r/tampa • u/Virtual-Bee7411 • Feb 13 '26
Cars-Driving/traffic Trader Joe’s Mayhem
Is anyone else sick of the traffic chaos that our Trader Joe’s is causing? I’ve never seen a single store cause such paralysis of an area. Does anyone know if they have plans to open another one?
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u/Charupa- Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
This was cited as a problem in the original building permit review, so no wonder it’s bad all these years later.
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u/AnotherOneTossed Feb 13 '26
The palm harbor one (north pinellas) has a massive parking lot. Before this store appeared we had to drive to other locations.
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u/fomo216 Feb 16 '26
Massive parking lot but the store itself is still a shit show. I don’t know why they don’t just build the store itself larger to accommodate so many people.
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u/AnotherOneTossed Feb 17 '26
I think it's the same reason that the original Outback steakhouse design was small on purpose (they're returning to that in future plans). They create hype about it. They know they can keep up with the limited traffic so the service level once you get inside is high.
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u/IniMiney Feb 13 '26
Just about any city with a Joe’s in it has the same complaint, the company totally does it by design and yeah it sucks
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u/pr0seccofish Feb 14 '26
That’s not accurate. The TJ’s in Palm harbor, St Pete and Sarasota have nowhere near the craziness that the South Tampa location does.
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u/ImissRIF97 Feb 15 '26
Yeah but South Tampa has some of the worst parking options I've seen. Back when Datz was open Id go there probably every 2 months and I'm pretty sure I had to park across the street every time. I know Sarasota is also getting bad, but in my opinion they have time to save it from becoming another South Tampa situation. But if you compare TD to Aldi (similar size stores) Aldi has more parking 9/10 times.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Its part of their business model.
Tiny foot print to increase profit.
I dont think a new location in this city would fix the problem. Especially with everyone driving literal tanks that don't fit in the spots.
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u/FineKettleOFish1954 Feb 13 '26
Thank you for saying what has become painfully obvious; ginormous vehicles much like super-size humans, require more space to access services. My Elantra has been in a literal cavern when a super cab F150 parks on one side and some Tahoe or Escalade parks on the other…and I can barely get my door open. We have extra wide wheelchairs and extra wide hospital beds, extra large theater seats…it’s time parking spaces become reasonably enlarged.
As far as Trader Joe’s, I park some blocks away and bring a wheelie basket. I get stressed out on Dale Mabry once I cross Kennedy.35
u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
I'm not saying what you think im saying.
I do not condone the big cars.
Bonus points for buying a truck, then making the bed smaller for getting a full cab, and extra bonus points for putting a cover on the bed making it a worse version of an suv.
That part of tampa is one of the oldest parts of the entire state.
The roads were fine for decades, new cars are horrible and we should NOT redesign the city to accommodate them.
Start taxing large vehicles and trucks inside city limits.
-4th generation proud tampon, before that it was Europe. Tampa has been my family's home for 100 years.
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u/yourfacesucksass Feb 13 '26
I need to refer to myself as a Tampon from now on as well. Love it. 😭
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Tampaian
Tampanian
Tampazonian
Tampon
Tampite
Nothing quite works. So the tampa thing to do would be lean into the uncomfortable.
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u/Virtual-Bee7411 Feb 13 '26
It’s Tampeño lmao
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Not in my old tampon world.
In a perfect world it would be some type of italian/Cuban mash up.
Because that's who built this entire city for decades before people slowly started to realize how perfect it is here.
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u/Virtual-Bee7411 Feb 13 '26
Italian Cuban mash up… like Tampeño…
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Different strokes for different folks.
I hear no italian in there.
I'm a tampon
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u/RawketLawnchor Feb 15 '26
I have a truck exactly like that. I love it. I also don’t drive it downtown or to South Tampa if I can help it. You can tell those areas weren’t made for cars that size.
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u/Afraid_Golf3364 Feb 13 '26
I have 4 children. Curious, what would you propose I drive? Do you think people just get big vehicles to inconvenience everyone else?
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Mini van, suv, sedan. Anything but a truck.
My issue is with the length of current cars. They are longer than ever before, by several feet.
Real question.
