Sergey Gitlin and Scott Ogawa pitched two tents outside the new Trader Joe's store in Evanston around 8:30 p.m. last night.
Their goal: to become the first customers when the store opened at 8 a.m. with a ceremonial lei-cutting the following morning.
"If you are what you eat, I am Trader Joe's," Ogawa said.
Both Ogawa and Gitlin are graduate students in economics at Northwestern University.
"Might as well procrastinate here rather than at home," Gitlin quipped.
Asked whether they slept well, Gitlin admitted that the store's lights shone into their tents all night, and that a crew came to set up for the grand opening around 4 a.m.
But the disruptions to their sleep didn't dim their excitement.
"I just really like Trader Joe's," Gitlin said.
He and Ogawa were joined by fellow Evanston resident Delores Walker around 6:30 a.m. Walker said she knew the store was opening and couldn't sleep, so she decided to head over early.
"I thought I was going to be the first one," she said.
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