Ikea’s new Atlanta store sports many ‘firsts’
Features 2 levels
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 24, 2005
ATLANTA -- When Ikea opens its store here this week, the familiar blue and yellow big box will be home to a few firsts for the Top 100 company.
It’s the first with two levels of underground parking, the first with three ways to check out and the only Ikea to include sweet tea and grits on its café’s menu of Swedish and American fare.
It’s Ikea’s first store in the Southeast, not counting its Washington-area unit in Woodbridge, Va. The 366,000-square-foot Atlanta store is part of Atlantic Station, a 138-acre mixed-use development in a central business district that when completed, will have retail, office, residential and hotel space as well as acres of public parks.
Ikea is the first store to open in the development, with most others coming in the fall.
"We think we timed it well," said Joseph Roth, Ikea director of property public affairs. "It will allow customers in greater Atlanta to really understand Ikea without being lost among other retailers."
Ikea wouldn’t disclose its investment or project its sales in the Atlanta store, its 23rd U.S. unit. The company said its total U.S. revenue in its fiscal year ended Aug. 31 was $1.7 billion, and Furniture/Today estimates its furniture, bedding and accessories sales at $1.075 billion, making Ikea the nation’s fifth largest furniture store.
Ikea plans to open five new U.S. stores a year over the next several years.
The Atlanta store is expected to draw from a wide swath of the Southeast, Roth said. He said greater Atlanta, with 4 million people, is large enough to eventually support multiple stores.
But for now, consumers will have to settle for one brightly colored box and its 10,000 home furnishings items, ranging from sofas and chairs to kitchen cabinets, dishes and bathroom accessories.
The approximately 72,000-square-foot upper level includes 52 room settings in styles that range from traditional to Scandinavian to modern. Four complete model homes in the store are furnished for real-life situations, such as the 753-square-foot home created for a young couple with a four-year-old daughter.
On the lower level, Ikea is prepared for crowds with 22 checkout lanes. Clerks also will have hand-held scanners and cash registers, which accept credit and debit card purchases and have cut wait times in half during busy times at other locations.
This store also is the first to have a third option — self-checkout lanes, popularized by some grocery stores, where customers can scan their owns goods, then pay. Ikea plans to roll that option out to all new stores going forward, Roth said.
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With sweet tea and grits, Ikea readies Atlanta store
Jul 10, 2005
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