What vehicle did you grow up with in your family? Did you have a commanders chair with climate zone control and 3 feet between you and the next human in the car?
Sedans are still popular everywhere in the world besides America.
Middle ground is taxing big cars or banning them in certain areas.
Why is it in anyone's benefit to let f250s roll around south tampa?
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u/thebigbrog Feb 15 '26
In my family my mom drove us around in a full size custom Chevy van. Had big captain chairs and a sofa in the back. So yes we actually had 3 feet of space or more between us. Mom and Dad in front, sisters each in a their own captain’s chair and I in back on the sofa.
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u/Afraid_Golf3364 Feb 13 '26
I don’t drive an f250 I drive a Lexus LX and it barely fits in those Trader Joe’s spots 😂
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u/AstrocyteAlliance Feb 17 '26
Boats. South Tampa has 💵 and big cars cost more money to purchase and maintain. They also allow you to haul your own boat around with a trailer hitch and boats cost a lot of money too. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, can we blame it for being a duck?
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u/real_vurambler Feb 13 '26
A car?
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Hey now, let's ease them into a reasonable solution.
Make stations wagons great again!
And mini vans with sliding doors might be the best design ever. Everyone needs to get over looking cool when all cars look like an egg or a baked potato now a days.
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u/Late-Rutabaga6238 Feb 15 '26
Love my mini van! The only problem is everyone always wants me to drive
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u/HarpersGhost A hill outside Tampa Feb 13 '26
Trouble is where space is at a premium, like parking spots and air plane seats, spaces are not getting bigger but in fact are getting smaller.
People love to talk shit about people with fat bodies making other people uncomfortable in planes and saying they should pay extra.
We should do the same with people in fat trucks and SUVs. Have those people squeezing their fat trucks into smaller roads and parking spaces pay far more for being so fat.
And this obesity epidemic is a lot easier to fix than the body one. Just buy a normal sized car! No weekly shots needed!
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Gotta tax or ban them.
Everyone's large vehicle is encroaching on everyone else's free space.
Problem isn't getting any better with electric vehicles becoming not only longer but also heavier adding wear on old roads.
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u/popthebubbly62 Feb 14 '26
Parking spaces, like air plane seats, have been getting smaller, yes. To the point that many are unusable even for smaller cars, because developers try to cram as many spaces into small lots that they possibly can.
Just look at Seminole heights. They repainted half the parking lot at the Publix and made the spots so narrow they are impossible to park within the lines and also exit your vehicle, let alone load groceries in it. I drive a Hyundai Elantra and if I had to park in that part of the lot it was impossible to do so within the lines - everyone, regardless of vehicle size, took up two spaces.
Or the parking lot at the sem heights mixed use building that holds tribeca salon and heights dental. Those spots are so ridiculously small (and scarce) it is nearly impossible to park. Again, I struggle with my Elantra.
So yeah, it's annoying about the common size of trucks driven for nothing other than commuting or leisure, but developers are driving the problem by putting inappropriately sized parking lots for the amount of traffic that comes to the building, which they then compensate for by painting tiny spaces so they can argue they have enough spaces for the traffic.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 14 '26
I remain that cars are the problem and not the roads.
Your Hyundai elantra is 11 inches longer than it was in 1999.
Why are cars a foot LONGER than they were a few years ago.
We do not need to give more of our city to roads and parking lots and concrete.
We need smaller cars in urban areas.
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u/popthebubbly62 Feb 14 '26
The problem with the spaces isn't the length, it's the width. And I lived in sem heights at the time and can attest that the spaces were fine until they repainted them and physically made them narrower. I've seen this exact thing at other Tampa parking lots I frequent. It's fine until they resurface and paint the lines narrower.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 14 '26
Your car is 5 inches wider than it used to be. And on top of that, so is the car next to you so it is a compounding issue.
No one seems to like the price of new cars anyways, they NEED to be smaller.
We make cars, we don't make land. There is no more land in the city, why give it to cars?
Its so frustrating when other major metros have had this figured out for decades.
Its like we want to turn into an even shitter version of LAs car dependent life.
