Build it and they will come
Just did a phone interview with a Columbus area Business reporter (and fellow IKEA-ite) about the potential Swedish invasion.
He Googled for Ohio and IKEA and low and behold, when you do that in any configuration you get Oh, IKEA! #1 baby! Even over IKEA’s own pages, Woo! I have the power of Googlnation!
So we had a nice talk about IKEA and possible locations around the capitol city, he said the city council had their eyes on IKEA to take over the City center mall or something, which knowing where that is in the smack middle of downtown - NO WAY that would be horrid to shop in and horrid for the town’s already busy city traffic.
IKEA in any town means a maddening rolling roadblock a mile long on a weekend. (And you can’t exactly successfully get your IKEA goods and get on the bus) The traffic problems around IKEA’s are infamous. If the city developers really think thats a good idea I want them to go to Chicago’s on a weekend. I know IKEA has very set standards in stone about where they locate, and I don’t think there is a downtown in existence that can cope with them.
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so my idea for an ohio ikea blog was a good one huh??? HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to know when Ohio will get an IKEA. It doesnt have to be right smack dab in the middle of the city of course. The one in Chicago- isnt Chicago at all - its Schaumburg- a suburb or Chicago. It would be horrible downtown. Anyways- we need one in OHIO somewhere! Toledo- perfect spot. I have heard one may be going in somewhere near Detroit MI in 2006 or something.
I also want to know when Ohio will get its IKEA, although I prefer it to be in Cincinnati! Cleveland and Columbus are a much shorter drive to the Pittsburgh IKEA, and the newly planned Detroit IKEA. Southwest Ohio residents have to drive at least 4.5 hrs just to get to an IKEA. Cincinnati would be a PERFECT market for IKEA since it is close to Indianapolis, Louisville, Columbus and Dayton. (2 hrs or less) I recently spoke with a representative of IKEA and they said that they do not have immediate plans (next year or two) for opening a store in IKEA, but there is a possibility for 2007 and thereafter….. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED CINCINNATI!!!!!
well i was talking to the manager of the IKEA in pittsburgh, and he said that a lot of peple that come from OH come from cleveland. They should put one there because cleveland is going through retail boom, and cleveland loves IKEA. Im praying for an IKEA in cleveland!
I heard that IKEA was passed over by Indianapolis. Is this true? We would love to have IKEA in Indianapolis!!! The Glendale Mall would suit it just fine. It is two hours from Louisville and Cincinnati…
Whenever I travel to the east coast, I always stop in at IKEA…usually outside of Washington, D.C. They moved to a larger location a few years ago, and the new store is much larger…although not as large as the one in Schaumburg. IKEA is a great store…the Marketplace has great buys on kitchen items…and the lighting is hard to beat. While I live in Dayton, I wouldn’t mind seeing IKEA locate in Columbus so that it is centrally located to most of Ohio’s major cities. Although… Dayton would be a great location, centrally located between Cincy, Indy, Columbus, and would probably pull from Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. That’s quite a huge population area considering that their target audience travels in excess of about 150 miles (similar statistic for Bass Pro Shops).
Whatever happens, I really hope IKEA takes a good look at the Ohio area for a future store.
Yes…IKEA does indeed have very strict conditions for a location of their stores…at least in the U.S. They require highway frontage/visibility and usually require at least 20 acres of land. They do not locate in downtowns or along secondary highways. They also locate near other retail areas, although they generally build freestanding units. The original Potomac Mills store was part of the outlet mall, but IKEA opted to move to a new building near the mall…and, of course, with visibility along the very busy I-95.
We studied IKEA in my college marketing classes. IKEA is very deliberate about how many stores they open per year, and where they are located. Initially, IKEA clustered its stores primarilly along the east and west coast. They added Chicago and Pittsburg. They now have added Minneapolis, Tempe/Phoenix and Atlanta. I know that additional inland cities are on the future list…but IKEA holds that information very close.
Crate and Barrel used to have limited locations based on very exact demographics, but they have started to located stores in medium-sized markets (Columbus, and Cincy), realizing the great potential to go outside the really big markets. My guess is that IKEA will slowly roll out stores in places like Columbus or Cincinnati.