Trader Joe’s in Anneslie stirs debate over Baltimore City location

Trader Joe’s is taking over the former 12,200-square-foot Party City space at Anneslie Shopping Center, 6311 York Rd., a site that sits right on the Baltimore City-Baltimore County line in Lake Walker. The move has reopened a familiar Baltimore argument: whether the city got the grocery amenity residents have asked for, or a technically city location that still works best for drivers.

Leslie Gray Streeter’s criticism centers on that divide. She argues the new store is not the urban, central location Baltimore residents had wanted, but one tucked into a shopping-center parking lot on the edge of the city, in a setting that looks and functions more like a suburban stop than a neighborhood-serving market. That distinction matters in Baltimore, where access to a full-service grocer can depend on whether people can reach it on foot, by transit, or only by car.

Trader Joe’s announced the new Baltimore-area location Thursday, but had not shared an opening date. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its store directory lists the Baltimore-Anneslie location as store No. 883, and the chain’s Maryland locations page includes Baltimore and Towson-area stores.

The new shop would be Trader Joe’s 12th location in Maryland, adding another branded grocery stop to a corridor already shaped by auto access and regional retail traffic. For Baltimore leaders, that makes the Anneslie site an example of how investment can be counted inside city limits without necessarily landing in the kind of dense, walkable neighborhood that city shoppers had in mind when they asked for a Trader Joe’s.