Sep. 21--Trader Joe's doesn't have fancy fixtures or gourmet meals made to order. It doesn't tout designer cheeses or sell gas.

And its most popular wine is not from vineyards outside Paris or Florence. Nicknamed "Two Buck Chuck," the wine sells for as low as $1.99. (In its Virginia stores, though, it sells for $3.29.)

"We're just a neighborhood grocery store," said Kevin Risser, manager of the Trader Joe's at the Short Pump Station shopping center on West Broad Street in Henrico County.

The 12,400-square-foot store is scheduled to open Friday. The chain is opening a store in Williamsburg on the same day.

The California-based retailer has opened 310 grocery stores across the country since opening its first location in 1958. Along the way, it has branded itself as an alternative to standard grocery stores.

"They don't want to be your routine grocery store where you go to get toilet paper," said Roland T. Rust, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Instead, Trader Joe's, he said, has found its niche by offering gourmet products at reasonable prices. The company has made its reputation by offering customers interesting products they won't find elsewhere.

They offer "affordable luxury," he said.

Trader Joe's said what makes it different is that the chain stocks food and beverages that range from the basic to the exotic at what it says are affordable prices.

The selection and prices come because it primarily sells private-label items it buys directly from producers, as opposed to buying brand-name merchandise from distributors.

Among its products: a six-pack of the traditional petite French pastries, Canneles de Bordeaux, selling for $4.99; and a package of Fornario Potato Gnocchi for $1.99.

Trader Joe's also carries dark chocolate-covered espresso beans, organic heirloom tomatoes and dark chocolate-covered chile spiced dried mango.

It sells dozens of types of coffees, ranging from smooth Colombian blends to handpicked coffees from Nicaragua.

Trader Joe's stores, including the one in Short Pump, carry roughly 3,000 items. The average U.S. supermarket carries 45,000 items, according to the Arlington-based Food Marketing Institute.

Of Trader Joe's items, 80 percent are private label, Risser said.

Trader Joe's private-label products are all natural with no preservatives or additives, he said.

Jeff Metzger, publisher of Food World, a publication that follows the grocery industry in the mid-Atlantic, said Trader Joe's success is mostly a result of its private-label merchandise.