Trader Joe’s and Starbucks Arrive on the Island

By Buelch Loudleigh, Food and Wine Editor

Shopper ready to fill cart

The Boston-based law firm of Bickers & Bickers, has announced the April 25^th signing of contracts with two major companies to open businesses on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Trader Joe’s, a Monrovia, California privately held company and Starbucks Corporation, a NASDAQ traded company based in Seattle, Washington have agreed to start operations within the fiscal year 2012.

Trader Joe’s founder, Joe Coulombe, is said to have developed the idea of the Trader Joe South Seas motif while on vacation on St. John in 1973. Work has already started on a 50,000 square-foot building in the back parking lot of The Marketplace. “We know that St. John has the sophistication and taste for up-scale food and wine at bargain prices.” The official announcement stated, “Products to be sold include gourmet foods, organic foods, vegetarian food, unusual frozen foods, imported foods, domestic and imported wine and beer, ‘alternative’ food items, and staples like bread, cereal, eggs, dairy, coffee and produce. Non-food items include personal hygiene products, household cleaners, vitamins, pet food, plants, and flowers.”

A relief for Virgin Islanders is that pricing will be the same as the state-side stores. “We expect a large number of consumers from St. Thomas to come to shop on St. John.”

Starbucks plans to fill the spot now occupied by Bougainvillea in Mongoose Junction. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with more than 17,000 stores in 55 countries, including over 12,500 in the United States, over 1,200 in Canada and over 700 in the United Kingdom, 54 in Russia and now St. John, Virgin Islands.

Kiosks for the new St. John International Airport and Bullet Train terminals have been staked out on the not-yet-published plans.

Dietin Soone spokeswoman for Bickers & Bickers, said that with proper support these initiatives will be ready to meet the needs of St. Johnians by year’s end. “St. John will never be the same,” she said.

Whole Foods must be just over the horizon.

Queen Elizabeth II Plans Diamond Jubilee Visit to St. John

By B. B. Brain, Society Editor

Her Majesty, HerSelf

During an official Diamond Jubilee visit to The British Virgin Islands, Queen Elizabeth is planning an unofficial visit to St. John. The demands of the four-month-long grand tour of the 16 countries that once made up the British Empire will leave the queen in search of a place to escape, revive and relax. The Diamond Jubilee Celebrations Committee announced that since she will be so close, the Queen and her retinue will sweep over to St. John after the massive Tortola parade on Sunday, April 1^st.

Queen spokesman, Fred Mercury, said that while most energetic celebrations would raise the dead, Her Majesty just wanted a place to be quiet. In search of something between a plywood-galvanized shack and a faux Santa Barbara mansion, Mr. Mercury found Seashore, the lovely home of Niles and Susan Chair. The Chairs have always been extremely generous in opening their home to charity events and visiting VIPs. Mrs. Chair said she would be delighted for the Queen to kick off her low heels and drop her purse and wide-brimmed hat for several days. “I know we can make her comfortable. I was just born knowing how to deal with royalty. And I love pastels,” said Mrs. Chair. “We hope her troubles will be miles away while visiting.”

On Monday evening a casual, sit-down dinner for 80 will be hosted by Elsa Engel, island resident and direct descendant of Ludwig II of Bavaria. The setting will be Mrs. Engel’s modest home that is based on the design of Neuschwanstein Castle and will be catered by Rich Lyminn. Mr. Lyminn, a descendant of nobility himself, has produced an 89-page manual on how to be casual. A running commentary on the event will be broadcast by St. Thomas radio fossils, Lee Coral and Eddie Oddly.

From here the Queen will rejoin the worldwide celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee that will continue through spring and early summer, culminating in a lavish ceremony in London on the anniversary of the June 1953 coronation.