By Gus Saltonstall
It happened under the cover of darkness.
A new escalator was delivered in the middle of the night to the temporarily closed Trader Joe’s at Broadway and West 72nd Street.
The delivery took place around 1 a.m. on Friday, according to the photo and eyewitnesses.
“My husband was walking by Trader Joe‘s at 1 a.m. last night and snapped this picture of a new escalator being delivered,” Iris Engelson wrote in an email to West Side Rag.
The Trader Joe’s location has been closed since May 17 for “major renovation plans.” Among the stated renovations at the time of closure were upgrades to “vertical transportation,” which refers to the escalators and elevators.
Over the past couple of years, the escalators at the 72nd Street and Broadway store would routinely be out of service, including in February of 2025, when the escalator cart was out for an extended period of time as the store waited for a part from China to fix the equipment, according to a Trader Joe’s employee.
At the time of closure, Trader Joe’s said the store would be shuttered for “several months,” but did not specify a timeline beyond that.
West Side Rag reached out to Trader Joe’s this week to see if we could get an update or expected timeline for the reopening, but the business did not respond.
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How do they even…well hats off to them.
You live right there, you can ride the escalator up and down then comment on here about how you’re right about everything.
If I’m riding escalators wrong, well then I don’t want to be right.
This somehow brings to mind an old country song by somebody or other. I don’t think it is about elevators or escalators though. Maybe the DAY has arrived. We should have a contest or something about that, with vertical transportation in buildings as the song theme. It could take off!
Not to put too fine a point on it, but — huh?
My sentiment exactly!
Thank you for posting this comment. My thought exactly
Something about a birdhouse in your soul.
😉
It should give the renovation a lift.
I hear they now have a new frozen entree too. The pack of six nothing burgers.
I feel that escalators should be referred to as “diagonal transportation.”
Who opens first: TJ’s or Wegman’s? Place your bets!
TJ’s will! I heard that Wegman’s has No intention of opening up any time in the near future although they still have the lease. They are concentrating on the one downtown. It’s ridiculous. They need to take down their window advertising, if that’s the case.
Good one, Wegman’s will never open until the messiah comes. LOL
Have you been to the UWS? There are plenty of signs saying the Messiah is here!
I DO think TJ’s will reopen before Wegman’s. But also THIS WEEK, numerous reports have been circulating saying that Wegman’s has changed its mind and is working to actually open the Lincoln Center store – hopefully by Spring! That’s exciting, huh?
My dad, took out an ad in the NY Times announcing his engagement to his girlfriend he noted, “A spring wedding is planned.”
Yes, you know the rest of the story. They never married, he bought her an apartment but they never married.
Where did these reports originate from?
Wegman’s executive at a suburban store told me months ago that Wegmans has no plans to open. He said they misjudged the number of nearby grocery options (lots) and decided it was less loss to just let the lease run out without the construction and operating costs of actually opening.
Yes, and the problem is that NY allows owners to take a deduction for empty storefronts — INSTEAD of TAXING THEM for leaving storefronts empty in the city that needs retail spaces OPEN and functioning. The City Council and Mayor need to change this obsenity but they are too indebted to developers donations. This is an egregious system that has made Fresh Direct and Amazon more money and continues to crowd the streets and pollute our air.
Please stop with this myth – It has been debunked over and over again. Landlords don’t profit from keeping a space vacant and there is no tax advantage for them. Like anyone else, a landlord can deduct actual losses from income – same as you and i can.
If a landlord owns multiple properties, they are able to use real losses (i.e. actual, out-of-pocket carrying costs such as property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs) from the vacant property to offset income from their other properties but this DOES NOT INCLUDE the ability to deduct rent that is never collected.
If the landlord only owns a single property then they likely depend on the rent to cover their expenses and to generate income. If this is the case, there is no other income to offset the losses.
Plus, you are missing a key fact in the Wegmans scenario. According to what I have read, Wegmans signed a lease with the landlord. If it is true that they are paying rent (even if they haven’t opened), the landlord is getting paid, so there are likely no tax write-offs (and we don’t know anything about what the lease says if Wegmans remains dark).
