Get your IKEA on! For 2 days only, and only until 10:30am, get a free breakfast at IKEA! Tomorrow, January 31st, 2009 and Sunday, February 1st, 2009.
Not valid for our IKEA friends in Hicksville, Houston, or Pittsburgh. Boo! One free small breakfast, and one free cup of coffee each, please!
Oh, and there’s some furniture on sale too. See here: Seize the Days
Enjoy!!
Totally cool story about how social networking through Twitter saved the day for one IKEA customer. Story told by OzDJ (@OzDJ) on his Phlog and retold by LaurelPapworth on her Social Media Blog: the business of being social.
Long story short:
I actually saw these tweets go by in my twitter stream, (!!) and having witnessed the same on IKEAFANS on many occasions, I nodded and went back to work. The difference here is IMMEDIACY. Within an hour, OzDJ had posted this picture of said stock:
Now, THAT’s the power of social networking. I always knew IKEA fans are just the best kind of people there are! Now, proof.
Check out the evolution of TwitterCaching that grew out of this exchange: #twittercache and OzDJ’s post about it here: Forget the Obama Inauguration – this is the first ever #twittercache.
So far, IKEA has stated that IKEA Tampa will be opening Summer 2009, but on the IKEA Group Corporate site, there’s a May 2009 Opening indicated. Could it be that IKEA will come early to Tampa?
Let’s hope so! By the way…we’re looking for local guest bloggers who would be interested in blogging about the upcoming opening of the IKEA Tampa location in Ybor City. Interested? Contact us!
Holy Akurum, Batman! That’s a lot of kitchens! According to the Triangle Business Journal,
Swedish home-furnishings giant Ikeais putting the final touches on its first North Carolina store, which is scheduled to open next month in Charlotte.
The 356,000-square-foot store will be one of the chain’s largest. It will feature three model homes and 49 room vignettes, including 17 kitchens. Shoppers will be able to buy more than 10,000 exclusively designed products — from furniture to art, tableware and even food.
I do wish IKEA would stop selling themselves as a full-service setup though:
Ikea now offers on-site designers to help shoppers create complete rooms, take measurements and recommend contractors to assemble the furniture. The store also can arrange home delivery.
Though IKEA has many supporting businesses that will help with design, ordering, delivery, assembly and installation, anyone who’s been there knows that IKEA itself is not about the service aspect. IKEA is all about the low prices. It’s about doing something for yourself. And that’s ok by me – that’s the deal I have with Ingvar. 
If you’re not confident about doing it yourself, seek help – North Carolina is home to Eco-Modernism (See post: IKEA Runs: Need your IKEA Fix? Hire a local delivery service), a few new startups, and Custom Assembly and Install out of Atlanta is contracted with IKEA as a Certified Installer.
You can get in line for the IKEA Charlotte Grand Opening starting at 9am on Monday, February 16th, 2009 in advance of the Wednesday, February 18th Grand Opening Event. And while we’re on the subject, PositiveFanatics.com is seeking Guest Bloggers to document the experience of the Charlotte IKEA Grand Opening. Need your 15 minutes in the sun? Contact us!
[Via Triangle Business Journal]
IKEA’s campaign, EmbraceChange09 is inventive, as are most IKEA campaigns. This one is a multi-media campaign consisting of a website, www.embracechange09.com, which will allow visitors to furnish the Oval Office with IKEA furniture. There’s also a standing offer to President Elect Obama and the First Lady to furnish any room in the White House for free.
IKEA said, of the campaign expenditures,
the campaign’s significance is on par, if not greater than promotions for new store openings.
Billboards and posters plastered all over the metro system in D.C. have caused a bit of a backlash on sites such as adrants.com. The campaign also includes metro-area bus wraps, the staged Oval Office complete with Secret Service agents staged in Union Station in Washington, D.C. seen above. Overall, ApartmentTherapy.com viewers are rating the campaign, Hot!
A controversial mock motorcade has spawned a Twitter petition @IKEAGreen – the first petition of its kind on the Social Media site, Twitter. See Petition IKEA to Go Green with EmbraceChange09 Campaign at the IKEA Fans blog for more information on the controversy over the motorcade which will motor through Washington D.C. for 2 days later this week.
The interactive website (www.embracechange09.com) set up by IKEA for this campaign will be active on the 16th, and in addition to decorating the Oval Office, visitors will be able to enter a sweepstakes to win one of three $1500 IKEA Gift Cards. Wish me luck!
[Photo by cpayne via Flickr - thanks!]
