By Clyde Noel

Crew member Joshua Hammond greets a customer at Trader Joe’s in Los Altos.

Local grocery shoppers whose taste buds jump at the chance to sample exotic foods have a new place to shop.

At 9 a.m. last Thursday, Trader Joe’s opened its doors to become the anchor tenant in the transformed Foothill Crossings Shopping Plaza on Homestead Road.

“Welcome to the new Los Altos showcase,” said Joshua Hammond, first mate/assistant manager for the store. “Trader Joe’s crew members are friendly, knowledgeable and happy to see their customers. They taste their items so they can discuss them with their customers.”

Crew members Adam Hood and Jackie Mansch were stocking the new-discoveries display rack at the last minute.

Waiting for the doors to open, they were filling the rack with stacks of hot and salty three-flavor guava along with chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzels.

Both crew members had completed company training on basic procedures, safety guides and learning the many products.

Mansch said, “We have the best truffles in town, and we sell out every day.”

While most Trader Joe’s stores average 7,500 to 10,000 square feet, the Los Altos store has 11,300 square feet of display space for foods.

“What makes the store unique is the open space between aisles and around the frozen food bins,” Hammond said. “The floors are clean, and this is the first store that doesn’t use the typical nautical theme This store is using the Pacific Rim theme, with animals and bamboo backdrops.”

Kristina Briones, the store’s full-time supervisor, said, “We try to give people an adventurous shopping experience and give people more of a choice. We’re excited about being here.”

The store offers a wide variety of sauces, dried fruit and frozen seafood. Fresh flowers arrive every day; there are domestic orchids for $12.99 and cut orchids from Thailand at various prices.

Several long aisles make up the wine section. Included are Charles Shaw wines for $1.99 (know as “two-buck chuck”), Wild Water Creek merlot for $4.99 and numerous other California brands at reduced prices.

A Trader Joe’s store usually caries 2,500 products, compared with 25,000 at a conventional supermarket.

Hammond said Trader Joe’s aims to carry only products that it can buy and sell at a good price, even if that means the store doesn’t make a lot of money on them.

Trader Joe’s began in 1958 as a chain of convenience stores called Pronto Markets.

In 1967, founder Joe Coulombe changed the name and decked out the stores with cedar plank walls and a nautical décor. He garbed the captain (manager), first mate (assistant manager) and crew members in colorful Hawaiian shirts, a tradition that continues.

From the original 13 stores, Trader Joe’s has expanded to more than 200 outlets; the Los Altos Trader Joe’s is No. 203.

Tom Harrington, owner and developer of Foothill Crossings Shopping Plaza, cut the ribbon last Wednesday evening before the store opened.

Harrington is updating the entire shopping center with new landscaping and a new facade to present a uniform facade on all the storefronts.