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Bay area to get early fix for Ikea cravings

The furniture retailer will open Nov. 14 in Orlando, but not in Tampa until 2009.

By MARK ALBRIGHT, On Retail
Published September 26, 2007

Employees Debbie Metz, left, and Tara Jones put assemble a dresser drawer as other employees work in the background in the new IKEA store in Orlando. The new store is set to open Nov. 14.
	[PHELAN M. EBENHACK | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [PHELAN M. EBENHACK | Times] An employee moves pallets of houseware items in the new IKEA store in Orlando. [PHELAN M. EBENHACK | Times] New children's chairs are stacked, waiting to be displayed, in the Orlando store.

Ikea doesn't open in Tampa until 2009, but the Swedish furniture retailer for months has fielded calls from local customers and job applicants eager to learn when the first store opens -- in Orlando.

The answer is 9 a.m. Nov. 14, just east of the Mall at Millenia off I-4.

"It's a Wednesday, so we expect a couple hundred to a couple thousand campers to start showing up Monday with tents and sleeping bags to line up for the grand opening giveaways," said Michael la Cour, the 39-year-old store manager who spent the past eight years monitoring Ikea suppliers in Indonesia and Vietnam. "We'll have portable toilets and wash stations out for the campers. We flew the local police to a store opening in Oregon so they could learn what to expect."

Ikea already mails 250,000 catalogs to its cultlike followers in Florida and figures plenty more will make all-day pilgrimages from Tampa Bay, since the next closest store has been in Atlanta. Enough that the Orlando store will advertise, offer delivery and installation in the Tampa Bay area, plus have in-store deals for rental trucks or trailers for do-it-yourselfers.

The state's first Ikea in Broward County will open in October but construction complications have kept the date fluid. At 350,000 square feet, however, the Tampa store will be Florida's largest, about 50 percent bigger than the biggest Wal-Mart Supercenter.

* * *

South Tampa is buzzing about GreenWise Market, Publix's version of such local incumbent natural/gourmet food retailers as Fresh Market, Nature's Harvest and Whole Foods Markets, which recently acquired Wild Oats Natural Markets.

The first of six GreenWise stores opens with a veritable food court of gourmet grub to go Thursday in Palm Beach Gardens. But here Publix will protect its turf big time by putting a GreenWise Market within 2 miles of all its natural/gourmet food market competition in affluent South Tampa. And within 2 miles of the biggest-volume Publix store in the Tampa Bay area.

The Lakeland grocer and its Tampa developer, RMC Property Group, paid a stunning $6.3-million for 1.5 acres $99 a square foot, likely a local record for retail to build a store with a rooftop parking garage that will open next year on Armenia Avenue between Platt and Azeele streets.

Meanwhile, the evolution of GreenWise as the umbrella for all organics and natural foods sold in the other 900 Publix super markets becomes sharply clear in a sleek new prototype Publix that opens Thursday at Belcher Road and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater.

Until now, GreenWise products in Publix stores were grouped in one spot and rarely exceeded half an aisle.

In the new store, two or three prominent GreenWise displays sprout within each aisle in each grocery department. So all the natural/organic coffees and teas,fruit juices and even pet foods are next to the standard nonorganic choices. Organics cover a quarter of the produce department with four times the selection before the remodeling.

"Our selection of natural/organics has grown so large we're now integrating GreenWise throughout the stores," said spokeswoman Shannon Patten.

* * *

PGA Tour Superstore, an Atlanta-based golf and tennis retailer, is looking for 65,000 square feet of centrally located space for its first Tampa Bay outlet.

In stores bigger than a Sports Authority, PGA Tour stocks only golf and tennis equipment. The stores come with high-tech golf swing analyzers and a full-sized indoor tennis court.

"They're ready to move in as soon as we get the right space," said Patrick Berman, Cushman & Wakefield retail director.

* * *

Catalog retailers and banks came out tops in customer service ratings of 200 call centers operated by 40 industries. But personal computer, insurance and cable TV call centers fell well below average.

That's according to the folks who compile the American Customer Service Index at the University of Michigan.

The survey, however, is no vote of confidence for the "press 1 if you want ... " set.

Industrywide, one-fifth of all callers hung up without resolving what they called about. Of those, 43 percent said the experience will "definitely" cause them to take their business elsewhere.

The survey quantified a fast way to boost a rating by 26 percentage points: Make callers think your call center is in the United States.

"Offshoring has a negative impact because customer service reps are less adept at solving problems and rated lower on communication skills," said Sheri Teodoru, author of the report.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.

[Last modified September 26, 2007, 00:15:10]