Trader Joe’s opened its first store in Anaheim Hills this week, marking the latest step in an expansion that has put more California locations on the company’s “coming soon” list.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot store at 6336 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road held its grand opening on Thursday. It occupies the former Big Lots space at Anaheim Hills Village.
Video footage of the store’s opening showed customers waiting in a line snaking through the shopping plaza to enter the store, with shoppers trying samples and purchasing tote bags and snacks.
“Lines go quickly since all cashiers are efficient and they never let guests wait unduly,” one customer wrote in a quick Google review. “New favorite store in Anaheim Hills!”
It follows the chain’s Paso Robles opening in July.
Trader Joe’s website lists three other California stores as “coming soon”: Leucadia and San Diego in Southern California, and Riverbank, in the Central Valley. The company has not announced opening dates for the locations.
Trader Joe’s new California stores are part of a 30-store expansion across 16 states in the coming months. The chain operates in 42 states. According to the location-data firm ScrapeHero, it has 211 California stores, more than in any other state and accounting for about 31% of its national footprint.
A second opening this week is planned for West Jordan, Utah, on Friday.
California has been central to the chain’s growth. The state accounted for most of Trader Joe’s new locations in 2024, when the company opened 34 stores nationwide. The Monrovia-based grocer’s first store opened in Pasadena in 1967.
While some grocers have unveiled expansion plans, others have had to pull back. Discount grocery chain Aldi plans to add 180 U.S. stores in 2026. Grocery Outlet announced in March that it was closing 36 underperforming stores, including six in Southern California.
At the same time, some grocery stores at the higher end of the market are growing.
Erewhon, known for its $20 smoothies, now operates 14 locations in Southern California. In the last year, the grocer has opened in West Hollywood, Glendale and Thousand Oaks, with outposts in Costa Mesa and downtown Los Angeles locations planned for 2027.
Laurel Supply, a new market with a wood-fired pizza oven and juice bar, opened in May on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Trader Joe’s sits between these two ends, as it is known for private-label products, relatively low prices, and a consumer base that treats its stores as a destination — especially when it drops new releases of its viral $3 mini tote bags.
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