The furniture group Ikea is launching a type of shop that is very unfamiliar to him. There is a good reason for this - keyword: car.
- Ikea is trying out a new branch concept in Germany .
- The Swedish furniture store is radically downsizing its stores .
- The reasoning states that this is the way to react to changed customer habits .
Berlin - For many people, the suggestion “Let's go to Ikea on Saturday” sounds like a threat. You have to share the space in the huge branches with numerous other families , in which you can only get from the entrance to the exit on ingeniously predetermined routes. The endeavor definitely takes time - no matter what the end result is. A new Ikea branch, on the other hand, is easy to walk through: It is only 450 square meters and is due to open on September 1st in Berlin-Pankow . "For comparison: Ikea's furniture store in Tempelhof is around 35,000 square meters and 77 times as large," said the Berlin daily newspaper Tagesspiegel. This makes the shop the smallest Ikea in Germany to date .
The final preparations are underway: We are looking forward to the opening of our first #IKEA planning studio on September 1st in #Pankow. Further information on this is also available at https://t.co/MU1hpYyARd https://t.co/uwcPcBMHYX
- IKEA_Germany (@IKEA_Presse) August 28, 2020Smallest Ikea branch in Germany: A question of the car for the planners
Compared to conventional branches, the store is also called a “planning studio” and does not offer take-away goods, but advice on “complex planning, such as kitchens and wardrobes,” as the Swedish company informs on its website. Only selected models from the “core range” should be presented - with the help of around 35 to 40 employees .
But why the downsizing? “We see that customer behavior and needs have changed. More and more people are moving to the cities, and fewer and fewer people own a car, ”says Ikea. In inner-city areas, people want to be “ accessible on foot or by public transport ”. Berlin is one of around 40 metropolises worldwide in which new concepts are being tried out and the expansion strategy is to "focus in future on metropolitan regions and inner cities ".
Smallest Ikea branch in Germany: opening due to Corona without a party
By the end of 2021 , Ikea plans to open up to five such planning studios in Berlin and Brandenburg , the Tagesspiegel learned . The company, which is also breaking new ground with its catalogs or radically expanding the recipe for the Köttbullar on offer, has so far tried out the concept in a few other countries and cities, including Copenhagen and Paris .
However, there will be no party at the opening of the first mini Ikea on September 1st - because of the corona pandemic * . (frs) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network.
