IKEA

IKEA is a Swedish home furnishings retailer. It has 202 stores in 32 countries, most of them in Europe, the rest in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. More than 20 are scheduled to open during 2005. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations in Israel as well as in other nations in the Middle East.

Community impact

IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in their merchandise may be trumped by the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community:

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Like all big-box stores, IKEA stores draw consumers from a very large area. Although they were in the U.S. before the United Kingdom and other European countries, IKEA had very few stores until recently. Because they have few stores, they often drew consumers from out of state. The handful of American cities which accepted IKEA stores were delighted by the subsequent surge in sales tax revenue, yet dismayed at the accompanying surge in traffic congestion.

Related Topics:
Big-box store - U.S. - Sales tax - Traffic congestion

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For example, when an IKEA opened in April 2000 in Emeryville, California, the traffic was so severe that most local traffic lights were rendered useless. Emeryville police were forced to manually direct traffic daily for three months. When an IKEA opened in Tempe, Arizona in November 2004, the traffic jams on Interstate 10 were so severe that the Arizona Department of Public Safety had to close the nearest off-ramp to the store just to spread out the traffic among other nearby off-ramps.

Related Topics:
April 2000 - Emeryville - California - Traffic light - Tempe - Arizona - November 2004 - Interstate 10

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IKEA's most popular store in Brent Park, London frequently has traffic jams on the weekends.

Related Topics:
Brent Park - London

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A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get around the store. The store was closed to allow time for adequate policing (due to the customer overflow only two officers were on site for the launch) and to evacuate the six wounded. The store was re-opened at 5pm with no additional incident.

Related Topics:
Edmonton - 10 February - 2005

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Minding the above problems, the store at Atlantic Station in Atlanta opened on 29 June 2005 with 20 off-duty police officers directing traffic. That store is its first in the Southeast U.S., its third-largest in North America, and the only one to serve grits. The first person in line had been there a week.

Related Topics:
Atlantic Station - Atlanta - 29 June - 2005 - Southeast U.S. - North America - Grits

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