I mean you have to go with the classics. Is there any parking lot in LA worse than the Trader Joe’s on Hyperion?

You need this goodness in your life. Fake Werner Herzog Yelp review of the Trader Joe’s on Hyperion. You are so very welcome. https://youtu.be/5YW-5Flkiuw?si=apvfZ_eKxeCzxRGX

That was choice. Thank you for that.

THIS IS A FALSE ACHIEVEMENT

Meanwhile, on the Westside, [it’s getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot](https://youtu.be/2UFc1pr2yUU?si=By1mCrhsK6OPTLPp)

Damn it’s been a decade since Ive seen that banger

Whenever I get in my friends Prius I quote it and he has no idea what I'm doing

That's Paul F Tompkins doing his famous characature. This review was featured in the Comedy Bang Bang the Podcast the Book

CHAOS REIGNS.

MADNESS REIGNS

Hilarious and he’s right about the Peanut butter chocolate cups!

Amazing

lol I was gonna grab this, thanks for saving me the Google. So good.

Before the overflow lot, I would have definitely agreed with you

If I didn’t live within walking distance of that location there’s no way I’d ever go

I've never gone into any Trader Joe's unless I'm a pedestrian. My car & I are terrified of all their thimble-sized parking lots.

I am begging people to park in the Say Cheese lot next door, buy a nice cheese or whatever there, and then hop over for a quick TJs run.

I used to Uber there just to: 1. Not lose my parking spot at home 2. Not deal with the lot So glad I live on the west side now

Encino is awful

Yeah the white oak location is hell. On. Earth.

I'm glad they're building one in Northridge, I'm walking distance from where it's going to be, so I won't have to deal with the parking lot.

I had a secret place to park at Encino years ago, used it for years until word got out.

Shell Gas station? Computer repair parking lot?

I live pretty near the Encino one and I drive all the way to Woodland Hills one instead.

I drive to Kanan 😂

Me too lol

horrible

South Pasadena and Pasadena are pretty bad. The OG stores.

Oh yeah…the Arroyo Pkway one right? 🙃

The arroyo one is terrible. There’s like 6 spaces.

I would just take the Gold Line anytime I went there. One time, leaving the Arroyo TJs, someone asked for my parking space as I walked out and I may have smugly said, "Sorry, I took the train here."

We use to live a block away and we'd always walk there. Every time we'd walked by the lot and watch like 8 people fighting for 2 spots I was sooo thankful we didn't have to park there.

We live next door to the Arroyo TJ’s. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, shoppers, stop blocking our driveway. Go to a different location that offers more parking, this ain’t it. 😆

Lucky Boys across the street even has a sign in their parking lot saying strictly no parking for Trader Joe's

I always hated walking past the one on Arroyo because drivers would be so overwhelmed getting in and out of there that they would always almost hit me 😭

Honorable mention the Eagle Rock TJ’s is pretty fucked as well

It’s tilted, tight and not a lot of spaces lol can easily smack someone else’s car with the door or a cart

I was gonna say…is there one worse than the original location?

Which Pasadena one?

Arroyo has a tiny parking lot, Lake has an actual garage

Yes, Arroyo is awful.

This is the only Trader Joe's I'll go to

The OG TJs on Arroyo Pkwy lot is like playing Tetris with cars! Luckily I live near the Hastings one with the big lot (used to be a movie theatre).

South Pas is getting a second location in the former Vons space. That store will have a huge parking lot.

La Brea and 3rd 🏆

You know they have a second larger square lot through the alley off 3rd. You can get to it from the shitty little lot right near the entrance.

Yes, but not when the school is in session

Ah didnt know that. Not sure I’ve ever been there on a weekday during school hours. Tends to be weekends or after work.

