“IKEA Sundsvall was the first IKEA store north of Stockholm in Sweden.
It opened forty years ago and people from all over the northern parts
of all of Europe (at least Norway, Sweden and Finland) have been buying
their IKEA stuff here. Before the building complex housed IKEA and a
small shopping mall. In April of this year IKEA opened a separate house
for their store, next to the old mall, and built in the standard blue
and yellow IKEA style. Coming autumn a new IKEA store will open in
Haparanda-Torneå, the border twin towns between Sweden and Finland.
IKEA is the most important and popular tourist attraction of Sundsvall.
And the IKEA parking lot is a very popular camp site (!) for people
with mobile homes and caravans! Holiday-makers stop here for a couple
of days’ of shopping, mostly people from further north who are on their
way home after vacation in the south (Sweden is a long country). “
By northofsweden
View more her photos at FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.
[Thanks Jen!]
Travel
IKEA Haparanda-Torneå, IKEA on Flickr, IKEA parking lot, IKEA Sundsvall
“IKEA, the Swedish furniture giant, is trying to make DIY shopping a less
hellish experience by simplifying its stores.
Two London shops have abandoned the loading bays and cut down on the number
of products to make it easier for customers to make a quick exit. And the IKEA
at Braehead, near Glasgow, has introduced easier-to-read boards to help puzzled
customers find the exit.
The company is even to expand a service matching up customers with local
joiners, who can put together the flat-pack furniture for a fee. In Wembley,
north-west London, IKEA has reduced the number of products on sale from 14,500
to 8,500.
The store, along with the one in Croydon, has abandoned the system of
making people park, then transfer to a parking bay to load up their
purchases.
A spokesman for IKEA Scotland said: “The concept of flat-pack is IKEA’s
bedrock, but in future you will be able to say, ‘I have bought three wardrobes
for my house and I’d like somebody to put them up for me’.”
Claire Smith
Scotsman.com
LINK
In the News
IKEA Braehead, IKEA Croydon, IKEA DIY, IKEA London, IKEA parking lot, IKEA Wembley, Shopping at IKEA
