Feb 12, 2012 | 07:23
Share:
Dec 11, 2008
Trader Joe's opening spurs hope for better times for village
The shelves have been stocked with 20-plus truckloads of Charles Shaw “Two-Buck Chuck” wines, Trader Jose's Mexican foods, Trader Darwin's vitamins and thousands of other items familiar to many. The colorful Westwood-themed wall murals are gleaming, Hawaiian shirt-clad crew members are cooking up samples in the “tasty treasures” section — and the doors have opened to the new Trader Joe’s.
The store's arrival on the corner of Glendon and Weyburn avenues is cause for celebration by many, from UCLA employees eager to shop for their favorite foods to local business people who see it as a good sign for retail growth in Westwood.“Yay for TJ's — it's about time,” Suzanne Stinson of UCLA’s Office of Information Technology told UCLA Today last spring when she first heard of the store’s plans.
“I am very happy to have new quality stores like this open in the village,” said Jessica Dabney, director of brokerage for North American Realty, which owns and manages several commercial properties in Westwood. “Any quality tenant who brings both new people into the village and provides amenities for people already in the village is a great thing.”
The new store pays tribute to several UCLA champions, including Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Tom Darrow, “captain” of the new store, and his crew have been working 24/7 for the past week to make the opening — and before that, for four years to plan the site and build it out.
In homage to the community and UCLA, a hand-painted mural depicts campus icons such as Janss Steps and Royce Hall, and Westwood’s historic Majestic Crest theater with the food-titled films, “Mystic Pizza” and “Grapes of Wrath” on the marquee. In a separate area, a “Wall of Fame” honors stars of UCLA athletics — Coach John Wooden, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Troy Aikman, Arthur Ashe and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“We’re community stores — not cookie-cutter where one looks just like the next,” Darrow said. “We like to get involved with the community.” Already, the store boasts food collection bins for the “Clash of the Cans” holiday food drive spearheaded by UCLA’s Transportation Department; the store will also donate excess stock to the drive.
"Captain" Tom Darrow, manager of the store's crew, races to stock the shelves before the big opening.
“It’s beneficial to have any business open in Westwood,” said Clinton Schudy, owner of Oakley’s Barbershop, Westwood’s oldest (1929) retail business. “The less empty space, the better,” he said, referring to the all-too-common sight of empty storefronts up and down Westwood streets. “Now that more people are living in the community — like graduate students in UCLA's new student housing — anything that helps people want to shop and be here is great.”
Dabney, whose family has been in the neighborhood for 30 years, said she has seen Westwood “go from its heyday to its decline. ... It’s doing better now, but not as well as it should be.”
Slated to open soon adjacent to Trader Joes are an It’s a Grind coffee shop, Jersey Mike’s Subs and Pastagina gourmet fast pasta. And across the street, a business license application for Thrifty Payless, otherwise known as Rite Aid, is displayed in a window of a vacant store.
“Westwood Village is the original and the authentic version of the Grove,” Dabney said. “It’s a walkable city with beautiful architecture and terrific things to look at, and it’s easy to get to. It should be a thriving business community. There should be no vacancies in Westwood.”
