By Patrick Robinson and David Rosen

The 10,000 square foot Trader Joe's store at 4545 Fauntleroy Way s.w. set to open April 13 at 8 am is modern, spacious and thanks to in house artists, a celebration of all things West Seattle.

The West Seattle Herald was given an exclusive tour of the store on Friday April 6 by West Seattle resident and store Captain Sean Greutert who has been with the company for 17 years.

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"I've lived in West Seattle before and it's going to be a great, great store for the neighborhood" Greutert said. The store is fully staffed (they don't disclose exact numbers) "with 75% of the employees directly from West Seattle. We want to be a neighborhood store and that's a great way to do it," he said.

For those familiar with other Trader Joe's locations (West Seattle joins 4 others) the new location is obviously more spacious with wider aisles and more room to display products. While the store gets new products frequently (look for their 'New Items' section) Greutert was not certain of the total number of products noting, "off hand we don't carry as many as regular grocery stores. We want to have the stuff that people want. We don't aim to be a one stop shop. We just want to be your first stop," he said smiling.

"Customers determine what we're going to sell," he added.

But most striking about the store is the quality and number of key West Seattle references. This is common for all Trader Joe's stores, to use neighborhood references, but the size of this one means more could be included. Murals, created by Trader Joe's crew members, pay tribute to West Seattle High School, Chief Sealth High School, the Log House Museum, even the Blue Angels flying over the Alki Point lighthouse are part of a mural. This is all in keeping with the company mission of wanting to "fit in and be part of the community. "We hope to assimilate into the West Seattle community and hope that they embrace us as much as we want to embrace them."

The store will carry single varietal flowers, and mixed bouquets plus house plants with "really really nice orchids and great deals on them," Greutert said.
An extensive selection of fresh produce (not stocked during our tour but will be brought in prior to opening to assure freshness). There's a demo space for tasting products at the rear of the store right next to a large display of reusable bags. In the center of the store is the "world's best frozen food section," said Greutert. All Trader Joe's products are tested before being stocked. "We have a regular tasting panel that tastes products and if it doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter what the price is. We've got to have good quality and good value."

The wine section is also large with the "number one selling wine in the world Charles Shaw" featured. "If you lined every bottle up side to side," Greutert said, "for the last ten years you could have circled the globe 4.6 times.That's a lot of bottles."

There's upstairs covered parking, with 23 spaces (enter on 39th Ave. s.w.) and 40 more outside in the east parking lot.

The Grand Opening celebration will start around 8am on April 13 as the store opens with live music from a steel drum band on Friday and a brass quintet on Saturday. Balloons, and balloon animals, food demonstrations and more but, "Hopefully the star will be the customers coming in," he said.

The nautical theme of the store means you will see bells around the store which have meaning (they don't use an overhead intercom system). "One bell means come up and take care of customers on the register. Two bells means someone on the register needs help and three bells means you need a supervisor. It's a really big part of our culture," explained Greutert.

Trader Joe's will be open seven days a week from 8 am to 9pm.

You can call the West Seattle Trader Joe's at 206-913-0013