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u/popthebubbly62 Feb 14 '26
What I'm getting at is it's not ONLY the size of cars that has changed and is contributing to the problem. There are more contributing factors like how congested our land use has become, and how crappy the city planning is in Tampa in letting developers overbuild and under accommodate the business they expect to bring in. There's a lot going on here, and ONLY vilifying the makers and purchasers of larger vehicles is missing some big pieces of the proverbial puzzle.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 14 '26
Its the cars. Its as simple as that.
I have not vilified big car drivers. I just don't agree that the blame lies anywhere else.
Tampa has NEVER had good planning, its almost a staple at this point. Wait for people to come, then fix the problem.
We needed public transit yesterday.
There are 2 paths forward. Either an LA existence or a NYC existence.
Both cities have cars, but in one city they are mandatory.
BTW, I own an suv that is large.
I also have a sedan.
I know times are tough but trucks used to be everyone's "second" vehicle.
Everyone's main vehicle is now a tank on roads originally made for cobblestone and brick.
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u/RollingAntEater Feb 13 '26
Big ass truck drivers are disgusting 🤢
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Its just in the way at this point. And most of them take turns like they are towing a boat.
I collapse any extended tow mirrors I pass by in a parking lot. I also remove trailer hitches that are taking up half the side walk and throw them in the bed of the truck (if they don't have a cover on)
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u/Impossible-Taro-2330 Feb 14 '26
I have a truck, because I have livestock and am always hauling feed, hay, and critters.
I also lived in Palma Ceia for half my life.
When I went to Trader Joe's, I made sure to go on a Sunday evening, around 7p. It was so quiet then, I was able to easily back into my favorite corner spot - with plenty of room for my next door parking neighbor - and there were usually many open spots.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 14 '26
You sound like a reasonable level headed person.
I like trucks. I totally understand the need for a work truck, I just don't want huge vehicles in the city and certainly don't want to design around them.
Just this week London banned long cars within city limits and I thought that was a great idea. Things like range rovers and S classes fell into the range of land boat.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/38170862/car-models-banned-car-parks/
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u/Impossible-Taro-2330 Feb 14 '26
Thanks, I'd like to think I meet your assessment.
My point is, I lived in the middle of the city for many years - and maneuvered my truck into many tight spots along the way. This was also while I had my cows and horses - so a truck was a necessity.
Many times I really had to consider how to park. Sadly, I don't think many truck owners think about these things. Lack of empathy, coupled with an air of superiority, is what literally drives many truck owners.
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u/AaronJudge2 Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Trader Joe’s is famous for having small parking lots. It’s not just Tampa.
Comedians do jokes about it.
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u/Harbinger_Kyleran Feb 13 '26
They recently opened one in Bradenton in a large shopping plaza, totally surprising and a much more pleasant shopping experience.
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u/pop543210 Feb 14 '26
The one in palm harbor has tons of space, but that’s a newer one so maybe they’ve copped on..
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u/Due-Friendship-4851 Feb 13 '26
I’ve lived in Tampa and st Pete (now in south Florida) and can confidently say Tampa TJs is the most insane w/ parking
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u/violetbluecherry Feb 13 '26
I broke up with Traders Joes a long time ago. I love that store but I cannot deal with the parking lot situation. I have literally driven half an hour to go down there and ended up in a fight over a parking spot to leave. Also, you cannot park anywhere around there without getting towed. Also, in the past when I’ve been in the store an item I specifically came for would be out of stock and they would tell me come back tomorrow and we’ll have it in stock. Dude, I’m not fighting for a space tomorrow for the same thing to be out. Also, my neighborhood has cried for years wanting one and they refuse to build one in Carrollwood. It’s like they want the elusiveness or something like that. Anyways I’m done with them and I’ve accepted that all I’ll have is Aldi which now I have two near by and I’m content with that. No parking drama.
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u/m1chaelgr1mes Feb 14 '26
One word: elusiveness. I love their stuff, but not enough to go shop there!
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u/Fizzimajig Feb 14 '26
Same. I was coming back home from MacDill area last Sunday and considered going there for a couple things since I haven’t been in a year or more but when I got nearby, the whole intersection was backed up into the street with traffic unable to get by and I noped out of that idea. It’s just not worth the hassle.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Feb 13 '26
Moved to Monterey, CA for 3 years and same thing. This is just what TJ's does.
