You walk down the street with a “things to buy” list, and a beautiful shiny hanging clock catches your eye. You start wondering how pretty it would look on your wall, and you give in to your temptations. You buy the clock for your wall. Similarly, we go shopping with things in mind or maybe, with an empty head. Written on our checklist are things we need, or maybe not. Maybe we need it, maybe we just think that it would look cute/good, or maybe simply because you got your first salary. Read more Is Ikea coming to Oklahoma?
When we go out shopping, out of everything, furniture and cloth shopping tops the list for many. It could be for a chair, for a bed, a desk or maybe a cute jacket you saw somebody wearing.
Keeping in mind the furniture shopping, the one brand/store that jumps in your head higher than the rest is IKEA.
What is Ikea?
The name of the brand itself sounds very fascinating. In fact, this fascinating name is a combination of the initials of the personal information of the founder of the company. The name of the founder Ingvar Kamprad makes up the I and K, the name of the farm he grew up in, Elmtaryd, makes up the E, and finally, the name of a nearby village, Agunnaryd, makes up the last alphabet, and altogether makes it IKEA.
IKEA is a retail industry, and sells “ready to assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, and home accessories”. It was founded in Sweden, but currently has its headquarters in the Netherlands, and has been the largest furniture retailer since 2008 in the world.
Ikea’s Popularity
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, writes, “IKEA has always been driven by the goal to create a better everyday life for many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that many people will be able to afford them” and indeed, the reviews by the customers prove this to be true.
- READY TO SELL FURNITURE
The “ready to sell” furniture at Ikea has always been appreciated. One article states, “at the heart of IKEA’s success is value: You know what you are going to get when you shop at IKEA” and keep in mind, such reviews do not come easy, especially when you can stay anonymous while leaving reviews.
- LOW-COST
In terms of its “affordable price”, we can say its low cost is one of the major reasons why it is so popular. In fact, the customers prefer IKEA over the others because its costs are “half the price” of other competitors. In addition, the overall prices cover the transportation costs as well.
- IKEA FAMILY CARD
Even the low costs of products may be out of budget for some. In such cases, IKEA provides a few ways to offer you a discount, and joining the IKEA family is one of them. IKEA family is a membership for its customers, kind of a loyalty card, very common to what other retailers offer to their customers. Once you join the IKEA family membership, you receive discounts and goods at exclusive prices. The IKEA family card is offered in every location with IKEA stores.
Ikea Stores Across the World
IKEA is a multinational conglomerate and as of 2021, IKEA stores are available in 445 different locations, worldwide. The United States alone has 52 IKEA stores as of October 7, 2021, among which California stands alone as the location with the most number of IKEA stores with 8 locations, making it 15% of all the IKEA stores in the United States.
- IKEA’S STORE LOCATION CRITERIA
IKEA follows certain location criteria before opening any store anywhere in the world. Like any other brand, these criteria include many marketing requirements such as brand awareness, population density, and so on.
- Brand awareness
IKEA has always worked on increasing its brand awareness. It must be shocking because it is still popular as it is, even then the marketing team focuses on promoting the low prices, high sustainability of the products among its customers, and other eligible customers, along with the friendly behavior of the team with the customers.
- Population density
Since the basic demand in the market is the audience, or the population, hence, similar to any other brand, IKEA has some population density criteria that each region must fulfill to achieve before opening a store in the same.
IKEA looks for a minimum of two million people within an approximate 40 to 60 miles of a “single media market”.
Is Ikea Coming to Oklahoma?
All this brings us to our main question, is IKEA coming to Oklahoma? And we are afraid the answer will be no.
Sadly, as of 2021, there are no official updates by IKEA about the opening of any store in Oklahoma, or even Oklahoma City or surrounding areas. As per an article, the reason for this is, “Oklahoma city has a population of around 700,000 people” making it much less than the required 4 million inhabitants at the least. This is why IKEA may not even see Oklahoma as a “profitable venture”.
However, the inhabitants of Oklahoma can get IKEA products delivered to them through nearby stores in neighboring states, such as Texas, which is home to 5 IKEA stores.
Here, we end our article. Hope this was of any help!
Anyway, we wish Oklahoma would see the coming of the IKEA store in their region very soon in the future.