IKEA Southampton, UK is due to open on Thursday, February 12th – the first UK IKEA built in a city centre and the Swedish furniture giant’s 254th store worldwide. IKEA anticipates the Southampton IKEA being an important testing ground logistically due to the location in the center of an urban area.
City officials, police and IKEA top level managers have been working together to ensure no repeat of the riot that took place when the IKEA in North London was opened in 2005. A man was stabbed and others injured in the crush that took place at the door on Grand Opening Day. IKEA was forced to shut its doors only 30 minutes after opening.
Says IKEA Southampton Store Manager, Allesandra Taffe,
Of course we want people to come on the opening day, it is quite exciting and there will be some offers which will be quite good for customers, but not crazy.
It’s not in anybody’s interest to have mass chaos, certainly not ours,we want the shopping experience to be a good one.
Taffe previously managed the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania US IKEA store for 4 1/2 years, and will manage 500 co-workers at the new IKEA Southampton. These local co-workers will be joined by over 100 IKEA co-workers from around the world who will help prepare and launch the store.
Staff will be on hand at the entrance to help “IKEA virgins” find what they are after and there will be a crèche where parents can dump their children to shop in relative peace.
Don’t forget to buy the kiddies a frozen yogurt after ‘dumping’ them off!
[Image via The Daily Echo]
There is an email circulating that appears to come from homeplanner@ikea.com which contains a virus – supposedly the Netsky worm. The email looks like this:
DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. DELETE THE EMAIL IMMEDIATELY. This is not a legitimate email from IKEA – it is an email containing a dangerous worm known as Netsky.
[Photo and tip via IKEAFANS.com Blog]
Richard Castanon - IKEA Charlotte Store Manager
IKEA Charlotte is opening in just over a month – February 18th is the magical date! Check out the IKEA Charlotte Readying to Open slideshow on CharlotteObserver.com.
Have you been able to get any photos of the new IKEA in Charlotte, NC? We’d love to get your pictures!
[Photo via CharlotteObserver.com]
According to a press release dated today, January 6, 2009, IKEA Tampa is now officially hiring for the new IKEA store to be opened in the Tampa Bay area in Summer 2009.
TAMPA, Fla. – (Business Wire) IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today announced it has begun the recruitment process for its future Tampa store, set to open Summer 2009 in the Ybor City-area. Candidates interested in working at the future IKEA Tampa – the Swedish company’s 3rdstore and restaurant destination in Florida, 6th in the Southeast, and 37th in the United States – should look online (www.IKEA-USA.com) for all available positions at the future store. Candidates without access to a home computer are encouraged to visit a local library for online computer access.
“We are thrilled to offer interested jobseekers diverse positions with limitless opportunity at a global company,” said Monica Varela, store manager of the future IKEA Tampa. “At IKEA, we realize that the ability to do the things in life that bring success and happiness is extremely valuable to our coworkers.”
While IKEA Tampa progresses through construction and outfitting, a variety of positions are open to local residents. Prospective coworkers are welcome to apply for the nearly 400 diverse positions as postings are available in: home furnishings sales, interior decoration, customer service, safety and security, cashiers, maintenance, goods flow, receiving, warehouse and stock replenishment. Also, setting itself apart from other retailers in the area, IKEA Tampa will offer – among the 400 total positions to be hired for the store – approximately 75 food service opportunities in its Restaurant, Swedish Foodmarket, Café Bistro and coworker cafeteria.
Named in FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list (three consecutive years), Working Mother magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” (four consecutive years) and Training magazine’s annual “Top 100” ranking of companies that excel at human capital development (five consecutive years), IKEA places value and emphasis on coworkers’ personal lives and the importance of a work/life balance.
Don’t live near an IKEA? Need to make an IKEA run, but you don’t have the time, energy or you don’t want the wear and tear (not to mention the fuel!) on your own vehicle? Well, if you’re in or near Raleigh, NC, Las Vegas, NV or Nashville, TN, you’re in luck!
Based in Raleigh, NC, Eco-Modernism.com is will not only bring your IKEA goods to you, owner Becky Shankle will design your kitchen or bathroom and assemble and/or install for you as well. Prices for the IKEA-run service range from flat fees starting at $30 for purchases under $99 to a 22% for purchases over $501. IKEA runs to the Woodbridge, VA store are scheduled monthly (sometimes twice a month!), and the schedule is featured prominently on the site.
Local delivery can also be arranged for an additional fee. Fees for design or assembly/install services are available by contacting eco-modernism directly through email. Catch up with Becky via Twitter @ecomod Read more…
