The prospect of Trader Joe’s coming to Colorado is not nearly as surprising as why it has taken the grocer so long, food retail analysts say.

After what may be a late arrival, the California-based specialty food chain would start out with perhaps three stores in Colorado, have 15 stores here within five years and 25 within seven to eight years, said Burt Flickinger of Strategic Resource Group.

“Colorado is a perfect market for them,” Flickinger said. “There is a newer strategic shift by Trader Joe’s to open stores close to major public and private higher-education institutions, and Colorado has those in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Durango and elsewhere.”

Flickinger foresees the first location for Trader Joe’s — which set off speculation by registering its business name Monday with the Colorado secretary of state — in Boulder and two more in the greater Denver area.

The specialty grocery chain has “a rabid following of people,” said Jon Schallert of the Schallert Group Inc. That necessitates more than one site and means the company will cluster stores to economize on shipments, distribution and advertising.

Colorado’s liquor laws have posed a stumbling block to Trader Joe’s expansion plans in the state.

Under those laws, Trader Joe’s could be issued only one license, which might not make much sense to the chain’s business model, said Robert A. Dill, a partner in Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings, a Denver law firm that specializes in liquor licenses.

Trader Joe’s, in addition to its own brand of unique food products, is known for its huge volume of business selling Two Buck Chuck wine.

Dill said Trader Joe’s could operate one location with liquor, but it would have to be physically separated from the grocery operation with a separate checkout system. The Whole Foods store in Boulder is set up in that manner.

Other grocery chains with Colorado stores such as King Soopers and Safeway can have one location that sells liquor in the same space as other products, but only if that site contains a pharmacy — a throwback to Prohibition, said state Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch.

The separate liquor-store license is not foreign to Trader Joe’s, which operates a separate wine shop in its New York City store because of that state’s liquor laws.

Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com

