Where are the carts?

Trader Joe's mania jams The Woodlands: Scenes from an opening frenzy of grocerymadness

The line to get into the new Trader Joe's in The Woodlands stretched around thestore on opening day.
Trader Joe's fever was in the crowd.
Photo By Marlo Saucedo
Once you got to the front of the Trader Joe's line, greeters were there with atouch worthy of Hawaii.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
There wasn't a lot of room to move around on the opening day of the new TraderJoe's in The Woodlands.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
Getting to the front of the checkout was no easy task as Trader Joe's frenzyovertook The Woodlands.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
Still, many customers left satisified — with wine.
Photo By Marlo Saucedo

There was plenty of parking, but the line for the opening of the new Woodlands Trader Joe’s clearly began forming long before my 7:20 a.m. arrival. It already wound around the side of the store at that point.

By 8 a.m., the line had doubled back on itself. Shopping carts ran out at entry one-third of the way through the queue. Shoppers were meet as they entered the store by employees handing out Hawaiian leis.

The 13,500-square-foot store was impeccable, with colorful artwork depicting recognizable local vignettes on the wall, and creative signage everywhere above and among the products. Free reusable bags were given to shoppers as they crowded in.

“Every time we go back, we bring back Trader Joe’s. We served the Two Buck Chuck at our wedding!”

Cambria and Scott Merry, having visited the nearby Starbucks, held a spot toward the front of the line. They moved to The Woodlands three years ago from Austin, but are originally from California: “Every time we go back, we bring back Trader Joe’s. We served the Two Buck Chuck at our wedding!”

They also like the cat cookies, as well as the store’s selection of organic goods, salads, vitamins and supplements.

Mark and Amara Bacon, farther back in line, had only been to Trader Joe’s once before Friday morning, but they saw "some unique things” in that California vacation visit. They came to try the roasted seaweed snack and the Two Buck Chuck.

Woodlands resident Deborah Santesson remembers the Trader Joe’s in Portland, Oregon fondly, saying, “The house brands were so unique; the variety — and the organic items will give me a wider selection than just having H-E-B. And, Trader Joe’s has better prices than Whole Foods!”

What brought her to opening day? “I’m excited. I want to look at all the products — and I want to go shopping! I’m not much of a cook, and they have a lot of pre-made, pre-packaged meals I can buy.”

Sarah Sadlowski posed with “thumbs up” next to the extensive wine selection. Sadlowski is orginally from New Jersey, having moved to The Woodlands 18 years ago.

“My sister’s been sending me care packages all this time from New Jersey, and whenever we go back we pack a suitcase full of Trader Joe’s to being back here," she said. "I kept emailing the company, saying, ‘You’ve got to come to The Woodlands!’ I’ve been waiting 18 years for this!”

Corinna Cervantez, overhearing, added, “I thought five years was a long time to wait!” She and her husband moved to Tomball five years ago from Southern California. They’ve missed having Trader Joe’s.

"We’ve been riding them to come,” Certvantezes said.

Now they’re here, and the Cervantezes — and many Woodlands-area residents — are all smiles.

Insider Info

Wondering what the Trader Joe's fuss is about? There are resources for that.

Two years’ worth of Trader Joe’s product information rated by a husband-wife team can be found on the “What’s Good at Trader Joe’s?” blog. Who knew grocery shopping could be so absorbing?

On another popular blog, My Trader Joe’s List, visitors rate all the store's products. If that’s too much, however, The Daily Meal cuts to the chase with the top five appetizers, and top five vegetarian and breakfast products at Trader Joe's. (There’s even a section called “Worst. Stuff. Ever.” — so you’ll know what NOT to get.)

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red-hot housing

Houston boasts No. 20 hottest real estate market among big U.S. cities

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It doesn't get much hotter than the Houston housing market. A new report has ranked H-Town as the 20th best real estate market among America's biggest cities right now.

WalletHub's annual study, "Best Real Estate Markets (2026)," compares the real estate markets in 300 U.S. cities based on 17 relevant metrics, such as "housing market attractiveness," home value forecasts, housing affordability, population growth, and many others. Cities were also ranked by size: large cities with over 300,000 residents; midsize cities with 150,000-300,000 residents; and small cities with fewer than 150,000 residents.

In the overall ranking of the best housing markets in America, regardless of city size, Houston ranks 90th out of all 300 cities.

WalletHub ranks Houston's real estate market No. 102 nationally, and its "affordability and economic environment" ranks 111th overall.

This is how WalletHub ranks the "health" of Houston's housing market (where No. 1 is the best and No. 150 is average):

No. 51 – Job Growth Rate
No. 96 – Home Price as a Percentage of Income
No. 99 – Median Home-Price Appreciation
No. 128 – Foreclosure Rate
No. 159 – Share of Seriously Underwater Mortgages
No. 172 – Percentage of Delinquent Mortgage Holders
No. 173 – Median Days on the Market
No. 192 – Maintenance Costs as a Percentage of Income

Despite Houston's good standing among the biggest cities in America, a separate WalletHub report claims Houston is one of the worst cities for first-time homebuyers. Instead, Houstonians are turning to popular ZIP codes in suburbs like Cypress and Katy, which rank among the hottest places to move to in the U.S.

Other high-performing housing markets in Texas
Two popular North Texas suburbs — Frisco and McKinney — topped WalletHub's overall list of the best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026 at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, and they locked in the top two spots in the midsize city ranking, too.

Frisco tops the nationwide "affordability and economic environment" category, and ranks No. 2 nationally for its real estate market.

"When you look at home prices as a percentage of income, [Frisco] is the 95th-cheapest among the 300 cities in our study," the report said. "But it’s the 11th-cheapest city for phone service and the 11th-cheapest for maintenance and energy."

Frisco boasts the highest share of houses that were built between 2010 and 2024, at nearly 47 percent, which WalletHub says is "good news for people who want all the benefits of a recently-constructed home," without having to "put in a lot of work" to renovate an older or run down home.

"If you aim to make a profit in the long run with your housing purchase, you’ll need to look beyond tangible factors like square footage and style," the report's author wrote. "Those factors certainly drive up property values. From an investor’s standpoint, though, they hold less significance than historical market trends and the economic health of residents."

Nearby Denton and Allen also made the overall top 10, respectively ranking as the 5th and 8th best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026. Denton similarly ranked 5th in the midsize city rankings, and Allen topped the list of small cities.

The top 10 best real estate markets in America for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Frisco, Texas
No. 2 – McKinney, Texas
No. 3 – Murfreesboro, Tennessee
No. 4 – Durham, North Carolina
No. 5 – Denton, Texas
No. 6 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 7 – Madison, Wisconsin
No. 8 – Allen, Texas
No. 9 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 10 – Irvine, California

wallethub housing market real estate reports houston

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red-hot housing

Houston boasts No. 20 hottest real estate market among big U.S. cities