As part of DCist’s new commitment to hard-hitting grocery store coverage, we’re sad to report that the new Trader Joe’s in the District’s burgeoning West End neighborhood has a little more gestating to do before it shows its Two-Buck Chuck to the world. Originally slated to open today, the long-awaited Trader Joe’s now plans to open its doors in early September.

For the past few weeks, workers on the new grocery store in the yet-to-open Columbia Residences complex have begun to install the chain’s signature wood-paneled shelving and have painted the store’s logo on a wall in the next-door garage. Just yesterday, a slew of Trader Joe’s baskets were left in the store’s entryway on 25th Street NW between L and M streets. So, at least the wheels are in motion and things are happening.

What will make this Trader Joe’s better than the one in Bethesda? First, D.C. law will permit it to sell wine — including the aforementioned Charles Shaw wine (which will be more like Four-Buck Chuck around here). Second, it’s way more convenient. And third, it fills a major gap in a neighborhood now devoid of grocery stores. But will D.C. residents flip out over the first Trader Joe’s in the District the same way New Yorkers went nuts over the chain’s first store in the Big Apple?

Photo by flickr user Megan the Librarian and used under a Creative Commons license.