Chileans forget the economic crisis at IKEA

The long queue to enter the first IKEA store in Latin America, in Santiago de Chile, has not stopped since it opened on Wednesday.

Pablo and Viviana traveled this Saturday with their daughter from Valparaíso, an hour and a half west of the capital, to purchase decoration products from the Swedish brand.

Pablo says that he is 45 years old, but his little girl corrects him: 46. "Ah, it's true, today is my birthday," affirms the celebrated man, while slowly advancing in a queue that starts in the street and extends for two floors.

shopping center

, in the municipality of Las Condes, one of the richest in Chile, is at least 40 minutes.

The phenomenon around Ikea "is strange" considering the difficult economic context that the country is going through, says sociologist Octavio Alvarado.

Inflation reaches 12.5% ​​per year and the probability that Chile will fall into a recession this year is 61%, according to the latest report by the Latin American Center for Economic and Social Policies of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, ( Claps UC).

“It is a consequence of a pattern of consumption already installed in the population”, maintains the academic from the University of Chile, “which took root as an effect of neoliberalism.

It is a more consumerist and individualistic culture,” he adds.

On the opening day, IKEA received more than 7,500 customers and on Thursday about 8,900, according to figures provided by the brand that has more than 400 stores in 50 markets around the world.

“I have never entered, but it has a reputation for being cheap.

Times are tough, but you still have to buy things.

I went to live with my boyfriend and we lack things for the house.

We can't eat off the floor,” explains Clara Rozas, a 26-year-old nurse.

Ikea employees welcome the chain's first customers in Santiago, on August 10, 2022.JAVIER TORRES (AFP)

One of the people in charge of directing potential consumers who arrive from the street or the parking lot to the store affirms that the "craze" began on Friday afternoon.

This weekend is three days in Chile, since Monday is a holiday.

“In Santiago, a lot of people go away on long weekends, so we thought it would be emptier.

But we were wrong, ”says Patricio Valenzuela, 36, who like many of those consulted affirms that he only went to the store to accompany his partner.

"It's part of the experience," says his girlfriend Camila Pérez, 34.

Most of the customers are not neighbors of the shopping center.

Some traveled from other regions and others traveled distances of an hour by bus to the shopping center, located in an area without a nearby Metro station.

From Ikea they affirm that, with the aim of reaching the greatest number of people, they decided to install the first stores in two strategic points of the city: the

and the

de Cerillos, a middle-class sector of Santiago.

The latter, which will have 25,000 square meters, will be inaugurated "in the coming months".

“Although the first store was opened in an area where the economic crisis has not had such an impact, it is likely that we will see a similar phenomenon when the Cerrillos store opens.

People are going to go for the novelty, even if they don't buy”, predicts the sociologist.

In its first days of operation, customer interest has focused on furniture and decoration items, the company reports.

"Along with that, we can especially highlight the interest that our traditional

(beef, chicken, vegetable and plant-based meatballs) and the Daim chocolate cake have aroused."

And it is that as usual in IKEA stores, the space has a restaurant and a bistro with typical Swedish food, a market with Nordic foods, as well as a furniture exhibition and a supervised children's play area.

Next to the entrance to IKEA is the H&M clothing store.

There is no queue or to enter the fitting room.

However, when the Swedish brand landed in Chile in 2013, specifically in the Costanera Center, the largest shopping center in Latin America, the madness was also unleashed.

There were groups that held a vigil from the night before the inauguration and opened the doors earlier than expected due to consumer pressure.

“There is a homonym linked to consumption.

Back in the 1980s, when poverty figures were higher and purchasing power lower than now, people behaved the same way,” Alvarado points out.

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