For the record…

IKEA’s new Appleflarn crisp cookies are.. INCREDIBLE

I didn’t think anything could beat the regular plain havreflarn cookies (the chocolate ones are just decadent) but, damn. The apple ones we bought yesterday are liable to be converted into breakfast cereal to speed thier demise. Hope they stick around a while

I got one of the new little mini hand truck carts at IKEA. They are new since the opening, and I think this brings the style of shopping vehicles in the store to four. (But never the one you want when you want it)

Just as the bags, there are yellow versions in the store and blue ones you can buy and take home. Just the right size for household junk too. They are $19.99 to buy, but I think they’ll get cheaper with time like most other things at IKEA.

Currently at West Chester there is a extremely nice selection succulents and cacti in the Greenroom area next to the entrance to the warehouse. My mom took 20 minutes to pick one out, there were so many varieties and just amazingly healthy (I mean NICE) and cheaply priced she had a hard time choosing. If I had a place for plants I would have had a cart full. They are a deal and a half!

IKEA Insider says:

Got a little letter about what's going on at the West Chester Store from a co-worker there - some funny stuff! 

They say:

• Two women have shopped until their water has broken so far.
• Still have a gazillion people taking floor samples down to the registers to buy not figuring out the whole self-serve warehouse thing.
• Many customers are giving up by the time they reach children's frantically asking "How to I get out of here" like they have been lost in a maze upstairs or held captive.
• A raccoon snuck before opening move in. Finally one day on a human resource tour she was caught sleeping soundly on a malm bed… and of course even she thought the beds were comfortable. Just as pleasant as can be but off to the woods she went.
• Lonnie the manager comes in early and offers monthly breakfast time with coworkers for them to chat it up as well a lunch time with him. "He is fantastic." (I concur, he's super nice! - Jen)
• They need lots of people still, so keep the applications coming. They especially need closers, so apply online. They suggest after doing that make a call to the department. Textiles and children's really could use help (textiles is the biggest in North America) and let them know you have applied online and hope to get a call.
• Sales are through the roof!!!

It’s opening in MARCH!?!

THANKS to Eric for the first rumor in MONTHS!

On this page (then page 3) IKEA lists the "Cincinnati, Ohio USA"  Store as opening in March. No exact date though!

This does narrow it to four options, if true: 5th, 12th, 19th, or the 26th.

Yay, camping outside in freezing rain!

Milestone

May 8th is the day for the “official” groundbreaking! Who’s coming?

Scandinavian home furnishings chain Ikea will hold a ground-breaking for its West Chester location on May 8, kicking off the estimated year-long process of building the 340,000-square-foot store.

The event, at the southeast corner of Allen and Muhlhauser roads, begins at 11 a.m. and will be attended by Ikea and local city officials. The store is expected to open in the spring of 2008.

Ikea is known for its gigantic stores filled with modern but practical furniture at struggling-actor prices. The store in West Chester, its first in Ohio, will include a 350-seat cafeteria featuring Swedish specialties and a supervised children’s play area. It will cost an estimated $75 million to build.
Via Link

Needless to say I’ll be there and I’ll have doorprizes! I have about a dozen 2007 catalogs, and still have a mess of IKEA temporary tattoos that I’ve mentioned before, maybe even a few OHIKEA.com stickers… who knows.

And my husband said I was nuts earlier this month for buying a new OHIKEA shirt just to save for the occasion, but I showed him.

EDIT: More from the Middletown Journal here

IKEA West Chester Press Release!

I love waking up to an IKEA press release in my inbox…

Enlarge This

Enlarge This | Download the PDF

Also over here on the Enquirer site.

(I need to run over the site to take pictures again, so look for some more by monday.)

If you’re getting a IKEA in 2007 stand up… Wait, not so fast. Sit back down Ohio…

Boy didn’t think I’d be using rumors and reports category much after the announcement, but here we are.

Half empty statement:
Don’t plan on IKEA Giftcards for Christmas 2007. It won’t be open in time, and they might expire before they finally clams down enough for them to get to use them.

Half full statement:
Fall is at best unpredictable and usually cold, wet and miserable in Ohio, as we all know. Camping out in a parking lot for three days for the opening will be MUCH more pleasant in the spring.

It’s Official!

Ikea on the way!
Video!!

I really can’t take any credit for this, I just wanted to be a conduit of gossip of IKEA coming to Ohio. Gossip came to me. I called people, I chased leads… but that’s all I did. We didn’t do any petitions, or anything, we were just here waiting with baited breath. Noisy enough for IKEA to pay attention to us, but no so much we caused them to do anything they were’nt already thinking of. Nosey but harmless.

Thanks to all of you for joining on my silly bandwagon.

So, What’s next? This blog will monitor construction and opening. Then after that, it will serve as a fan blog showing room makeovers, deals, sales and the like. Ohikea has only just begun!

Woo Hoo!

The Announcement we’ve all waited so long for has come! IKEA is coming to Ohio! WEST CHESTER OHIO! Okay well the OFFICIAL one comes tomorrow, but the info in all these sources matches mine to the letter, Joseph Roth has given a “no comment” and he always usually has SOMETHING to say. I’m calling it true.

Here’s the Location! Mulhauser and Allen in West Chester, along 75, southwest side of the Union Center exit.

I learned all this on Thursday, I’ve been DYINGGGG to tell everyone, but couldn’t. Now that all hell has broken loose and I’ve made it into town to get to wifi from my lovely vacation in NW rural PA. Since the info matches what I was told I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon and be the last to tell everyone! Not what I hoped for, but *I* have a snazzy graphic.

Joseph Roth was tormenting me last week when I wrote him regarding the august ninth date that had come and gone. Im not sure I like him anymore
I won’t be there for the announcement, but they’ll have to hire security to keep me away from the groundbreaking.

More articles to be added here shortly!

Let me just say this…

It would be a very good time to click on of the subscribe links under this post, or set OHIKEA as your homepage for, oh, the next few days or so.

Very very good time.

Just sayin’.

:::whistles cryptically and walks away:::

Nothing yet

A Crate & Barrel was announced for a fancy new center next to Kenwood mall - a let down if you ask me. I hope that wasn’t a bait and a switch by my sources. (I’d put up a link but that’s hot fresh news that I can’t seem to find online yet.)

I’m still holding out hope that my IKEA sources are right and we’ll hear something this week, if not today. They were pretty specific though. The Crate & Barrel deal could have put the kabosh on it for a couple days, no one wants to share the limelight. Of course, I could have also been played, always a possibility, but I wasn’t the only one getting this info, and not by the same people. So it’s really anyone’s guess, I suppose.

When it happens, if it happens, I’ll be here to pop the champagne.

All I know for sure is that it better not come NEXT week because I go on vacation to a largely computer free area at a campground (oddly enough near the Pittsburgh store). I can get to a computer if I have to though. And here I wasn’t gonna bring the laptop.

Meanwhile while we’re all crying in our decidely non-swedish beers, Michigan is in love with IKEA and all is peachy keen. Damn them.