Trader Joe’s adds new Orlando and West Palm Beach stores in Florida

Trader Joe’s has put West Palm Beach on its public Coming Soon list and named an Orlando site at 1444 North Alafaya Trail, the clearest sign yet that Florida is becoming a bigger part of the chain’s 2026 buildout. The company is adding 18 stores in 12 states this year, and the two Florida sites give workers and shoppers a more concrete view of where the next wave is headed.

The Orlando store is slated for the Waterford Lakes area, in the former Party City space in the same plaza as Hobby Lobby, just under three miles from the University of Central Florida. The location page already labels it coming soon and says it will sell beer and wine. Orange County permitting records also point to 1444 North Alafaya Trail as the planned address, a sign that the project has moved well beyond a generic expansion note and into site-specific readiness.

West Palm Beach is farther along in the public pipeline. Trader Joe’s confirmed the store in the SoSo neighborhood at 8111 S Dixie Highway, where it is set to anchor an eight-story project with 350 apartments, retail space and 25% affordable housing. The address already appears on the company’s coming soon page, and Palm Beach Now reported the store would be the fifth Trader Joe’s in Palm Beach County, joining Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington.

For employees, the Florida push matters as much on the floor as it does on a map. Orlando adds another hiring lane in a state that already had 29 Trader Joe’s locations after late-2025 openings in Daytona Beach and Melbourne, and it creates more room for transfers, training and advancement as the company staffs another crew. In a chain known for above-market pay and a strong crew culture, every new store also means more competition for experienced mates and more chances for crew members to move up.

West Palm Beach, meanwhile, gives Trader Joe’s another foothold on Florida’s southeast coast and spreads the brand’s daily traffic across a denser residential corridor. The SoSo site sits inside a project built around apartments, retail and neighborhood foot traffic, which should make it a useful stop for nearby shoppers once the doors open. Together, Orlando and West Palm Beach show Trader Joe’s leaning harder into Florida’s biggest markets, with two addresses now serving as the next proof points in the company’s expansion.