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Letter to the editor

Itching for Ikea

Devotees of the Swedish retailer are clamoring to take their worship to a new level as the assemble-it-yourself concept arrives in Orlando.

By Judy Stark, Times Homes and Garden editor
Published November 10, 2007

If you're among the first 100 adults in line at 9 a.m. Wednesday for the grand opening of Ikea, the Swedish furniture and home accessories warehouse, you'll get a free armchair. Retail: $89.99.

If you're among the first 100 kids, you'll get a free heart-shaped cushion. How many parents will take their kids out of school for a day to attend a store opening? Take a guess.

The first 2,500 people will be eligible for random prizes: gift cards, cookware sets, buy-one, get-one-free cinnamon buns.

It's not as though consumers need to be wooed and won to shop at Ikea. They're expected to start camping out in the parking lot Monday in advance of Wednesday's opening. Shoppers yielded long ago to the siren song of sleek design and cheap prices: wooden bar stools, two for $32.50! folding chairs, $8.99! A stoneware tumbler or a plastic pet dish, the cheapest items in the store at 29 cents each!

Last year 522-million people visited Ikea stores around the world. It will probably feel as if most of them are in Central Florida on Wednesday. The store will have directional signs on Interstate 4, dedicated turn lanes at Exit 78, and parking lot attendants to keep things moving. Ikea took local law enforcement to the opening of the store in Sunrise last month to show them what to expect.

The store - at the Mall at Millenia - is at the same interstate exit as the Holy Land Experience theme park. Some people may confuse the two.

Ikea's arrival in Orlando - in a 309,000-square-foot store painted in brilliant blue and yellow, surrounded by 1,300 parking spaces (plus overflow) - is seen by some as a sign that Central Florida has made it onto the map of cutting-edge design, or at least the pinnacle of toy stores for adults.

It's certainly a model of vertical integration: Ikea designs all the products, manufactures them or has them made by exclusive vendors, and sells them. You won't find the same items at Target or Wal-Mart. Ikea had global sales in fiscal 2007 of $27.9-billion.

And Ikea has managed to make you, the shopper, do more of the work and love every minute of it.

Why aren't there more staff on the showroom floors? A card on your table in the restaurant explains: That's why we put detailed tags on all the items with lots of information. If you help yourself, that's how we reduce the need for staff. (And keep prices low, of course.)

After lunch, you'll be asked to bus your own table - "to keep our prices low," the store explains. "It also means our staff has more time to serve you and to cook."

You'll be the one pulling Ikea's famous flat-packed merchandise off the shelves in the self serve area, stacking it in your cart, checking out and loading up your car.

And you'll be assembling the furniture with the hex wrench Ikea includes with your purchases. "It's a partnership. We do a little, you do a little, we all save a lot," store manager Michael la Cour said at a media preview this week. "Shopping here is different from shopping elsewhere."

Ikea certainly knows how to make it easy for you to part with your money. "We're family-friendly. We love kids," la Cour said. Kids can play in a supervised area while adults shop. There are free strollers and bibs and bottle warmers. The kids' bathroom has a tiny toilet and a close-to-the-floor sink for the little ones. There are kid-approved menu items in the restaurant: mac and cheese, 99 cents; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, $1.99.

Some will complain about the quality of some of the merchandise. Lots of it is particleboard and veneer (not that there's anything wrong with that), and maybe it won't last as long as your grandmother's antique table. Well, maybe you don't want it to. And it's hard to fault the clean lines, the smart design and the functionality. Or the whimsy: It's fun to have a big, brightly colored bag ($3.99) to hold a 50-pound sack of dog food.

Ikea has 1,300 suppliers in 50 countries (the major suppliers are in China, Poland and Sweden). The store in Orlando is virtually identical to every other Ikea, including the store that opened Wednesday in Istanbul, Turkey, and to the one that will shortly open in Siberia. "Our founder believes that even if you live in Siberia, there's no reason you shouldn't have good design and good function," spokesman Joe Roth said.

There are 267 stores in 36 countries.

Ikea is due to open a store in Tampa in mid 2009. That store, with 350,000 square feet, will be Ikea's largest in Florida. Between now and then the company is betting plenty of Tampa Bay area residents will make the drive to Orlando, Roth said, "and become experienced, savvy Ikea shoppers." As long as we're all still chasing the dream Ikea has defined for us - "to create a better everyday life" defined by inexpensive wineglasses, table lamps and duvet covers - they're probably right.

Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com.

Getting to Ikea

From Interstate 4 eastbound, take Exit 78 (Conroy Road) and turn right toward the Mall at Millenia. Turn right on Eastgate Drive. The mall is at 4092 Eastgate Drive.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. The restaurant opens 30 minutes before the store. Opening day (Wednesday) the store opens at 9 a.m.

Phone: (407) 355-3155 

[Last modified November 9, 2007, 10:40:28]