Is this just a case of April Fools’ arriving early, or is Trader Joe’s actually closing?
An article popped up on Yahoo! Style, saying that Trader Joe’s will be closing all of its 457 stores by January 2017. Additionally, the grocer would also discontinue all products, the article said Thursday.

The Yahoo article reported that Trader Joe’s issued a press release Thursday morning, but a Trader Joe’s spokesperson told WHO-HD that the story is a “hoax article.”
“Although we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we don’t want anyone to mislead our customers. Trader Joe’s is open for business and has no plans to close. We had no involvement whatsoever in the April Fool’s hoax article,” said Alison Mochizuki, Trader Joe’s public relations director.
Heavy.com said maybe Yahoo messed up its publication schedule and published the story a day early, but Yahoo said the story wasn’t written by Yahoo staff.
“Some stories that appear on Yahoo are through various partnerships and sources around the web. This particular story was published to Yahoo from a partner, Spoon University, and was immediately removed once the team was made aware of the ruse,” a Yahoo spokesperson told WHO-HD.
Even though the story turned out to be false, the Twitterverse made it clear how much they would miss Trader Joe’s.
Just got fooled by the first April Fools Joke — that Trader Joes is closing nationwide — and damn near had a heart attack.
— conz (@radicalhearts) March 31, 2016
Omfg that April fools joke about Trader Joes closing all stores was not funny. I went into panic mode LOL @chrissyteigen
— Zohal Amiri (@ZOHALxo) March 31, 2016
Dear #TraderJoes, please don't go away 😔 I still love you
— Deputy Bishop ✨(Bex Taylor-Klaus) (@IBexWeBex) March 31, 2016
Trader joes is shutting down 😢
— 🐺 (@BelowDaHype) March 31, 2016
"Early" April Fool's jokes are just called lies. #TraderJoes
— Ninja Economics (@NinjaEconomics) March 31, 2016