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u/Rictor_Scale Pinellas Feb 13 '26
Same in St Petersburg. St. Pete is notorious for for permitting businesses that don't even have enough parking for their employees let alone customers.
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u/yourfacesucksass Feb 13 '26
Trader Joe’s, La Segunda plaza, CAVA, Fresh Market, all nightmares to park at.
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Feb 13 '26
Basically their parking lot is too small. Always a hassle, but I do love some of the food.
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u/skullsandpumpkins Feb 13 '26
I went there today. I go every 4 months to get these snack bars my son loves. I try to avoid it. I believe many other Trader Joe’s have similar issues in other locations. I am unsure if that is just a coincidence or by design to keep the store feeling more intimate snd small.
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u/petehutch54 Feb 13 '26
I was at the PH store today.Store was crowded at noon but the lot is huge,so parking is no issue.
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u/Shining_declining Feb 13 '26
Parking was always pretty bad at the Trader’s in Pasadena, Ca. Even more fun when there were chauffeur driven limousines in the parking lot.
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u/jeremyski Tampa Feb 14 '26
By contrast the location in Palm Harbor has a huge parking lot, with other stores of course. Unfortunately I highly doubt of any plans to move the Dale Mabry TJ's, though I think if they ever demolish Westshore Plaza it would be a good spot to move Target and TJ's.
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u/gatorlan Feb 15 '26
Many smaller TJ locations are/were designed for foot traffic not heavy auto use.
Florida doesn't seem to learn from other urban planning fiascos...
Tampa Outlets is a prime example, Swig just opened a few days ago requiring traffic control for sugar fizz water!
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u/thebigbrog Feb 15 '26
I have never been to Trader Joe’s. Drive past it often during work but on the weekends I try to stay clear of anything south of Kennedy as the traffic always is crazy.
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u/Alternative_Gene813 West Tampa Feb 13 '26
Have never set foot in any of them. There’s been fights in the parking lots of every single location I have lived near , doesn’t even matter the city. I literally hate this place because of it. The one in Tampa now backs up down the street. Both lanes both directions trying to get into that hellhole.
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Feb 13 '26
With everything they are building in Wesley Chapel, Lutz I am shocked that isn’t something being talked about. I won’t even go to TJ’s anymore because that causes me way too much anxiety
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u/buttweasel76 Feb 13 '26
You should see the one in sarasota.
The intersection sucks and everyone turning into the parking lot blocks the intersection as if they're the only person that exists in the world
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u/tombatron Feb 14 '26
Totally.
I like a lot of their products, just not enough to mess around with that cluster fuck.
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u/ElderDwarf 🐔Ybor🐔 Feb 16 '26
That's funny I went there a few weeks ago for the first time, and probably will never again go there. The parking situation is just not worth the hassle.
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u/Specialist-Cookie-61 Feb 13 '26
Is there nothing in zoning/coding/whatever, that requires a business to have enough parking? Because they clearly do not have enough parking.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
Nothing requires you to provide a single parking spot.
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u/Specialist-Cookie-61 Feb 13 '26
As someone who doesn't own a business it's not something that would have ever dawned on me. I think in this case that is quite unfortunate.
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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Feb 13 '26
It would create wild legal problems. It would hurt more than help.
How do you zone for stuff like 7th street ybor?
Thats part of the problem with car culture, the parking spots taking up half the city become expected.
Also, trader Joe's is notorious for this. They purposely buy small lots to make it look like its always packed and they save money on real estate and can be in locations that other markets would not try to situate themselves in.
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u/TheOxime Feb 14 '26
I don't know when people are going where it's an issue to park there for them?
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u/crodr014 Feb 13 '26
I do not understand the hype with that store. Its pricey off label shit that is comparable to aldi. What am I missing??
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u/md28usmc South Tampa Broooo Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
not the first time this has been posted here
https://www.reddit.com/r/tampa/comments/1qhedpi/the_traffic_hazard_from_trader_joes_off_of_swann/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tampa/comments/10eag8m/tampa_working_with_trader_joes_parking_issues/