Ikea for Canberra

dungfungus said :

What is so good about something that is “Danish-inspired”?
It’s probably made in China anyhow.

Danish style furniture is simple, clean lines, looks beautiful. Sure it’s made in China, everything is. I got this from IKEA for $429: http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/80160730/

The only thing I could find in Canberra even close to what I wanted cost $2500 and was something like this: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=43444650

switch said :

Roksteddy said :

It will be a while before it’s opened though. They have to construct the place using one Allen key.

I suppose they could make some public art from the bits left over, too.

In Paris, a church was constructed from the easily identifiable steel offcuts left over when the Eiffel Tower was completed. Most of the labour was supplied by workers from the tower construction.
All that will be left over from the Ikea store construction is some huge cardboard flatpack cartons (with Allen keys already nominated). Canberra could have a tourist attraction named the “The Big Box”.

A_Cog said :

I drove to a Sydney IKEA over a long weekend to buy the sofa I wanted. Seven hour roundtrip. Not great, but not a killer either.
When I was paying, the cashier asked me, “for marketing purposes, what’s your postcode?”
I said “2600”.
She said, “oh, we always get alot of Canberrans down here on long weekends. I wonder why that is.”
I said, “it’s because this wonderful danish-inspired sofa is $429, and the closest comparison I could find in Canberra was $2500.”

I could have bought SIX sofas from IKEA for one Canberra sofa. Oh sure, I could have just bought some second-hand fat-guy sofa from Queanbeyan Salvos for $50, but I wanted something comfy and beautiful.

So yeah, I *wonder* what the impact will be on other Canberran furniture stores.

FINALLY, some competition. Now if we could only get some competition for almost every other business sector here.

What is so good about something that is “Danish-inspired”?
It’s probably made in China anyhow.

Roksteddy said :

It will be a while before it’s opened though. They have to construct the place using one Allen key.

I suppose they could make some public art from the bits left over, too.

I drove to a Sydney IKEA over a long weekend to buy the sofa I wanted. Seven hour roundtrip. Not great, but not a killer either.
When I was paying, the cashier asked me, “for marketing purposes, what’s your postcode?”
I said “2600”.
She said, “oh, we always get alot of Canberrans down here on long weekends. I wonder why that is.”
I said, “it’s because this wonderful danish-inspired sofa is $429, and the closest comparison I could find in Canberra was $2500.”

I could have bought SIX sofas from IKEA for one Canberra sofa. Oh sure, I could have just bought some second-hand fat-guy sofa from Queanbeyan Salvos for $50, but I wanted something comfy and beautiful.

So yeah, I *wonder* what the impact will be on other Canberran furniture stores.

FINALLY, some competition. Now if we could only get some competition for almost every other business sector here.

bigfeet said :

Having never been to an Ikea store I’ve got to admit I’m interested to see what all the fuss is about.

I am wondering however if it will go the way of Krispy Kreme. Before we got one in Canberra everyone was crying out that we desperately needed a store and that opening one here would make millions.

There also were regular organised runs to Sydney to pick up boxes of the stuff.

Once the store opened here the novelty quickly wore off and it just struggled to get by.

There is already a strong Ikea customer base in Canberra. Krispy Kremes suffered in Australia in general, the product wasn’t that great. I had a coffee from there once and apparently the beans they used were sweetened !!!! I asked for no sugar in my coffee, returned it and they made me another. same flavour and they said the beans are sweetened to go with the donuts…..

It will be a while before it’s opened though. They have to construct the place using one Allen key.

dungfungus said :

I wonder what concessions were given by the ACT Government to get them here?
I suspect there was some serious “bidding” between the government and the airport people across the road.
Other than rate revenue and GST I can’t see any other economic benefit being passed on to us.

Well given Ikea have said approximately 5-10% of the 2 Sydney stores revenue came from Canberrans, its better off in Canberra than in Sydney. Creates more jobs and will actually mean people from Southern NSW will come to Canberra to go to Ikea and Costco. This is the sort of thing you conservatives love Dungfungus, or do you not want anything to change at all? apparently they already have 22,000 members in Canberra also. Even in Sydney, some people have to travel an hour or more to get to Ikea and it makes money.

bigfeet said :

Having never been to an Ikea store I’ve got to admit I’m interested to see what all the fuss is about.

I am wondering however if it will go the way of Krispy Kreme. Before we got one in Canberra everyone was crying out that we desperately needed a store and that opening one here would make millions.

There also were regular organised runs to Sydney to pick up boxes of the stuff.

Once the store opened here the novelty quickly wore off and it just struggled to get by.

One thing nobody has mentioned is that it will be on the other side of Majura Dr, away from Costco, Masters, etc meaning that shoppers will have to make a special trip to go there. Will people be willing to do that?

Having never been to an Ikea store I’ve got to admit I’m interested to see what all the fuss is about.

I am wondering however if it will go the way of Krispy Kreme. Before we got one in Canberra everyone was crying out that we desperately needed a store and that opening one here would make millions. There also were regular organised runs to Sydney to pick up boxes of the stuff.

Once the store opened here the novelty quickly wore off and it just struggled to get by.

I wonder what concessions were given by the ACT Government to get them here?
I suspect there was some serious “bidding” between the government and the airport people across the road.
Other than rate revenue and GST I can’t see any other economic benefit being passed on to us.

Well, that’s one less excuse to go to that mad city with its clogged up artillery road.

Bring it oneth.

I’m keen on there being a stack of jobs here (rather than paying for the jobs in the Sydney stores) – so it’s a win on that front from me.

Mmm – those meatballs! I’m guessing http://www.bringithome.com.au is not overly excited about the news? Although I guess watto23 is correct, perhaps there will still be a business delivering those large flat packs from the Canberra store to the locals.

Independent furniture suppliers are probably not in the same market as Ikea. Maybe fantastic furniture perhaps has something to worry about? Also the companies that have been delivering ikea from Sydney to Canberra, although I guess even flatpacks can be hard top get home in some vehicles, so they will probably just deliver from the Canberra store.

I might have mentioned that on here a little while back. 😉