Plano Woman Camping Outside Future Trader Joe’s Site: “I Will Be First in Line in June 2027”
Trader Joe's won't open on Preston Road until around June 2027. Deborah Pfannenstiel, 58, has already pitched a tent.
Plano, TX – When word broke that Trader Joe’s plans a new store on Preston Road, with groundbreaking in December and an opening around June 2027, most residents reacted with mild excitement. Deborah Pfannenstiel, 58, reacted by buying a tent.
“People say I’m crazy,” said Pfannenstiel, from a folding camp chair surrounded by four reusable shopping bags, a battery-powered fan and a hand-lettered sign reading FIRST IN LINE. DON’T EVEN. “But these are the same people who circle the parking lot for 45 minutes every Saturday. Who’s crazy now?”
At press time, she had been camped at the site for 23 days, roughly 8 percent of her planned stay.
She has no regrets. She has installed a solar panel, adopted a stray cat named Two-Buck Chuck, and receives daily deliveries from her husband, Gary, who brings iced coffee each morning and “asks me to come home, which is sweet, but no.”
“She’s always been like this,” Gary said. “When the bundt cake place opened, she was there two days early. She’s the reason they have a rope line.”
Others have joined her. A retired couple from Richardson parked an RV in the second spot. A Plano West senior is livestreaming his place in line for a college essay titled “Grit.” A man from Allen says he’s there “mostly to avoid my in-laws.”
A city code officer has issued only a written warning, for “excessive seasonal decor.” Pfannenstiel is already decorating for fall, with plans for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and “a big one for Valentine’s Day.”
Asked what she’ll buy first when the doors open eight months from now, she didn’t hesitate. “Flowers,” she said. “For me. Because I earned them.”
