Trader Joe’s Is Coming to Assembly Square

Trader Joe’s ‘Two Buck Chuck’ Wine by Dallas_Foodie on Flickr/Creative Commons / Trader Joe’s Bohemian Lager by Ted Thompson on Flickr/Creative Commons

Over the weekend, it became a little bit easier to imagine living in Assembly Square. The mixed-use neighborhood has been enticing residents with a new Orange Line station, and more housing, retail, Legoland, and restaurants in the Assembly Row development for the past several years, but it still lacks a nearby grocery store. Trader Joe’s announced it will fix that late next year.

The Tiki-themed kingdom of nut butters, worldly convenience food, sulfate-free cosmetics, and snacks will open its 19th Massachusetts location in a a strip mall in Assembly Square by October 2017. Trader Joe’s will take over the soon-to-shutter Sports Authority at 133 Middlesex Ave.

“[The area is] filled with foodies and we think it is a great fit for us,” a company spokesperson told the Somerville Journal.

The new location will span 12,500 square feet, the Boston Globe reported, including a beer and wine department. The California-based chain sources products, including beer and wine, and sells them under its own house labels to keep prices low, and also offers imported, national, and local booze. The Trader Joe’s outlet on Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, and the Framingham store sell beer and wine, while three other Massachusetts locations sell beer, wine, and liquor.

Trader Joe’s, coming to 133 Middlesex Ave., Assembly Square, Somerville, late 2017, traderjoes.com.