Ikea adds third unit to metro New York market

DSN Retailing Today, July 21, 2003 by Mike Duff

NEW YORK -- Ikea is set to open a new store in Paramus, N.J., and the unit will continue a fresh development pattern for the retailer. With stores opening this year in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco, Ikea is filling in markets as part of a North American growth strategy.

The Paramus store is the third in the New York metropolitan area, following units in Elizabeth, N.J., and on Long Island. New York had been that rare metro area with multiple Ikeas. Only Los Angeles, with four, has had more than two.

The Paramus Ikea unit, which officially opens on July 30, is the company's third in the New York area and 17th store in the United States. A store opened last month in College Park, Md., represents the second Ikea in the D.C. metro area and one planned in East Palo Alto, Calif., is the second in the Bay Area.

By boosting its store total to 18, Ikea breaks another precedent. While the company has opened several new stores in recent years, they have been replacement units. The College Park store was number 16 on the Ikea roll and was the first step in unit expansion in years.

But that's only part of the North American expansion. In Canada, Ikea also is expanding it store base and plans two new units in the suburbs of Montreal and Toronto, both markets where it already operates stores. Those openings will bring the total number of Ikeas operating in Canada to 11.

Whether in the United States or Canada, the additional units are the foundation of a planned 50-unit, 10-year North American growth push

The Paramus store is big even by Ikea standards at 370,000 square feet. As with the College Park unit that debuted earlier this year, the Paramus store is more than double the size of many, particularly older U.S. Ikeas, and it takes the title of chain's second-largest U.S. unit away from College Park.

Including new and replacement units, Ikea plans to open a total of five U.S. stores by the end of August. Each will be part of the new generation of mega outlets and larger than 240,000 square feet. In addition, the two new units scheduled to bow in Canada this year will be up to the new standard in size. They will be the second- and fourth-largest Ikeas in Canada.

Ikea has plans for all the space in those new units. In Paramus, the store will feature five "model home" displays, which include kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath set-ups. It also will offer 54 coordinated room settings. Both the home and room settings are designed to encourage consumers to coordinate-- and boost--their Ikea purchases. The store also boasts 11 play areas. Increasingly, Ikea is promoting itself as a resource for families and not just the singles and young couples who have been regarded as its prime customer base.

To promote the opening, Ikea is staging an event similar to one they mounted at the College Park debut. "We'll have five people sleeping out front for three days and nights," noted Kevin DeSantis, an Ikea spokesman. The prize for sticking it out is a $2,000 gift card, and another nice benefit is getting served breakfast each morning by a celebrity. At press time, just who that celebrity would be hadn't been determined. Barbara Eden, who blinked her way to fame as Jeannie in the 1960s television show "I Dream of Jeannie," was the celebrity who greeted the Ikea campers at College Park. Additionally, the first 100 folks into the store get one of the company's Poang chairs.