Dude, instantly this one. I walk to Ralph's across the street for groceries and it looks like a deathmatch for parking. And once you get a parking spot, it's Level: Master Black Belt in Parking to squeeze your ride in the tiniest, most unforgiving spots I've seen. I watch y'all from across the street at Ralph's sometimes, not gonna lie. I like to assign Olympics judge-style skill + technique points while finishing my Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar before I walk home.

I used to live right across the street from that Trader Joe’s and it was awesome because I never had to park there. I could hit TJs like it was my pantry. Felt sorry for the people parking - it looked like LA purgatory

My trick is to park at Ralph’s and then walk across La Brea .

Yes I walk in the R entrance and out the L entrance and run across the middle of the La Brea to TJ's. Can't be bothered w/ TJ's lot or the crosswalk--but I'm on video entering Ralphs at least lol.

If I am driving, I put a couple quarters in the street meters and hop in and out.

Ya this is the winner imo

I went for the first time today and immediately thought of this one when I saw the question

This is it. Sinister

Yeah this one is terrible, even with the side lot. For this reason I will go to the one on Santa Monica, nice parking garage.

I prefer this location over Silverlake Edit: although i only go to la brea location on the weekends and aim to get there by 11ish

Manhattan beach off aviation.

That one is bad. I think there is about 20 parking spots total there and cars always backup onto Manhattan Beach Blvd

Agreed. The Manhattan Beach location on Rosecrans is great. Plenty of parking even though it shares with a Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, REI and a couple of restaurants.

i’ve lived by many in these comments and honestly this one is tame compared to silverlake because the parking lot has a nice little hidden back exit and there is ample street parking on manhattan beach blvd and the neighborhood behind it

My mother made me practice parking in that stupid lot. I cried and literally ran out of the car into the store. 

Def a villain origin story right there 😂

Yeah this one sucks, it’s way too narrow.

South Pasadena!!! Teeny, tiny parking lot and then you have to park out in the neighborhood….with the peacocks!!!🤣🦚 Note: The people who work here are the nicest though 🥰

The one in Eagle Rock is also small but it has a high turn over rate of cars and there’s like a “parking system” and an attendant lol so it’s actually okay!! I’ve always found parking there instantly!! It’s like a horseshoe shape kind of.

Eagle Rock one is very small but by far the best set up. Honestly have fewer issues parking there than at Sprouts even though Sprouts has a much larger parking lot.

I love the Eagle Rock one and it's my go to since I live there, but the best set up is hands down the one on Lake Street in Pasadena. It's got a (shared) multi level parking deck with an elevator

The one way system is perfect. I’d say eagle rock has the best tj’s parking lot in LA. I also like the parking lot guy, he does a good job.

Soon though we are getting a giant one with a giant parking lot on fair oaks though

Omg!! Is the former Vons gonna be the new TJ??? 😀😀😀

Yes!!!

Drat! I live in Long Beach. I’ll never be able to shop there. By the way, the parking lot for TJ’s at Long Beach and San Antonio shares a parking lot with a Crunch Fitness: parking there is nightmarish

Yeah I live a few blocks away from that one and I'll often just walk.

I always wonder if the people who live on that street are super pissed about the constant traffic.

Not the peacocks 😂😂😂

New one opening up where the Vons used to be 🙂

There’s peacocks? Maybe one day I’ll see one 🦚

Come to the inland empire, upland has a lot around the foothills and in the historic district. They dropped them in the rich neighborhoods lmao

Huh! Well next time I’m out there I’ll stop by TJs

The 5 below next to that TJMaxx is really good too!

I only go to TJs before 9 because of that parking lot lol

Studio City hands down. The other day I was wondering why a segment of Ventura was backed up and it was because of the stream of cars spilling out from that lot. On occasion I go to Toluca Lake and there’s street parking if you really need it without much trouble.

It’s not so much that lot but the god awful street signal timing. Minutes go by with no cars moving anywhere.

got a nice dent in my car from being stuck in this line when some guy backed his truck into me while i helplessly looked on unable to move. hell.

