MONROVIA, Calif. -- Specialty grocer Trader Joe’s was as surprised as everyone else to read on Yahoo! Style on Thursday that it would be closing all of its stores by 2017.
In what appears to be an April Fools’ Day joke gone awry, a report titled Trader Joe's to Close All Stores by 2017, Plans to Discontinue Products appeared on the webpage that now reads, “We’ll be right back … Thank you for your patience. Our engineers are working quickly to resolve the issue.”
In full, the Yahoo! Style article (cached) read:
Trader Joe’s to Close All Stores by 2017, Plans to Discontinue Products
By Delaney Strunk, Spoon University
In a surprising press release this morning, Trader Joe’s announced they will be closing all 457 locations by January 2017. The company has been having financial problems for a while, and with online sales and so many new organic food stores opening competition has been incredibly stiff. The past year they have been slashing prices to combat their main competitor Whole Foods, however this was not enough to keep up.
“The competition has been steeper and steeper every quarter,” said CEO Dan Bane. “At this point, there isn’t enough cookie butter in the world to pave the road ahead.” They will start rolling out store closings in May of this year starting with Florida locations.
Despite widespread protests from consumers, Trader Joe’s has no plans to continue manufacturing or distributing any of its signature vegetarian, vegan, and organic products. According to John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods, they made an offer to continue carrying popular cookie butter brand Speculoos at Whole Foods stores nationwide, however Trader Joe’s declined this offer.
“We truly appreciated the offer,” said Bane. “But there is a time and a place for everything, and it appears our time has run out.” With Trader Joe’s gone, Whole Foods will corner the market on organic foods, but there is still time to stock up on your favorite TJ brands before stores close entirely.
If this shocking news hits you as hard as it hit me, fear not. It’s merely April 1st. Now go celebrate being a fool with your favorite cheap wine.
In a statement to WHO-TV, Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s public relations director Alison Mochizuki said, “Although we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we don’t want anyone to mislead our customers. Trader Joe’s is open for business and has no plans to close. We had no involvement whatsoever in the April Fool’s hoax article.”
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