Trader Joe’s opens in Providence

The store, which opened Nov. 3, is the first in Providence and the second in Rhode Island.

A Providence motif is evident at the newest Trader Joe’s in Rhode Island. The Providence store is the first in the city and the second one to open in the state, the first being in Warwick.MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

PROVIDENCE – After years of speculation and months of construction, the Trader Joe’s on South Main Street opened on Thursday morning.

It’s the first Trader Joe’s in Providence and the second in Rhode Island after the one in Warwick opened about a decade and a half ago. Linda Iannitti was there for both – at the Warwick location as a part-timer, and at the Providence location Thursday as store captain. The role involves everything from fronting the bagels to walking around conspicuously in a Hawaiian shirt to pointing out her favorite Rhode Island-related murals.

A sign at the new Trader Joe's store in Providence has a WaterFire theme.Brian Amaral

“It encompasses the whole community,” Iannitti said – in particular the big PVD, the WaterFire references, the Roger Williams statue holding a Trader Joe’s grocery bag.

It’s the second grocery store to open in Providence in recent weeks after Rory’s Market & Kitchen on Washington Street.

Trader Joe’s hired about 80 people for the 9,408 square foot store.

The store was already jammed on Thursday, with people taking selfies outside and scouring the aisles for the popular chain’s private-label goods. The store is part of a spate of development in an area that was formerly occupied by Interstate 195, replacing highway lanes with grocery aisles.

Other local touches: The sturdy bike racks outside were made by the Steel Yard. The murals inside, which a Rhode Island School of Design graduate who works at the Allston Trader Joe’shelped design, take shoppers on a bit of a tour of the city.

Customers enter the newest Trader Joe's location, in Providence, on Nov. 3, 2022.MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Trader Joe’s also designed the offerings with the market in mind. They’ll pull from local college kids and people who live over the border in Massachsuetts and don’t want to have to schlep to Foxboro or Warwick. For the college kids, they went heavier on the frozen food and snack sections while holding back on the dry packaged goods. College kids might not need the huge jug of olive oil, but they’ll definitely want the chili-lime rolled tortillas, which are popular on TikTok. And because of the relative lack of grocery options in Providence, they also went pretty big on the produce section, Iannitti said.

But the reason Trader Joe’s is popular, Iannitti said, is simpler.

“It’s the people,” Iannitti said.