Trader Joe’s Serving East Pasadena Set to Move into Former How’s Market

A Trader Joe’s market serving East Pasadena’s southern flank is moving in the coming months to the former location of the popular How’s Market.

The familiar storefront is technically in the city of North San Gabriel, on the south side of Huntington Drive just east of Rosemead Boulevard.

The new location will be where How’s Market used to be, at 3035 E. Huntington Drive in Pasadena, about a mile from the current Trader Joe’s store’s location. The former How’s site is significantly larger and is supported by a larger parking lot.

How’s Market closed in 2014 after becoming a local fixture. For 15 years, it sat on a street corner that intersected Pasadena, San Gabriel and San Marino.

Trader Joe’s announced the new location last month on its website and said a grand opening date will be announced as soon as the date becomes available.

Trader Joe’s evolved from the chain of Pronto Market convenience stores which Joe Coulombe founded in 1958, and built its first store named Trader Joe’s on Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena in 1967. That store remains in operation today.

In the early decades of operation, some of Trader Joe’s stores offered fresh meats from butchers who leased space in the stores. At one time, they had sandwich shops, freshly cut cheese and freshly squeezed orange juice. According to the company website, Trader Joe’s sold every California wine available back in the late 60s and is still the place to go for all kinds of California wine available.

Theo Albrecht of Aldi Nord bought the company in 1979, although Coulombe stayed on board until 1987 when he was succeeded by John Shields. Shields spearheaded the company’s expansion beyond California, opening stores in Arizona in 1993 and in the Pacific Northwest two years later. In 1996, Trader Joe’s opened its first stores on the East Coast.

Consumer Reports magazine ranked Trader Joe’s the second-best supermarket chain in the U.S., after Wegmans. In 2014, the magazine listed it as the top-scoring supermarket chain.

For more information about Trader Joe’s, visit the company’s website, www.traderjoes.com.