After a long wait—some would say insufferable—Manhattan finally has its own Trader Joe's. With a huge array of its own private-label products, TJ's has long been known on the West Coast as a source for great, fresh and lower-priced items ranging from prepared foods to coffee, dips, spreads, chocolates and so on. Curiously, while TJ's can be found both on Long Island and Upstate, this will be the first location in NYC. In direct competition with the Union Square Whole Foods, TJ's will have a separate entrance next door for its wine store, to avoid falling afoul of New York's consumer-unfriendly liquor laws (which led to the closure of the Whole Foods wine store at Columbus Circle). Our verdict? It's long overdue. How rather amusing that TJ's Hawaiian-shirt wearing staff will be working in NYU's Palladium dorm building, which 20 years ago was the site of NYC's trendiest disco. In any event, this guarantees the NYU students upstairs as well as any surviving bohemian East Villagers an endless supply of affordable munchies. Maybe TJ's über-friendly attitude will spread to other grocery stores, but we doubt it. On the other hand, the cashiers probably won't greet you with "What's up, dude?" the way they do in southern California.