When I was a child, a Trader Joe’s opened in the small Central Coast town eight minutes north of my own. It was an event. 

Previously, the nearest Trader Joe’s had been an hour away round-trip in San Luis Obispo. You think its mint chip ice cream is surviving 30 minutes in a hot minivan? Absolutely no way. That thing was gonna melt by the time I got it to the freezer, and then it was going to develop ice crystals, and then it was going to be weird and dry and crispy, its once delicious, perfectly creamy texture completely and irrevocably lost. 

But a Trader Joe’s less than 10 minutes away in charming Templeton? The entire populations of neighboring cities Atascadero and Paso Robles seemed to cram into that impossibly tiny parking lot, so much so that the store had to open a dirt overflow lot. 

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Now I’m an adult, and I’ve moved out of my small town and to the big city, where the streets all have sidewalks, and amenities like Trader Joe’s are easier to come by.

Or at least, they should be.

FILE: A new Trader Joe’s opened in south Reno, Nev., in August 2024.

They aren’t for me, because the big city I moved to was Vallejo, a city of more than 120,000 that has exactly one fewer Trader Joe’s than 8,000-person Templeton. Which is to say, it has no Trader Joe’s. 

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If I want to buy Trader Joe’s mint chip ice cream, I have to drive 10 minutes south to Pinole and pay an $8.50 bridge toll on the way back, or 20 minutes north to Fairfield. Given the inland Bay Area’s temperatures, I’m not feeling confident about the fate of my ice cream by the time I get home.

Which is why for years Vallejo residents have been begging the cult grocery store to come to our city. (Well, likely not just for the ice cream. I’m sure other residents have their own favorites they’d like to........

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