Looking to fill your kitchen with products from the funky grocer Trader Joe's or furniture from the iconic home store IKEA?

If you want to do that shopping locally, you will be waiting a while.

Trader Joe's and IKEA, which topped a recent al.com poll about the most-wanted retailers in Alabama, don't have the state in their immediate expansion plans.

Although it's an honor to be part of the list, at this time Alabama is not in Trader Joe's two-year plan of opening a location, said Alison Mochizuki, a spokeswoman for the company.

The California-based grocer, which has about 400 stores across the U.S., does not disclose its site selection criteria, she added.

As for IKEA, the retailer usually requires a population base of about 2 million people within a radius of 40 to 60 miles, or minutes of drive time, to support one store, said Joseph Roth, a spokesman for the company.

Store sizes range from 350,000 to 450,000 square feet. For the site, IKEA typically purchases about 20 to 30 acres, with good visibility and access along a major interstate or highway, he said.

"We currently only have 38 stores in the US, and our most recent opening was a Denver-area store in July 2011," Roth said. "We have two stores being planned to open in 2014."

One is in the Miami area -- IKEA's second in south Florida -- and one is in the Kansas City area.

While Alabama's major cities are too small for IKEA's criteria, the reason why Trader Joe's hasn't moved into the state isn't as clear, said Bryan Holt, a principal at Birmingham's Southpace Properties Inc. who specializes in retail tenant representation.

But there are a lot of factors that go into a retailer's site selection process, he added, such as distribution channels and TV advertising markets.

For example, Kroger has grocery stores in the Auburn and Huntsville areas, but not in Birmingham, because those stores can be serviced by distribution centers in Atlanta and Nashville, respectively.

"A lot of retailers are set up that way," he said.

For others, TV markets play a big role. If they can locate in an area with a large TV market or one that overlaps with other major cities, they save on advertising costs.

Meanwhile, Birmingham has slipped from its perch as the automatic top choice for retailers eyeing an expansion in Alabama, in some cases, he said.

Mobile's economic development success in recent years, along with its position along the Interstate 10 distribution corridor and proximity to the Florida panhandle and New Orleans, have made it an attractive choice for companies.

And Huntsville's new Bridge Street Town Centre has put that city on the map, retail-wise, much like The Summit shopping center did for Birmingham.

Apparel retailer H&M, for instance, last year selected Bridge Street as the location for its first Alabama store, and Belk is building a flagship store there.

"Seven, eight, 10 years ago, if a new retailer was coming to Alabama, there was no question they were coming to Birmingham," Holt said.

But that's changed.

"I think Mobile and Huntsville have closed the gap," he said.