By Gus Saltonstall
For around the past month, the cart escalator at the 72nd Street and Broadway Trader Joe’s has been out of order.
West Side Rag has learned that China literally plays a part in its delayed reopening.
“Our cart escalator is out of order for the time being, please plan your shopping accordingly,” reads a sign in front of the escalator, which is also blocked by a wall of shopping bins and a yellow “Do Not Enter” covering.
For those who are not familiar, a cart escalator transports your shopping cart down and up levels as you take an adjacent regular escalator.
“I don’t know, we’re waiting for a part from China,” a Trader Joe’s employee told the Rag when asked if there was a timeline for when the cart escalator would be fixed.
The “plan your shopping accordingly” message on the out-of-order sign refers to the new decision that Upper West Side shoppers are now forced to make.
The question becomes, is it worth getting a shopping cart if it means having to wait for the elevator to reach the bottom floor of products, or should you try your luck at carrying everything you need in a handheld shopping bin?
The regular escalators in the store (for people) are still all in service.
The necessity of now needing an elevator to reach the lower floor also means you generally join an elevator line that can be rather slow moving during peak times, as the elevator can only fit two shopping carts at its capacity.
The downstairs level has many of the frozen meals, vegetables, condiments, tuna cans, desserts, chips, coffee, and more.
“I always opt for the shopping bin because I don’t want to get more than I can carry home,” one Trader Joe’s customer, who did not want to be named, told West Side Rag. “But, I do see how the loss of the escalator could deter someone from doing a larger shop.”
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If you don’t make things in the USA this is the result. Wait until you cant get basic medication.
Bill W,
Lots of medicines cause harm, generally herbs are safer and of more effective.
However try getting a battery powered drill not made in China, there’s only Festool and Fein, both German and much more expensive. (Bet some part of Dewalt’s tools comes from China.)
Milwaukee manufactures at least some of their power tools in the USA, in addition to China, Mexico and Germany.
Porter Cable manufactures their tools in China and Mexico.
I couldn’t find anything that indicates specifically where either company’s battery powered drills are made. But if you’re willing to expand your horizons to include power tools in general, getting ones not made in China appears to be doable.
Below I forgot to mention: Milwaukee is part of a large Hong Kong based company. This is not new.
Milwaukee does NOT manufacture its tools in the USA.
In the past, it used some rebranded German tools.
PorterCable is wholly owned by Black and Decker, which also owns Dewalt, and I mentioned Dewalt above.
I named 2 tool companies that make battery powered tools in Germany, though the batteries are either from S. Korea or China.
I hope this story gets picked up by the larger mainstream media. This is really huge.
In related news, UWS residents with Hamptons houses can breathe easier. You won’t have to scramble to find new “help”: https://nypost.com/2025/02/06/us-news/east-hampton-officials-reassure-residents-that-officers-wont-deport-illegal-migrants/
Here is Joe again, trading jokes.
The escalator was out of order for months! Sure, let’s blame China, not mismanagement.
When America is made great again we won’t have these problems
Since I live alone, I don’t need a shopping cart, I just use a basket. But here is a simple solution. Go downstairs first with one or two baskets, fill them up, come back upstairs, transfer the items to a shopping cart, and then finish getting your items on the top floor.
Excellent suggestion!! Thank you!
What is it with the current mentality? Every problem and even a tiny snag is blamed on someone else, even a different country in this case.
What happened to personal responsibility and accountability?
You want them to…machine their own parts?
I want them to…implement proper backup and procurement procedures.
Then you get mad when prices go up.
Maybe Americans should start using the stairs anyway, they would be healthier and thinner.
Yeah! These lazy shopping carts should just take the stairs!
Eat less, your shopping carts would be lighter.
Escalators at Columbus Circle subway stop are also not working (for weeks). Can I get a conspiracy theorist to comment?
Weeks?! More like six or more months.
