The True Story Behind Trader Joe's Parking Lot Blues

I’m a bluesman who’s been writing songs for over 50 years. Ask two songwriters where their inspiration comes from and you’ll probably get twenty different answers. But every true originator of modern blues music that I’ve had the privilege to know or work with over the years—from Muddy Waters to Lowell Fulson to David Honeyboy Edwards—always told me the same basic thing:

Write what you know.

A lot of my songs draw from my life growing up in Chicago. But I’ve also written plenty of tales inspired by my years living in Los Angeles, and there’s one subject just about every Angeleno can agree on:

The parking experience at your neighborhood Trader Joe's is not for the faint of heart.

By now, the internet is full of jokes, memes, and horror stories about what happens when you pull into a parking lot that seems about half the size it should be for the number of people trying to shop there. You’ve got rogue shopping carts, distracted toddlers, space stealers, sudden reverse lights, and drivers who appear to believe turn signals are optional.

Road rage has been well documented.

Parking rage… not so much.

At least not until now.

My song, Trader Joe’s Parking Lot Blues, pretty much sums up the unimaginable risks involved in simply trying to get inside one of America’s most beloved grocery stores. There’s the joy waiting for you once you get through those doors… and then there’s the gauntlet outside—an obstacle course of tension, timing, patience, and survival.

Pain and pleasure have always been timeless subjects in the blues.

Writing this song was my way of making sense of that strange emotional balancing act that I—and millions of other people—deal with every single week.

So give the song a listen…

…and let me tell you something that I know.

— Jeff Dale