New stores: Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe’s to add to their location counts

The new year brings with it plenty of new  grocery  stores around the country.

Both Sprouts Farmers Market and Trader Joe’s recently announced new market locations.

Phoenix-based Sprouts, which opened a new store in Nashville last Friday, plans to open a store in Surprise, Arizona, about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix, on Feb. 3. The store will host grand opening events during its first weekend, with the first 200 shoppers receiving “Goodness it’s Free” goodie bags filled with product samples. There will also interactive, educational activities such as games, face painting and seasonal fruit taste-testing.

The new store in Surprise will donate food to St. Mary’s Food Bank through Sprouts’ Food Rescue program.

“Grocery stores are essential to a healthy and vibrant community, and this Sprouts location is coming to an area that is booming with growth and prime for expanded services,” Surprise Mayor Skip Hall said in a statement. “I am happy to know residents will have access to the fresh meal options that Sprouts provides.”

Sprouts has also announced that it is looking to hire about 100 full- and part-time department managers, cashiers, courtesy clerks and others for a new store in Stockton, California. That location is slated to open on March 10.

Sprouts, which sells natural and organic foods, employs about 31,000 workers at 380 stores in 23 states.

Trader Joe's is opening a new store in Glastonbury, Connecticut next month. / Photo courtesy: Trader Joe's

Monrovia, California-based Trader Joe’s is also adding to its store count.

The grocer has announced plans to open a new store in Glastonbury, Connecticut, on Feb. 2, along with a market in Draper, Utah, on an as-yet-undisclosed date this year.

The new Connecticut Trader Joe’s is about 15 minutes from Hartford. In November, Trader Joe’s opened another New England location, with a store in Providence, Rhode Island. The Glastonbury store will be the grocer’s ninth location in Connecticut.

Trader Joe’s, which opened its first store in 1967, now operates more than 500 locations around the country.