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FLAT-PACK FURNITURE GIANT Ikea is reworking its retail format, adding small centrally-located outlets to its network of big-box stores.
The Swedish company plans to open its first order-and-collect store in the UK at Norwich in autumn after trialling a similar format in Pamplona, Spain, as well as in Finland and Norway.
The outlet will be less than 10% the size of a traditional Ikea store and will be located in a retail park not far outside the city centre.
Ikea will explore slightly different order-and-collection-point formats in selected markets, using this as an opportunity to find out more about how customers want to shop with Ikea in these areas,” the company said.
The Telegraph reported the chain planned to open two more, small stores within a year and it was considering at a high-street location.
Easier access
The store will work as a “planning studio” – where customers can get advice and test products – and will also have a café, complete with the chain’s famous meatballs.
Ikea said the change was part of a plan to make its stores “more accessible”. It currently operates 315 stores in 26 countries, including a single Irish outlet at Ballymun in Dublin.
The company recently announced it planned to expand its online sales service to include home deliveries in all the countries where it had stores. Definitely no more hide-and-seek games in Ikea then.
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IKEA.. The Ryanair of the furniture world.
Even down to the same yellow and blue corporate colours…
IKEA furniture is actually very good quality and comes with a 10 guarantee unlike most others.
A lot of furniture is overpriced and only glued and stapled together
…. Only glued together!! Sounds just like what Chippendale and other top cabinet / furniture makers did over the last 4 centuries. Well done to IKEA for following a good tradition.
Buy enough meatballs and you can assemble your own horse.
Ikea furniture is so good that I know of one kitchen installer in Dublin that buys Ikea kitchen units , displays them in his show room , people order them and he installs them all the while the customer is unaware that they are from Ikea.
Makes a tidy sum on it too …
I dont think its illegal or anything , just a bit sharp …
Ikea is a great place to eat if you’re a dullard who enjoys bland food. The meatballs are a veritable fiesta of mdf and rosemary.
It’s also good for those of us who can’t afford to dine in The Shelbourne on our shopping trips.
Love mdf and Rosemary.
Trust me Kevin, when you have to drive for over 2 hours with no motorway services you’d eat anything, even an armadillo sarnie.
You’re saying that the only choice when out shopping is either: Ikea or The Shelbourne? Are we pretending that Burger King, McDonalds, Subway etc don’t exist?
I ate in Ikea before and it was a soulless experience, not to be repeated. You seem to like it, so good for you I guess.
i agree Kevin. The meal I had with my son in Ikea was absolutely the worst meal we have ever had. It was totally inedible.Way overcooked and cardboard would taste better. How Ikea get away with selling this muck is beyond me
Neal, you can actually eat that muck ? Do you actually think it tastes like food ?
I try very hard to pretend Burger King, McDonalds and Subway don’t exist.
Bleurgh!
Horsemeatballs if I remember correctly….
People whining about horse meat really was confusing. To be directly affected, you needed to a meat eater, what’s the difference between a horse and a cow? I heard someone explain horses are smarter, making it wrong… I’m sure in my lifetime I’ve eaten some relatively intelligent beef. When I was in Belgium the last time I was served smoked horse meat for breakfast, could have been a stupid horse.
Who are we to judge? Ikea sell cheap meatballs, I was reassured that they could eventually trace its origins, that was actually a pleasant surprise.
Agreed. It is generally accepted that pigs are more intelligent than dogs. Yet we (at least non-Muslim, non-Jewish) do not look on in disgust at Clonakilty bacon or Superquinn sausages
The problem wasn’t just it was horse meat. It was really really old horse meat and also had traces of medicine given to the animals. By really old there was a reference to some being at least a decade old.
I have eaten fresh horse meat and it tastes very nice.
I think it was frightening that we previously had no idea what we had been eating. Horsemeat is definitely not the worst thing it could have been, but it’s still worrying that despite all the regulations, we managed to eat something that wasn’t what it said it was.
This will be great for anyone who rents in a city. I move around quite a bit an prefer to live centrally and being able to augment the rental places with a few bits of cheap and cheerful items for Ikea is something I do, but often the IKEA store is so far outside the city that it’s not always possible. Should help their bottom line no end. Smart move.
They must have a screw loose
What’s a “high street”???
We’ll be okay so, there are no high streets in Ireland. The Upper Dargle Road in Bray is high alright but it a road and there places in Cork that tower above the city but it is not a term we use for our shopping areas and TV3 and the liked should be booed for using this phrase.
Clerys site – new IKEA ?
Journal, there are 2 Ikeas in Ireland, Belfast and Dublin.
This is great news. I’m on the look out for a plastic yellow kitchen table and some wooden cups.
Otäck table – €8.99 and skräp cups -40c each, sörted!
The most bland unimaginative furniture ever designed .
Their beds are incredibly comfy ‘tho.
A Swedish Argos, more crap we don’t need with the lifespan of a bee conveniently located where we do our weekly shopping. Go for meatballs after buying the groceries and leave with a new Malmo Bed Frame which you “really need” just be careful on the frisky nights because you’ll have to ride like a 90 years old and have the same weight as Master Yoda not to brake it.
Juan, with so many gripes, you’re clearly not getting the ride at all.
Did the photographer deliberately set out to make those meatballs look as unappetising as possible?!
I for one would welcome and IKEA at a location near me.
*an*
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