IKEA in Denver or Boulder or Front Range of Colorado

Ikea, Trader Joe’s, and In and Out burger always top the list of most-desired out of state chains to come to Colorado. As far as I’m concerned, all three are most welcome to come and do business here.

However, unlike most people it appears, I’m never eager to see an out of state chain set up shop here in our state, based on past experience. For one thing, out of state chains are generally disrespectful of us. Most of the time they shop themselves around among the suburbs to see who will dole out the most subsidies or TIFs. I’ve never heard of a locally owned business getting subsidies of any kind — but out of state chains insist on them and often get what they want by playing the ‘burbs off against each other. The Ikeas of the world are likely to want to plop down their ugly blue boxes unmodified here in Colorado — that doesn’t fly by my book either. The ugly blue boxes may look fine in California, but they don’t look good here — ikea needs to follow the design standards that everyone else does; giving them an exemption on design guidelines is another form of subsidy.

I look at the lack of Ikea, Trader Joe’s, etc as a gift in some ways. What it means is that someone here has a golden opportunity to sell a similar product to the market here. Why not take advantage of the opportunity rather than throwing tax money at an out of state corporate giant to come here? The locally owned counterpart will play nicely by the rules, will keep its profits in-state providing jobs, and never will demand rapacious subsidies from suburban governments. Even better, the locally owned variety will probably concentrate their locations in the city first and foremost, helping maintain our urban fabric. Sounds like a win/win/win/win for everyone involved.

Does this mean that I wouldn’t shop at Ikea, TJ’s and their ilk if they come here? Of course I would shop there, if they provided me the products I want at the price I want in a location that’s convenient to me. I’m pointing out that their failure to come here has potential benefits that we’d do well to take advantage of. It’s not as if these shops are perfect as they are anyway. They can and should be improved upon. We should make these companies regret the day they failed to come here and so got locked out of the market by a more nimble local competitor providing better value.