Trader Joe's is not your 'average Joe!' With perhaps 85% of sales coming from private label, this secretive bi-coastal chain has a playful -- and highly effective -- formula. (Trader Joes).

One day a few years ago, a guy at a Boston financial firm called up Trader Joe's headquarters and said he'd like to tour a store with a group of visiting Japanese investors. The brass at Trader Joe's was blunt: "You can't come." Not "We'd rather you didn't," or "Please don't." The visit was

This led to a predictable go-round about it being a free country and all, and Trader Joe's finally said okay, okay, you can come, but you don't get a tour. And as the investment company guy tells it, the tension in the air during the visit was thick enough to cut with a machete.

Well, you probably can't blame the folk at Trader Joe's. They've got a phenomenal thing going, and don't want to give it all away. Some observers think that sales per square foot at Trader Joe's are hovering at about $1,000 -- twice the level of typical supermarkets. And with between about 70% to 85% of its products being private label (depending on who you ask), Trader Joe's has reached a benchmark others don't even dream about on good nights.

Fast Turns

Last year the Pasadena, Calif .-based chain's stores -- believed to be approaching 200 units primarily on the East and West coasts -- turned in about $1 billion in sales, with profits said to be just shy of spectacular. Stores have no service departments and small footprints -- usually about 9,500 square feet "to keep the shopping experience intimate," some say. The total SKU count, designed for fast-turn of high-margin items, is generally estimated at 2,500 to 3,000. (Trader Joe's has in the past admitted to having "more than 800" private label products, but how many "more" is an open question.)

By now, you may have noticed some vagueness on the numbers. Sorry, can't help you. It's because trading partners, consultants, competitors, analysts and about 13,000 Web sites all offer different numbers and viewpoints about this extremely private -- and much loved -- company.

Actually, in some ways, Trader Joe's is an open book. Go to their Web site, (www.traderjoes.com) and if you drill down far enough, you're likely to find most anything. But some details are still kept pretty lowkey. A Trader Joe's flier says simply that the firm was sold in 1979 by its founder, Joe Coulombe, to a private, family-run company. True, but it still surprises people who didn't already know that the buyers were German billionaires Karl and Theo Albrecht, owners of the ALDI food chain. (We hear ALDI has the good sense to leave Trader Joe's alone.)