, and a vast array of restaurants and foodies. Which is what is needed to make a TJ thrive… people who like quality, interesting, and somewhat eclectic types and styles of food. Sorry State College, but I think TJ will be hurting during the times when students are not on campus.
I live in State College and the promised store is still nothing but a rumor. I am sure the corporate guys did their homework in choosing State College, but TJ is going slower than many of us can take. However, not sure what the previous poster was talking about: The SC Wegmans is generally packed and lively. The demographic of central PA may be post-Amish gothic but SC is full of foodies and other folks who think quite a bit of themselves. Like all businesses there, they will have a slow time during the summer but Wegmans hardly seems to notice.