Memories of the La Crescenta Trader Joe’s

La Crescenta has the distinction of having the second Trader Joe’s location; it opened way back in 1968. From 1968 to 2011 it operated out of a tiny storefront at 3433 Foothill Blvd. It had an even tinier parking lot, which it shared with several other businesses. Parking there was insane! TJ’s moved to a bigger purpose-built location in Montrose, with a larger parking lot, but alas – the parking is still insane!

I run a Facebook page for the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley and I recently collected some of the many posts about the La Crescenta Trader Joe’s and its infamous parking lot. Here are a few:

“If I remember shopping there, does that make me ‘historical?’”

“Finding a space in that lot could make you hysterical!”

“Sometimes life is like a Trader Joe’s parking lot.” 

“I wish I had gotten a bumper sticker they had back then that said, ‘I found a parking spot at Trader Joe’s La Crescenta.’”

“Someone needs to make one for the Montrose store!”

“This was ‘my’ Trader Joe’s back in the ’60s and ’70s. It was just up the hill from the house I grew up in. It was sooo small. But we all loved it anyway.”

“TJ’s also had a fruit juice extractor that made freshly squeezed orange juice and carrot juice. Dang delicious!”

“That Trader Joe’s was my first job in 1979. I remember having to clean out the orange juice squeezing machines, but I always loved tasting the different cheeses when the girls were cutting it and packaging in the back.”

“If I remember correctly, they even had a butcher shop inside this TJ when I was a kid.”

“Yes, that was run by the old man Nick and his son Brian McCloud. After they moved out of there, they opened at another location down Foothill across the street from OSH for many years.”

“My mom and I would go to the laundromat next door and I thought it was such a treat to wander the Trader Joe’s.”

“I could buy wine there in ’70-’71 before I was 21. I remember they wouldn’t sell anything to anyone school age until after school was out so kids couldn’t spend their lunch money.”

“I never remember my mom shopping anywhere else when I was a kid. She’d maybe grab Best Foods mayo at Ralphs and chicken hot dogs at Foods for Life. And just about everything else was TJ’s.”

“When I was going to Clark junior high in the ’70s, I remember getting Bubble Yum gum from that Trader Joe’s. It was new and very hard to get.”

“I lived above New York Park, so TJ’s was very convenient for my family. My mother would send me there to get a half gallon of milk; I think it was fifty cents.”

“That sloped parking lot was always fun with a cart full of kids and groceries!”

“I will never forget a classic moment in the 1970s. The interior of the store was like a donut with the cooler in the center and the cashier in front of the door. My sister-in-law and I were standing at the cashier’s when two young men came streaking in wearing nothing but smiles. The cashier immediately ran to the door and locked it, saying that he had been waiting for that opportunity. The streakers tried the door, then ran back behind the cooler. The cashier unlocked the door after a brief time and announced that they could come out of hiding. It was unforgettable!”

“When I moved to La Crescenta in 1985, my daughter and I would wash our clothes at the little tiny laundromat next door and we would always go over to Trader Joe’s and get an orange juice and a cheese stick every week.”

“[It was] the Trader Joe’s I went to most of my life. Parking was really, really bad when there was a Winchell’s next door.”

“That was my Trader Joe’s. Grew up going there. Got my first frozen yogurt there.”

“I always tell people I grew up with TJ’s since the ’60s! They always think I’m mistaken.”

“1970s –  it was the best of times.”