 There's a reason your Trader Joe's parking lot sucks. Trader Joe's is making their parking lots too small on purpose just so they seem more popular than they really are. And this, isn't it? The number of parking spaces allowed by the city is determined by the square footage of the store's selling area. So even though they may get similar foot traffic as a regular-sized grocery store, since they're typically smaller, it feels as if they're more crowded. So why not make the stores bigger? Well, Trader Joe's thinks it would feel like a different store. And they actually like how busy their stores are. To avoid the large crowds, the best time to shop are Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.