TheIKEAWorld.com has just launched, and they’re looking for IKEA co-workers to guest blog! Do you have stories at the end of your day that you’d love to share with someone else who would just ‘get it’? Tired of having your friends and family stare at you blankly when you talk about working at IKEA? Then you NEED to blog at TheIKEAWorld! Find out more about guest blogging about the IKEA World!
The private forum for TheIKEAWorld.com is being hosted at IKEAFANS.com, which has an established group of IKEA Co-Workers who are active on the forums. If you’re an IKEA Co-Worker and you’d like to join the IKEA Co-Worker’s Private Forum at IKEAFANS.com, send a request for an invite to: Susan@IKEAFANS.com.
Hej!
Communities, People, Weblogs
IKEA Co-worker, ikea co-workers, IKEA Private Forum, IKEAFANS.com, TheIKEAWorld.com
It’s on all our minds, right? Saving money? Times are tight, and we’re all looking for ways to pinch a penny. Here are some great articles on saving money with IKEA:
From IKEAFANS.com:
Why Choosing IKEA is Smart - “Walking into an IKEA is like walking into a whole new world – it’s a wildly different experience, and it pays to know ahead of time why you should choose IKEA. Forget everything you think you know and read on to find out the top reasons choosing IKEA is the smartest move you’ll make….”
10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices “Just how does IKEA manage to offer such consistently low prices? Many people think that it’s because the furniture is made cheaply, which isn’t exactly true. Read on to find out about some of IKEA’s less obvious cost-saving strategies…”
By Kelly Whitaker @IKEAFANS.com:
DIY IKEA – How to MAKE Money in a Soft Housing Market “I spend a lot of time thinking about my finances- it’s true. Regardless if you do or not, I’d like to share my thoughts about why the current housing market makes an IKEA kitchen a better move than ever before. Everyone contemplating a remodel is or should be familiar with the resale value of typical home renovations…”
From Becky at Eco-Modernism:
Advantage: IKEA Kitchen over Custom It gets pummeled into our brains daily now: HOUSING MARKET IN THE CRAPPER! Yes. Yes it is. I just updated the budget calculation page & thought it worth a post, especially highlighting Kelly’s excellent summary on the IKEAFANS site….
So, there you go. Some good reading for you, less writing for me! Thanks for those most excellent articles, ladies!
Opinions
@ecomod, budget, Budget REmodel, eco-modernism.com, IKEAFANS, IKEAFANS.com, Kelly Whitaker, Save Money
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!]
Advertising & Marketing
ApartmentTherapy.com, EmbraceChange09, IKEA advertising, IKEA campaign, IKEA Interactive Websites, IKEA Oval Office, IKEAFANS.com, Twitter
Positive Fanatics is back!
We’re thrilled to announce that Positive Fanatics is coming back. After chatting with Armand about the future of Positive Fanatics and our commitment to the longevity of its position in the online IKEA community, we’ve agreed to take over and continue in the tradition of offering timely news on IKEA, information on store openings, events and sales, and other tasty tidbits about the store we all love – IKEA.
We don’t plan to change much, though we’ll be posting more frequently (like Armand was able to in the beginning) and focusing on the stories of IKEA fanatics – that’s YOU!
So, please…help us get off on the right foot! Do you have a story to tell? Photos to share? A complaint, grudge or just comments? Send them in! Let’s get this baby moving!
Welcome back, Positive Fanatics!
Susan and James
www.ikeafans.com
Announcements, Communities, Weblogs
IKEAFANS.com, PositiveFanatics
slidegirl64 says:
“Anybody else get a kick out of pointing out IKEA products on TV shows? They show up on sit com sets all the time. My husband is quite impressed with my talent! 
I can’t think of a particular show at the moment… but I go to IKEA so often that I recognize and know the names of a lot of their stuff. I thought it would be fun to see if all you IKEA lovers could keep an eye out for IKEA products on the sets of TV shows, see where they show up, and post them here..”
