Part II of The Charlotte Grand Opening
Ms. Eva reporting in from the safe and warm comforts of home.
The grand opening of Ikeas 36th store in the US went without a glitch (well sorta . . . if you count the horrific weather prompting Mr. Castanon to open the store 15 minutes early or the fact that they had to call a Mulligan on the log sawing).
The lines were long but it was a very positive atmosphere despite the cold rain. I was roughly the 140th (give or take a few) person in line & from my viewpoint the Ikea staff worked really hard to keep everyone as comfortable and as welcome as they could – nothing but bright shining faces against the harsh elements. They passed out doughnuts, apple juice (there was a rumor of coffee but I saw none), keychains, beach balls, little squishy chairs and frisbees. Yes I scored them all. They also gave out yellow rain ponchos . . . those were a godsend!
The Charlotte Children’s Choir sounded amazing, I actually got a little choked up hearing them sing our National Anthem and America the Beautiful. Kudos to them and their director. My favorite moment during the ceremony itself was when the Mayor of Charlotte told the folks that had been waiting in line since Monday that they were “crazy.”
Yes, we were all were crazy . . . it was freezing! Snow would have been more comfortable to stand in, you can at least brush snow off. The rain permeated through our already cold bodies. But like I said, it was a dedicated group of shoppers. A handful of folks bailed out when they realized that they were not going to get the free Poang chair (apparently they didn’t do their homework). But for the most part I can safely say the staff of Ikea did their best given the circumstances.
Pictures to come later . . . as soon as I recharge my phone & defrost my feet!
What a trooper you are Ms. Eva! Warm your bones – can’t wait to hear about it all once you finally got in. Very cool that he opened 15 mins early.
Yikes!
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We had cold rainy weather here and I was a total wuss… Never set foot outside! Though if they were opening an IKEA in Richmond I suppose I would have been breaking out the warm clothes and umbrella!
Thanks for the pictures and info!
Hello! I am a student at UNC Charlotte writing a story on the IKEA Charlotte location. Do you have a way I can interview you online! I would love to include you in the story? I all ready wrote the story, but after finding your Blog, I want to change it. My deadline is approaching so let me know as soon as you can!
@stephania
Hi Stephania! Are you wanting to interview Ms. Eva? Or PositiveFanatics.com? Ms. Eva is the one who was there, so I would imagine it’s her you want to contact – her site is the IKEACarolina blog: http://ikeacarolina.blogspot.com/ Good luck! You might also want to check out IKEAFANS.com.