Aerial view of Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles cityscape, Calif.

Trader Joe’s is not afraid to spend money — it’s just a matter of where. The ultra-popular California grocery brand is constantly fielding well-meaning offers from fans to open up in their specific community, and is frequently pursuing batches of new locations.

Still, it’s not every day that Trader Joe’s shells out $22 million just for the right to build a grocery store on a particularly desirable corner. Yet that’s precisely the price tag the grocer paid for the former Rite Aid store at 1331 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, the coastal city in greater Los Angeles.

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