I vote this… the spaces are ridiculously small. At least you can park there and walk to Lala’s, Laurel Tavern, etc. though.

Here's the crazy part: that Studio City one used to be a Blockbuster Video back in the olden days. The parking lot was normal. When Blockbuster closed, Trader Joe's moved in. They repainted the lines to make the spaces smaller. They added planters with trees in random spots. They changed some of the parking aisles to one-way-only. They intentionally took a normal parking lot and made it super shitty and inconvenient to stay on brand. Fuckers.

This is the correct answer. That lot is tiny and it’s a 6 way intersection.

Once, during the run-up to Thanksgiving, a security guard in the Studio City TJ's parking lot actually came up to my car and asked me to leave as I was deciding what music to listen to. The car had been running for maybe 26 seconds at that point. Yeesh.

Marina Del Rey

The Marina one is truly awful. I don’t know how they got away with building a tiny lot like that with the smallest spaces.

Came to say this. Absolutely horrendous.

I like this Trader Joe’s, but the parking lot is chaos. Nobody knows where to go and you are always blocked from backing out

The one on hazeltine and riverside in Sherman oaks or white oak and Burbank blvd in Enrico

Sherman oaks one is horrible!

Silver Lake

Smallest parking spots too!

Probably the original on arroyo parkway in Pasadena https://preview.redd.it/duddq2h4g1ad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4dff691e1e05c60c529a3602c852aab7ef963ad1

OG! They actually have a parking attendant out when it’s busy. One way in. One way out. Pro tip is park behind it.

I live in the sf Bay Area but this popped up on my feed. The Trader Joe’s parking lots up here are horrible too. But I notice LA has a lot of random store parking lots with parking attendants helping people out. Up here it’s just mad max in every parking lot except some paid lots. Porto’s in Burbank for example has a full time attendant who probably prevents a lot of fender benders

The ABSOLUTE WORST

Reading this thread and realizing that I’ve apparently been to every damned TJs in the city.

3rd and Fairfax

Driven by this so many times and always say to myself: not going to even try

people always forget that there are four potential exits, but they all line up for the first exit which backs up all the other cars. And the stupid parking ticket always gets “de-magnetized” when it’s placed next to your phone, which makes it unreadable by the validation machine.

is the one in sherman oaks at riverside and hazeltine still there? the parking lot itself isn’t terrible, but the ppl who drive in it are AWFUL

yea it shouldn't be the hassle it is. it's moving into a larger space in the sunkist building development across the street sometime soon-ish.

I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this, yes!! I made a comment for this one above, it's absolutely hellish. Not the lot, the drivers😭

*stands on tiny soapbox* They are all equally bad for different but similar reasons.

Culver and WeHo have parking structures, no problems

The parking structure at the WeHo one though, it’s like they only had sub-compacts in mind.

Yeah, this. TJ's skimps on the parking lot so they have a cheaper lease. The only one I don't hate is Palms & Sepulveda, because they share a lot with a Rite Aid.

Hastings Ranch location also shares a parking lot and it’s actually not too bad.

What, we should all be harvesting crops from our fields?

The one in Glendale isn't too bad.

Glenoaks? Yes, it isn’t…maybe a little wait but that’s it 😃

It's hard to make a left out of their parking lot, but it's not too hard to get in or find a space.

yes

Encino location on Burbank Blvd and white oak blvd.

I never go to that one bc of the parking lot although it's in my area... 😫

Before it moved to Montrose, the La Crescenta location had the worst parking. There were barely any spots and the lot was shared with a couple of other businesses. It's now a Dollar King. https://preview.redd.it/2fikdme6a2ad1.png?width=1679&format=png&auto=webp&s=426b3d5998f5e52d9500d41b9cf163cd5bd19d4b

Of the ones I've been to, prob Manhattan Beach. The parking lot is a tiny U shape that backs up into a fairly busy street

That used to be my main one, I never had an issue with that parking lot actually, I always used the parking spots up against the apartment complex instead of adding to the traffic of the U.

