urbanSTL

JMStokes wrote:Am I the only one who would rather not see IKEA show up?



-huge buildings with massive amounts of parking

- "throwaway" furniture that contributes to pollution / global warming / whatever

- personally I think their stuff is ugly



I don't get the appeal, and I lived 10 minutes away from the Schaumburg store. I think I bought some hangers there once, and some swedish meatballs.

I'm not sure anyone would call their furniture "high quality" but its not all balsa wood and laminate either. There are a lot of solid wood tables and other furniture pieces you can buy at prices you wouldn't find elsewhere. While I don't like all the IKEA styles, some of their stuff is attractive to me because I find a lot of furniture stores here only sell big-ass pieces of furniture (seriously, I'm an average size guy so a single dining room chair should not fit two of me).



Not every IKEA has to be located in the sprawl of Bolingbrook (which I agree seems like a waste). I think IKEAs are good fits for older suburbs (and portions of central cities that resemble older suburbs). The Detroit IKEA is located on a commercial corridor through an older suburb. It has good highway access and existing roads were able to absorb the additional traffic. I think the actual site used to house an old Kmart and strip mall. Most of the surrounding retail is probably around 25-30 years old (some of the first big boxes) and up until IKEA was in a state of rapid decline. Now there's actually some revitalization occurring as neighboring businesses are benefiting from the increased IKEA traffic.

I think securing a IKEA store would be helpful to the region on that fact that it is a major retailer of significance not present in the region. How many more developments do we want proposing another Super Walmart, Target Greatland, Best Buy, Lowes' etc. etc.



Not impressed with one and only one time I bothered to go to the Bollingbrook store while living in the Chicago area. However, I thought the idea of incorporating multiple levels like a department store was unique and set itself apart from other box stores. I think it gives them some flexibility in site location and development. Next feature they should add - roof top garden and coffe shop if and when they have a great location

Dredger wrote:I think securing a IKEA store would be helpful to the region on that fact that it is a major retailer of significance not present in the region. How many more developments do we want proposing another Super Walmart, Target Greatland, Best Buy, Lowes' etc. etc.

Exactly. I'd like to see one locate here simply for something different. I think the soon-to-be-dead Chrysler assembly site would be ideal.



Juice, I like IKEA's stuff, but not enough to drive to Chicago for it.

stlmike wrote:Deciding to enter a new market isn't as simple as all this. In addition to the things you mention, major retailers factor in a whole lot of market research before approaching an area: they collect demographic data on the shoppers of their existing stores and contrast those demographics with the market in the new area. Then they they look at things like which other stores their shoppers tend to gravitate towards and judge whether or not those other stores exist in the new market and how well they have done. They probably attempt to determine whether or not the market is saturated (how many of retailers like them exist in the area?). They probably try to determine the overall retail success the area is producing and in what sorts of retail? Then, they may contrast these sorts of questions with the population, the average income of the population, maps of population density, maps of wealth density, etc. They may look at said maps and determine that their store may not do as well in the metro area as it would in another. It's not simply based on population or metro-population alone!

When reading through the comments, this above is exactly what came to mind. In Cincinnati and Cleveland we see this a lot with Columbus. For some odd reason, Cbus is a major test market and sometimes will get new stores before the other 2C's which leaves us thinking "What?".



I'd also echo what South Compton said, not all of their furniture is plywood. They have plenty of solid wood, steel-frame sets that will beat anyone's price. If you want plywood at IKEA, you can find it, but it'll be the cheapest piece of furniture you'll buy - dollar-wise.



I do think IKEA plans for metro's and proximity ... just look at their parking lot. 1/3 of the lot is designed to accommodate U-Hauls, and the main entrance was designed for truck loading. I have friends that would rent a U-haul and fill it up at IKEA in Chicago. If this weren't the intention, why not save money/time/hassle and have it delivered locally?



I don't know why anyone wouldn't want one in their city either, just drive through the parking lot and look at the tags ... if people drive 2-4 hours to come within 20 mins. of your city center, why not make a day of it to hang out? Thank God that 2/3 of their items are available for pick-up only!

A rerun of "30 Rock" last night made me think of this thread



Floyd: Times like this I really regret leaving New York



Liz Lemon: What does NY have that Cleveland doesn't? I heard you guys are getting an IKEA



Floyd: Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it--it's just that we've been burned before.

Great column by Ellen Ruppel Shell in JUL/AUG issue of The Atlantic about the "high cost" of IKEA:



http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/ideas-ikea



I couldn't have said it better.

I was going to say, that sounded very familiar. Then I noticed she is the author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.. The book goes quite a bit more in depth into IKEA in particular and the concept of cheap in general, and is very interesting. Pretty quick read if you're interested.

Although I hate to bring this up again, I noticed in an article on the P-D's website that the developers have mentioned Ikea as a possible tenant of the Glen Carbon mega-project that would be underwritten by STAR bonds. Any idea if this is just wishful thinking on their part, or is it based on any real possibility Ikea might move in?

The article: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument

southsidepride wrote:Liz Lemon: What does NY have that Cleveland doesn't? I heard you guys are getting an IKEA



Floyd: Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it--it's just that we've been burned before.

Subtract Cleveland and add St. Louis to that comment, and it fits perfectly. See also the Arcade/Wright Building renovation, Mercantile Exchange, Ballpark Village, etc. Those are bigger disappointments to me than the elusive IKEA, but I'd still like to see IKEA in the metro area eventually.

No desire for IKEA, they could have some unique opportunities in St. Louis to build an unique destination store, like under the Union Stations Shed, or anchor an urban developement such as Ballpark (next to a two destination points that bring in millions year in and year out - Busch Stadium and short walk from the Arch Grounds), or try to help revitalize and bring jobs to the northside. No, UTC developement shows IKEA's desire and basis of their business model. Build a big bright box store in a greenfield development, surrounded by a sea of free surface parking (a lot cheaper to pave a field then build a garage), get as much tax breaks as possible and make sure it is located next to a freeway intersection. Their is nothing unique let alone European about their store or business model.

I don't get the IKEA cult either. It's the same particle-board stuff that you can find anywhere. Must be great marketing.

(Hey, I just discovered that the new Urban STL seems to have built-in spell check. Nice.)

Framer wrote:(Hey, I just discovered that the new Urban STL seems to have built-in spell check. Nice.)

Eye no. Spell Czech is grate. Eye ewes it although thyme. Ay dew knot no wat eyed dew with out it.

And, for the record, I mostly agree with everyone - I'd like to see one come here, but it's not the end of the world if we're without.

-RBB

Here we go again. Developer wants to attract IKEA....

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... 2257b.html

Rowdy Montgomery, president of Cadre Development, said he and other players involved want to attract what's called a 'super regional" retailer — operations such as Ikea and Nebraska Furniture Mart that have only one store in a metropolitan region.

^Does anyone know where the other IKEA is in the metropolitan region..?

^And it's still cheap crap either way. I went to IKEA when I was last in Chicago to check out what all the talk was about, and I didn't find a single thing I wanted to buy.

DogtownBnR wrote:Here we go again. Developer wants to attract IKEA....

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... 2257b.html

Rowdy Montgomery, president of Cadre Development, said he and other players involved want to attract what's called a 'super regional" retailer — operations such as Ikea and Nebraska Furniture Mart that have only one store in a metropolitan region.

^Does anyone know where the other IKEA is in the metropolitan region..?

I think he's saying once there is one IKEA in a region, there doesn't usually tend to be another one. So there will only be one, if/when it ever gets built.