A group of scheming high school seniors seem to have gotten the last laugh on their whole town before graduation.
On April 30, Facebook user Marlena Calobong posted about a prank played on the residents of Pasadena, Maryland. According to Calobong, high school seniors legitimately fooled townsfolk into thinking a Trader Joe’s was opening in their neighborhood.
“To my Pasadena friends,” Calobong wrote. “Yesterday the Senior class of our local high school pranked the ENTIRE town!”
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Calobong explains in the post that students hung a banner that read “Coming Soon” in front of a closed grocery store property. The banner also featured “Spring 2025” and the Trader Joe’s logo, in its signature white and red colors.
To the residents of Pasadena, it seemed creamy spinach and artichoke dip and relatively affordable bananas were about to be much easier to score.
Along with the exciting wording, a QR code was provided on the sign. But, instead of linking to any information on the opening, the code allegedly rickrolled residents with Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
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TODAY.com attempted to scan the QR code, but the link seemed to be broken by May 28.
“The whole town was abuzz yesterday morning, thinking we were getting a Trader Joe’s!” Calobong continued. “AND again this morning to find out it was just a prank…😂🤣😂”
Like the other residents, Calobong still took the apparent prank on the chin: “Well, they got us all!!! That was a good one!!!”
Representatives for Trader Joe’s did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.
Still, for Calobong, the news was exciting, while it lasted.
“We were extremely excited to see a sign pop up that we were getting another Trader Joe’s close to home,” Calobong tells TODAY.com, adding that a friend texted her about the true origin of the sign. “We were sad to find out the next day it was a prank. Definitely tricked us all.”
Other folks in town also shared details and comments about the prank in other posts on social media.
“Kids can be so cruel,” wrote one Facebook commenter.
“Trader Joe’s at Mars store Pasadena?” wrote another Facebook user. “Apparently this was a joke. Not happening.”
“Well played, Northeast High School seniors,” said TikTok user Alyssa Smith (@mrsalyssasmith) while Astley’s song soundtracks her TikTok.
“If you are a victim of the senior prank that a Trader Joe’s was coming to Pasadena, raise your hand,” Smith says, raising her hand, before explaining the prank.
“These kids had to have had help from older millennials or Gen Xers because how do they even know what a rickroll is?” she continued. “I mean, come on. Too funny.”
Representatives for Northeast High School did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s repeated requests for comment on whether its seniors are responsible for the prank.
This would not be the first time a group of exiting high school seniors drove the dumpling-loving residents of a small town into hysterics over a Trader Joe’s-and-switch type prank. On May 19 in the r/traderjoes subreddit, user Fancy-Asparagus9210 posted about a completely different sign posted in front of a yet-to-open Lidl in their unnamed town.
“The sign popped up on Thursday, May 15 with the words ‘Trader Joe’s Coming Soon!’ and a QR code that sheds some light on who is behind putting up the banner,” reads the text in the second image in the post.
According to the post, the QR code sent passers by to a page that says, “Just Kidding #SENIORPRANK” and “Trader Joe’s NOT coming soon but maybe one day ;)” with Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” soundtracking this joke.
Much like the other prank, commenters showed up en masse to both applaud and deride the masterminds.
“This is such a good prank!!!” wrote one user on Reddit.
“that’s super tame,” wrote another commenter, to which someone else retorted, “Idk that’s more emotionally devastating than any senior pranks I’ve heard about.”
“They sure know how to prank millennials,” someone wrote. “Right for the jugular on this one. Damn kids.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