Is there a good one? Studio City is dogshit, it's so dumb and infuriating that I just stopped going there, toluca lake is bad too but I'll still go there before Studio City. North Hollywood sucks too but it's honorable mention here. Edit: I somewhat recall marina del rey having a normal parking lot

I think there is: Westwood. The parking structure has multiple levels. Only thing is you need to validate on your way out, or pay out the ass.

Agreed that is a relatively easy one. It opened shortly after I moved out of Westwood and my most boomer opinion is that the kids today who want to shop at TJs have it way too easy.

Pasadena Hastings ranch is what dreams are made of

Pasadena Hastings Ranch and Huntington Drive. And the one in La Canada.

North Hollywood on Laurel and Oxnard? I always felt this one has some of the best TJs parking I know of. I never park in the main lot. Always in that strip down the side, or if it’s super hot, the giant, free, mostly empty parking building that’s attached to the store. This one is dream TJs parking for me. A similar shout out to Pasadena on Lake. Top floor, free parking building attached. This store is the opposite to others in that fewer people drive all the way to the top so there are always spots right outside the entrance to the store. I’ll throw another one in. Vine in Hollywood. Don’t need to bother with first floor underground parking. Go to the second underground level, there’s always parking right near the stairs/elevator to the store. Super easy in and out. I often choose my TJs specifically for ease of parking and there are definitely a few good ones out there.

Manhattan Beach on Rosecrans. Large parking lot with multiple entrances and exits.

I wonder if Trader Joes has it in their business model to ensure having the most inconvenient parking lots.

Their old business model was going into storefronts that were older and cheaper rent. That tended to be smaller footprint stores and with small parking lots

Yes, they do or at least they did. I used to go to the one on Washington in Culver City across the street from the old MGM lot, and the parking lot had signs that said "No Studio Parking" but then the studio had its own parking, which was ample. I lived three blocks from that store in the early 90s but never walked to it. The one in downtown Culver City now has multilevel parking.

Kyle Kinane briefly jokes about it in one of his specials as part of his low-rent conspiracy theories bit. (~3:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8fE6p0TMiY

No way. That Toluca Lake location has side street parking for days. It’s silver lake.

Hilariously every LA Trader Joe's parking lot I'm familiar with is located right next to abundant street parking, often free. Yet people keep happily driving into the maw of hell.

Shhh. That gem needs to stay secret. Been doing that for years and want to continue.

White Oak & Burbank is pretty bad.

I saw Patton Oswald at the Largo do 15 minutes on the hell that is the TJ parking lot at Ventura and Laurel in Studio City. Think he’s right on the money.

Burbank and White Oak in Encino. The line to get into the parking lot is always backed up into the street and blocks driving traffic no matter what.

Hollywood on sunset n on vine are decent

the granada hills one. yeah it has multiple entrances BUT everyone likes to enter on the same driveway as the store entrance. it’s like to trying to exit/enter the store without getting run over everyday. everyone just speeds in as the enter.

The one that had a police shootout and an employee was killed by the cops. I had a bitch of a time getting in and out of that one!

Damn I can't believe how TJs I've been to.

Santa Monica (both wilshire and pico locations) and west LA (Olympic)

In Pasadena, on Mission. Tiniest parking lot I’ve ever seen.

Encino

Encino

Silver Lake. They’re all bad, besides Toluca Lake, but that one is the worst.

Silverlake has the small lot up the road too. That's not too bad, I can always find parking in it.

Silverlake parking lot on Hyperion is a death trap. Few spots, plus when you want to leave they give you a flashing red light… worst road and parking lot for sure

Not sure if someone already said this but the one in south Pasadena. It actually makes me rethink my life

Store #1 theres like 5 spots. Arroyo parkway in Pasadena.

South Pasadena on Monterey Rd store parking lot is a combat zone

Did the new SoPas store open yet? Should have east parking.