It’s hard to imagine factors such as —
“Chaos and confusion as USPS halts, then resumes parcels from China” (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/americans-likely-to-pay-more-wait-longer-for-online-orders-from-china/)
“US Shoppers Face Fees of Up to $50 or More to Get Packages From China” (https://www.wired.com/story/tariffs-china-prices-fees-shein-temu/)
— would have anything to do with the delay, but maybe.
Just remember, though, tariff pain is good, and that comes straight from the big boss.
Nice try politicizing a trivial issue. The escalator was out of service for some time, way before the “big boss” came to the picture.
Politicizing? Me? I can’t take credit for another biped’s work: it was the POTUS, or maybe the co-POTUS, who turned ordering goods from China into such an absurd, nationwide FUBAR. (Just wait until Canada & Mexico are dragged into this!) True, some folks find it hard to connect the dots between the goings-on D.C. and events at home, but let’s hope none of them are lurking here. I’m merely a concerned citizen pointing out what ought to be the obvious.
What matters is not when the escalator went kaput but rather how long it will take to receive the crucial part now that it’s not the only system mucked up.
“Trivial” issues are those that don’t affect us personally, yes?
I was counting the seconds until the usual political comment would show up. Please stop defining yourself only and solely through your political views, its exhausting.
Be prepared to pay ten percent more for your part.
I’m wondering if WSR is also waiting for the part from China to fix their Reply button from mobile devices.
““I don’t know, we’re waiting for a part from China,” a Trader Joe’s employee told the Rag when asked if there was a timeline for when the cart escalator would be fixed.”
That’s pretty hearsay-y to base a headline on, much less additional coverage by “larger mainstream media.”
I was never a huge Joe’s fan. I’ve read where they source some of their foods. Their frozen is just off brands with their own packaging. Their loose bins of nuts and pretzels and other stuff is underwhelming.
I shopped Fairway all these years. (I go back way before they were a big grocery store – all the way back to when the A & P used to be near Columbus and 69th – ages ago) but when I moved up to 76th St we had both Fairway and the West Side Market. With the WS Market gone we were pretty happy with Fairway. And they’ll deliver if you can’t carry it all.
Serves TJ right, for discontinuing their ginger clusters cereal. I’ve switched to Whole Foods
Sad that we cannot function without them.
Let this be a lesson to business owners.
Can’t we blame Trump for this?
Let’s get reimbursed from Trump. He asked extra 10% tax surcharge to China on trade deficit.
Sure, just fill out the convenient reimbursement form at your nearest unclosed federal office — but act now!
I take a basket downstairs and then switch to a cart to do more shopping upstairs. Works fine.
Just go to the TJ on 93rd on Columbus with everything on one floor, nicer people who know wht they have, and shorter lines!
Why doesn’t Whole Food offer delivery unless you shop online?
I love how some people are advertising the workaround of taking a basket downstairs and then switching to the cart on the main floor as if it is a major breakthrough. Gee, we didn’t think of that.
Besides it is nothing but a hack; the escalator remains broken, and has been out of order for a long time.
It is like saying – I lost the key from the front door, but I’m fine using the window.
Anytime I am at TJ 72nd one of the regular escalators is also broken. Last week it was the down,. Today, Friday it is the up and my knees just can’t take those steps. Very annoying, which is why I stick to the 93rd & Columbus store if I can.
I guess TJs 72 has so much business that they don’t need to solve the problem.
If the escalator works up, but not down, could some TJ’s employees bring a bunch of carts downstairs before opening or after closing so that people could just do their shopping in reverse? It’s much easier and space effective to get 5 empty carts down an elevator than 5 full ones… I wonder if that could be a short term, albeit annoying, solution for the busier times of day.
what are the less busy times someone mentioned?
Was just there this morning… the up escalator from the bottom floor was busted, had to walk (not at all easy for me at my age and with bad spinal stenosis).
I thought I was reading an article from The Onion
Counting our blessings in the TJ location on Columbus and 93rd, where all is one level. Accessible in more than one way!
Speaking of accessibility at that store, where the checkout line often snakes around the aisles: The line monitor often watches for standees with canes and walkers and beckons them to the head of the line. Nice.