Sorry but those old stories about tax advantages of not renting are just not true. The truth is more nuanced. Landlords often have lines of credit with a bank. The value of the building is calculated by the bank on the potential rental rates. So, if the owner rents for a below market rent, the bank will reduce the line of credit and may ask for instant repayment of any amount of money above the new lowered value of the building, oftentimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, you see it’s not as simple as ‘blame the greedy landlord..” Most of the complex issue is based on the bank’s calculations. If a landlord rents below what the bank ‘thinks they should be getting’ it produces an immediate cascade of financial demands that most landlords could not cover.
Oh, no!
Wegmans has no plans to open. If you go to their website they list Future Store Locations and there is no mention of it.
It will TJ’s as re-oprning. Wegmans isn’t going to happen anytime soon. They’re focusing on the location they have downtown. They said it themselves quite awhile ago.
Are they going to upgrade the horizontal trans-planar latitudo-longitudinal mono-hominid bio-kinetic thrust transportation?
Yes, more small carts!
Yes, they are going to upgrade it by installing steps.
I am greatly reassured by Trader Joe’s replacing its escalators. Every time I was there I was afraid about the Gen Z’ers who would be trapped on the escalator if it went out, with nothing but their AirBuds to listen to and their TicTocs to read until they were rescued.
It’s the SNL sketch all over again, oh no!
yeah, because they don’t know how to climb stairs…
@Cato As a boomer let me correct you. It’s air PODS, not buds. And it’s not spelled TicToc, it’s TIK TOK, which you listen to and watch, not read. This is why there must be term limits in all branches of government! 🙂
Wow
I think she’s kidding… you can’t really get stuck on an escalator lol
Probably the biggest news on the UWS in a while. My hair is on fire!!!
So they took delivery of the escalator during the night … ? This is a plot? I am not seeing what is the point here.
Oh, come on, you don’t think it’s interesting to see how they install something like that?
It’s a mundane thing which many on the uws are on the edge of their seats for. So it’s a bit of playing to the audience and tongue in cheek spicing up of an otherwise very boring story that isn’t even news. But it is here, because we say it is darnit! So might as well deliver it as such! 😀
I rode by Thursday morning around 5:15am – Several guys busy at work.
Really sad about this. The old escalator was the most quaint item on the UWS. And the operator Maurice was such a gem.
You can ride the elevators at Fairway if you need a retro fix.. They have been renovated this century but they can still take you back to the 1990s more quickly than they can get you to the second floor.
I am surprised to know TJ buys escalators from China instead of buying Made in America like Otis.
You know that Trader Joe’s is not an american company right? It is actually german now.
Since 1979.
How else would they keep food items cheap?
I sure hope they plug it in once or twice before the reopening, but what I really want to know is will there be a special edition Trader Joe’s tote bag for the reopening.
The old escalator was malfunctioning on the day this Trader Joe’s originally opened. Let’s see if they get it right this time.
Would you prefer another boring news day? Or don’t we have those anymore.
The subway was a draaaaag this morning. What say you?
I pray they’ve redesigned the idiotic layout of the main floor
Wow-Amazon delivers ANYTHING!
Thank you for that laugh!
To the person who is surprised TJ would buy something from China, would you also be surprised to know that it is privately owned by Aldi Nord, the German supermarket group.? Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joe’s from its founder, Joe Coulombe, in 1979. So it is not new news. But if you did not know here goes the dream of the Wild West!
Lawyers at work – you want it delivered when there are few pedestrians for you to smack in the head with it. I know my people …
That escalator looks suspiciously like the Trojan Horse’s kid sister.
Thanks to Yvonne for pointing out so gracefully that Nothing is not nothing and a bench beneath a leafy bough is really Something.
Did you mean to post this on Yvonne’s article, or in response to the TJ’s elevator article?
In response to Yvonne’s. My error.
Thank you! Even though there’s no information about how much longer we all have to wait. Arghhh!!!
Does anyone know if all the employees went to other locations? I hope so.
They all had the option to go to other locations. Some of them chose to take the time off instead, including one that I know of who is in an Off-Broadway show (limited run)
An issue that has never (to my knowledge) been addressed: why does Citarella on 75th/Broadway not even have an elevator, so that people who are unable to climb stairs have access to all the goodies on the second floor, including cheese, coffee, and pastries? It is unfair and such a pity for customers who very much want to purchase items only available on the second floor. Is this ageism? What about people with disabilities? What about parents with strollers?