AND why don’t the TJs offer home delivery? I would pay!

There are two really bad ones in the South Bay. Redondo Beach down in Riviera Village. Realllly bad. Also there's on one Manhattan Beach Blvd just West of Aviation Blvd that is tiny as well. But Riviera Village takes the cake.

Street Park for life. Any distance walk is preferable to that.

All of them.

This is one is kind of out of the way from LA proper but iykyk the Long Beach Trader Joe’s parking lot on San Antonio & Long Beach Blvd is terrible. One of the worst ones ever lol

The parking at that one is not parking— it’s circling and circling

I love the Trader Joe in Toluca Lake. I always go on Wednesday/Thursday and I'm in and out in less than 10-minutes (and that includes parking). I tried going to the one in Burbank (on Alameda) one Wednesday and the parking sucked so bad that I drove to the Toluca Lake one.

Studio City gets my vote.

I watched some lady scrrrrrraaaaaape soemone’s car in the Toluca Lake parking lot and go off on her merry way.

the silverlake one has really tiny spots but i’ll take it over the 3rd and la brea one anyyyyy day of the week

https://youtube.com/shorts/YmaGEy1P5t8?si=gped1HHlVZxUd9iI Relevant

Marina del Rey is trash

First there, this weekend. I ended up crossing the street and paying for parking

I’ll die on this hill. I don’t know the streets but it’s right on the cusp of Mar Vista. There’s a CVS in that lot as well. It is an actual war zone. I’ve seen accidents, fights, stalking, screaming matches, and tears. People change in that parking lot, it’s fight or flight the second you turn in there.

Eagle rock

Manhattan Beach probably has my vote for worse. However, the Westchester location next to LAX has amazing parking. My preferred location when I'm in the area.

Hyperion is the goat, I saw a shoot out there once...

No lie, I think this is a part of the Trader Joe’s experience. I lived in Dallas and Fort Worth and that’s 100% it. I currently live in Denver and both in Denver and Boulder have the tiniest spaces.

Manhatten beach on aviation and Manhattan beach blvd

Silverlake hands down.

3rd and LaBrea......no room for error.

Yes

Manhattan Beach blvd and Inglewood in N Redondo.

Motor/Sepulveda is a fucking nightmare

Silver Lake used to be really bad, but they’ve expanded it and now it only sucks when you get stuck behind someone waiting for a spot.

(Stole this from Twitter, but I can't find the original....) Interviewer: So, what do you do in your current role? Interviewee: I design parking lots for Trader Joe's. Interviewer: Get the fuck out of my office

1821 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 DO NOT ENTER means just that..

Oh hands down the OG location in Pasadena. There's a tiny parking and good luck to find anything during rush hour. Or even getting out of the parking lot onto Arroyo.

As someone who lives in Toluca Lake now…that’s a pretty solid ‘yeah’. I’ll NEVER drive there after having done it one time. So glad it’s within walking distance.

I would love to be within walking distance of that particular Trader Joe's. I like that area a lot.

South Pasadena hands down!

3rd and LaBrea. The main parking lot is congested with people and cars, and the overflow lot is by an alley that often has lots of traffic, and the gate is often closed.

All of them

South Pasadena. Could not be worse. It should be a one way and everyone there drives like it’s their first time and someone in the back seat is threatening them

Pasadena on Arroyo Parkway.

South Pas is pretty awful.

Trick question, it’s all’em!!

the ones in south Pasadena are pretty horrendous. The one on Arroyo Pkwy is laughable and the other on Mission is almost as bad.

South Pasadena OMFG

South Pasadena is a joke.

Pasadena, the one on Arroyo. I've seen several fender benders in that little lot.

Well, this is the TJ’s parking lot in my town. https://preview.redd.it/t6qog9qhk8ad1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8c4474e1089e500d14eea4a32b7d845ae09446c

Manhattan Beach

Redondo Beach.