Trader Joe's opens new Long Island grocery store, in Miller Place

Dozens of people lined up in the cold outside Trader Joe's new Miller Place store before it opened to the public for the first time Thursday morning.

The retailer, which has a cultlike following, opened the grocery store, its eighth on Long Island, at 300 Route 25A. It was bustling with customers soon after opening.

"We got a lot of people in here. A really great turnout," said Jimmy Mohrman, a store captain, which is the equivalent of a general manager.

The grocer has hired more than 50 people to work at the store and transferred some additional workers from nearby Trader Joe's stores, the Monrovia, California-based retailer said in a statement.

The Town of Brookhaven approved building plans for the 13,500-square-foot grocery store in December 2024. The sales floor of the store is 9,200 square feet.

Trader Joe’s is seeking to expand its presence on Long Island beyond grocery stores.

Construction is underway for a Trader Joe’s distribution hub on a 66-acre Islandia site that was formerly occupied by Computer Associates’ headquarters. The 922,084-square-foot, three-building distribution center is being built at the southwest corner of Motor Parkway and Bedford Avenue.

The retailer paid $118.6 million for the property in August.

Trader Joe’s planned to open a wine store in Uniondale, but the retailer’s application for a wine store license was denied last month by the New York State Liquor Authority.

The grocery chain was seeking to open a wine shop at 934 Old Country Rd. in the Gallery at Westbury Plaza. The retailer already has a grocery store at that Uniondale shopping center, which has a Garden City mailing address.

In its denial of Trader’s Joe request, the three-member liquor authority board said there were already seven alcohol retailers within 1½ miles of the address the grocer had picked for a wine store.

In New York State, an owner is limited by law to only one liquor or wine store. 

Grocery stores in the state are not allowed to sell wine, but they are allowed to sell "wine products," defined as low-alcohol beverages with 6% or less of alcohol by volume, according to the liquor authority.

Trader Joe’s previously had a wine store in Manhattan’s Union Square, but the retailer closed the 16-year-old shop in August 2022.

'Unexpected value prices'

Founded in 1967, Trader Joe’s has more than 600 grocery stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C.

The chain is the most popular grocer in the United States, based on 31,293 customer surveys about their satisfaction with food retailers, according to the 2026 American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Trader Joe’s is considered a limited-assortment grocer, which means its stores are smaller and carry fewer items than would be found at traditional supermarkets. The majority of products in a limited-assortment store are its own private-label brands.

Trader Joe’s has "unexpected value prices" but it is not a discounter like other limited-assortment stores such as Lidl and Aldi, said Jon Hauptman, founder of Price Dimensions, a Chicago-based pricing adviser for supermarket chains.

The grocer's biggest strength is in its product offerings, he said.

"Trader Joe’s offers such a unique assortment of interesting flavors and interesting variety, as opposed to simply commoditized products that you would get at traditional limited-assortment stores," Hauptman said, adding that Trader Joe’s also excels at "marketing and selling stories around" its products.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.