YES!! I so do that!!! My husband is good at it too! IKEA stuff is on decorating shows, TV, and movies!!! I can’t help but notice everything. lol
Join the discussion @ IKEA Lovers/FLICKR
watch for IKEA Spotting at IKEAFANS.com
Television and Video
IKEA on Flickr, IKEA spotting, IKEAFANS.com
Help embee:
“OK fanatics, I have an Ikea problem. I have an Ikea kitchen bought in Canada in the 80′s. It’s a great kitchen and good as new. The cabinet dimensions are all metric.
A selling point for these kitchens was–and still is–the ability to easily reconfigure everything as needs change. I badly need some new interior fittings, but somewhere along the line Ikea started selling only imperial (that is, American) sized kitchen stuff in Canada — which is a metric country.
Everything but kitchens and beds at Canadian Ikea IS metric.
Every Ikea in the world outside of Canada and the US apparently has the parts I need but, with all of their billions and all of their creativity, they can’t ship what I need to Canada. (I managed, with extreme difficulty, to gain telephone access to their unlisted Canadian head office, but they could do nothing to help.)
As a further issue, we are expanding said kitchen. The 80′s vintage doors are no longer available, so we wanted to replace these doors with a current design. Same story–suitable doors available everywhere outside of North America, but no way to get them here. Of course, local cabinet makers can match the old OR new doors at a staggering price, but Ikea promised me everlasting expansion and reconfiguration availability and they welched on it. Their attitude is “too bad”.
We LIKE our Ikea kitchen and also can’t afford to replace it with all new stuff. So does anyone out there have some access to decision makers at Ikea–or some other creative idea? Surely this situation defies Ikea’s marketing philosophy, and I can’t possibly be alone.
Any suggestions out there?”
…
embee: You might also check out ikeafans for more information on IKEA Kitchens
Projects
IKEA kitchen cabinets, IKEA Kitchens, IKEAFANS.com
Ikea store manager Mark McCaslin believes 300 to 2,000 customers will be waiting to shop at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The first 5,000 shoppers will receive gift cards.
“The Ikea experience”
Chic but cheap designs are expected to attract droves of shoppers to Canton
Kara G. Morrison / The Detroit News
“Ikea is “just a store” the way Mall of America in Minneapolis is “just a mall.” That is to say, it’s an experience.
And
that is why the Swedish home furnishings retailer, at the corner of
Ford and Haggerty roads in Canton Township, expects customers to line
up as early as Monday — two days before the doors open for the first
time in Michigan.
Store manager Mark McCaslin believes anywhere from 300 to 2,000 customers will be there ready to shop at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
That
doesn’t seem like an overly brash estimate, when over the last several
weeks, more than 30,000 Ikea enthusiasts signed up on a special Web
site (www.ikeacantonproject.com) to compete for a pre-opening shopping day and personal store tour.”
LINK
See also: IKEAFANS.com – Personalizing the IKEA Experience since 2005
Store Openings
IKEA Canton, IKEA Grand Opening, IKEA Michigan, IKEA Store Opening, ikea usa, IKEAFANS.com, The IKEA Experience
Our friend LoriAnne DiSabato visit her dad’s old neighborhood and share her insights:
“…the Yukon Studio Loft condos boast Ikea kitchens, something my Dad definitely never had in the Flytown home of his childhood. If it seems odd to sell real estate on the basis of its kitchen appliances and furniture, keep in mind that there are no Ikea stores in Ohio, but there are Ikea fanatics there. Apparently the best way to furnish a tony Short North condo is with funkily fashionable Swedish furniture…and I’d be willing to bet that Swedish-made lamps work better than the Short North’s stylish but non-functional street arches.
So if you’re looking for the “urban lifestyle” of one-bedroom lofts, non-functional street lamps, and arty murals, the Short North district of downtown Columbus, OH might be just what you’re looking for. The art scene is hot and the hangouts are cool…just don’t offer an over-priced cup o’ Joe to an old Italian Daddy named Joe, or he might regale you with stories of the old days when this was a ghetto called Flytown.”
“Not my Daddy’s Flytown”
By LoriAnner DiSabato
Visit her blog, “Hoarded Ordinaries”
IKEA fanatics visit IKEAFANS.com
Weblogs
IKEA fans, IKEA Ohio, IKEAFANS.com
