On June 23, Matador Records will finally (production delays!) be releasing the deluxe reissue of the Pavement album, Brighten the Corners, on vinyl. Back in the fall, in honor of this release and the album’s song ‘Date with IKEA’, Matador held a contest encouraging you to submit photos of your space. The prize? A date to go on a $500 IKEA shopping spree and Swedish Meatball Dinner with a member of Pavement! How cool is that?! Congrats to Jenny Bergen of New York, who got to go with Bob Nastanovich to the IKEA in Red Hook!
On Monday, IKEA Charlotte held yet another ceremony leading to the Grand Opening of IKEA Charlotte, the first IKEA in the Carolinas. This ceremony was to open the temporary entrance to IKEA which would allow drivers to turn right from University City Boulevard to North Tyron Street. An actual intersection will be built in the future during phase two of the traffic reengineering.
Unfortunately, noone told the tractor trailer driver that the road wasn’t open quite yet before he smashed through the ribbon. Noone was hurt.
I wonder…did they actually CUT the ribbon after that? Or did they pack up their scissors and go home?
IKEA has entered into a new arena with the opening of the Tulip Inn located near the IKEA Concept Center in Delft, The Netherlands. IKEA is the property owner, and Golden Tulip Hospitality Group is the hotel operator. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on August 31, 2007.
Inter-IKEA Systems B.V. along with the municipality of Delft planted 109 trees of 20-30cm width and an ecological bank was established for local wildlife. Solar panels installed on the hotel assist with the water heating. Read more…
Will IKEA Winnipeg be another IKEA Dublin – Doomed?
Amid all the public excitement over Ikea’s Winnipeg plan is a danger that those high expectations have so far to fall.
Considering this city’s record on infrastructure renewal and paving the way for development, that risk is very real. The international home furnishings retail giant’s arrival here is certainly not a done deal, as long as more than $20 million in street expansions and traffic signal improvements are necessary for the chain to open its proposed 350,000-square-foot outlet within three years. Read more…
Four mothers in the UK were ejected from the IKEA cafeteria in Bletchley and later received an official apology from both from IKEA management in Sweden and the local store manager. Why? Perhaps because not everyone understands homeschooling.
The four homeschooling families have been in the habit of meeting every Monday in the IKEA cafeteria for coffee and a quiet play session, consisting of board and card games and other quiet activities. Recently 6 IKEA co-workers confronted the group and they were ejected from the store for reasons varying from taking up too much room (the cafeteria was 1/2 empty) to bringing outside food (two moms brought food for their babies) and even the highly dubious statement that the kids games were “gambling” and against store rules. One of the co-workers said: ”I don’t see much education going on.” Read more…
BERLIN, Dec. 8 (UPI) — The head of Swedish furniture company Ikea’s German wing says women excel over their male counterparts when it comes to assembling the company’s goods..Petra Hesser, 50, Ikea’s German chief, said women are better skilled at assembling the company’s signature flatback furniture because “men never look at the directions and have the most problems with construction because they always think they can do that,” The Local reported Monday.
“The woman first sorts the parts in an orderly way. Men throw them in a pile and then,something goes missing,” she said. “That is empirically proven.”
Hesser estimated that women make up 40 percent of the furniture giant’s customer base, but men often accompany their female friends and family to give approval for larger purchases.
However, “if the woman is against buying something, then nothing gets done,” she said.
Wow. That’s quite a statement! What do you think? Are women better than men at assembling IKEA furniture? Speak out!
Ikea is to become the UK’s first major retailer to regularly charge customers for plastic bags, to try and tackle waste and environmental damage.
The Swedish firm will charge shoppers 5p for every bag with immediate effect, rising to 10p in September.
It believes the move – accompanied by a switch to biodegradable bags and lower prices for reusable bags – will cut total bag use by 20 million next year.
The Environment Agency praised the move as a “great example” to other firms.
ARCHBOLD – By mid-year, Sauder Woodworking Co. plans to start manufacturing frames and shelves for kitchen cabinetry sold by the Sweden-based home-furnishings retailer Ikea, under a contract Kevin Sauder, president and chief executive officer, said he hopes will be “the first of many.”
Mr. Sauder said the contract, announced yesterday, resulted from seven months of working with Ikea on specifications for the components, made until now in Eastern Europe.
The additional work won’t boost the firm’s employment of about 2,800 in the Archbold area, but it will stabilize the work force, said Mr. Sauder.
“It’s an excellent new relationship,” he said. “I think it’s just the beginning.”
“As Dublin closes in on its 25th birthday, the city continues to grow demographically and economically, Mayor Janet Lockhart said.
At the annual State of the City address, delivered Wednesday, Lockhart told business and city leaders that in the past 10 years Dublin’s revenue from property tax has increased by 400 percent. Revenue from sales tax has risen 92 percent during the same time, and the population jumped from 25,544 to 41,907, Lockhart said….
The city has suffered a loss last year when Ikea decided not to build,” Hildenbrand said, reading Lockhart’s speech.
Blake Hunt Ventures, the development firm that originally planned to build a “lifestyle center” next to Ikea, has agreed to purchase Ikea’s property to add to its project. Those plans are expected to come before the City Council in the early part of this year, and the project may be built by the end of 2009.”
Valley Times
Pleasanton, California
January 18, 2007
Swedish furniture retailer IKEA is buying 70 acres in Frederickson from
the Port of Tacoma, with plans to build a distribution center that will
serve IKEA stores in Washington, Oregon, Utah and the Canadian
provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
The Port of Tacoma commission on Tuesday approved the sale of the
property – on the northeast corner of 38th Avenue East and 200th Street
East – to IKEA for $8.66 million.
Derrick Urquhart, the port’s manager of industrial real estate, said
the distribution center will create 150 jobs and drive more imported
cargo through the port. The distribution center also will add some
diversity to the port’s Frederickson Industrial Area, which now houses
mostly manufacturers such as The Boeing Co., Toray Composites of
America and Northwest Door, Urquhart said.
