Today’s Oct. 11 opening of Swedish home furniture giant IKEA, located in Fishers, Indiana, has been met with much excitement.
A number of high-profile guests will be in attendance at the opening ceremony, including state Representative Todd Huston, state Senator Victoria Spartz and Honorary Swedish Vice Consul Anna Engstrom Patel.
The store is the 45th IKEA in the United States and the 408th in the world. The 289,000 square-foot store is the first IKEA to have one story, and is fitted with one of the largest solar rooftops in Indiana. The Fishers store employs around 300 local residents.
The store announced many giveaways throughout the week of popular items such as sofas, mattresses and a year’s supply of their Swedish meatballs.
The line for the Wednesday opening started on Monday. The first 45 adults to enter the new store will receive a free three-seat sofa. The following 100 adults will receive an armchair, and the first 2,500 will receive envelopes with contents ranging from food coupons to $250 gift cards.
On Thursday, the first 45 adults will receive a queen-sized mattress, with the following 100 adults receiving a sleep set containing a bedspread and cushion covers.
Friday’s giveaway for the first 45 adults will receive a four-piece cookware set. The next 100 adults will receive vouchers for 12 monthly meatball meals at the IKEA Fishers location.
The first 100 children will receive a heart-shaped stuffed toy on Wednesday, a golden dog stuffed toy on Thursday and a free soft-serve frozen yogurt voucher on Friday.
The focus of IKEA’s design is in storage solutions, which are a common problem in small European apartments. A unique part of their business model is flat-packing and self-assembly, which allows customers to take their purchased furniture home and put it together.
IKEA hosted a media tour a week in advance of the opening, where Fishers manager Holly Davidson introduced the store before the guided tours were given.
The storefront attempts to set the stage for the showrooms. “We start with a dream section of items that are in season,” says the tour guide, Carolina.
In each showroom set, all items on display are from IKEA’s catalogue.
There are also three fully furnished compact model homes within IKEA’s expansive showrooms. The largest of these is 590 square-feet, with the smaller two having 376 square-feet and 270 square-feet respectively.
The homes demonstrate how IKEA’s products can increase the livable space and storage capacity of small apartments. The showrooms also aim to tell stories of people that would live in them.
“We hope they inspire customers to imagine themselves living with these items at home,” says Carolina.
Those hoping to find inspiration at IKEA’s newest store can do so every day of the week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The in-store restaurant hours are 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily. Today’s grand opening hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the restaurant closing at 8:30 p.m.
IKEA in Fishers is located just off of I-69 and 116th Street.