IKEA to Nashville

[donNdonelson2]

It makes absolutely no difference to me. I've wandered through the maze of many IKEA stores and have never bought anything but a plate of Swedish meatballs. It's a lot of very "stylish" furniture in a box, most of which is not very sturdy or likely to be long-lasting (and I'm well past the college dorm years of my life so their product line is of little interest to me).  If they locate a store here-okay. If they never build one here-that's okay by me, too. 

[KJHburg]

I agree that there seems to be no rhyme or reason with their site selection process.  Both Raleigh and Nashville are incredibly fast growing metro areas yet cut from the list.  I don't know the specifics on how the Memphis store came to be but just looking at a map and population within certain miles would have told you Nashville would be a better location for all of Tennessee and most of Kentucky and the 2 large Alabama population centers. 

I think sometimes European chains don't know how to tackle a huge country like the USA.  For example German grocer Lidl when they announced their new grocery store locations they said they wanted to open stores from Atlanta to Philadelphia initially.  You can't  distribute groceries in such a large area without the infrastructure.  Now Lidl stores in the USA are mostly in NC, VA and some in adjoining states and they have open distribution centers in NC and VA only from what I know of.    They also said they wanted to open in Texas but soon abandoned that plus they really abandoned Georgia at this point.  

[titanhog]

The part that makes me scratch my head is that earlier in the year they made an announcement that they were going to halt building the big box stores, thus ending the already-announced stores in Nashville and other communities.  Now...just a few months later, they're talking about building more big box stores in smaller cities.  Just makes me wonder what suddenly changed their minds on big box stores.

Of course, maybe they're just going to build one of those 40% smaller stores they've been talking about...but it makes no sense to drop Nashville if you decide just a few months later to go with OKC.

https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/love-ikea-but-hate-shopping-there-their-new-store-is-designed-just-for-people-like-you.html

[TNinVB]

Heck with all that being said, perhaps Nashville could be back in the cards in the near future. It really is hard to figure out at this point. As far as the Aldi’s and Lidl’s that were mentioned above, they seem to be on every other corner here in Hampton Roads. They are nice, but I don’t see how they are going to do with such a large variety of grocery stores in the area. A local chain called Farmfresh recently went out of business because they couldn’t compete with all the Food Lions, Kroger’s, Harris Teeters, Whole Foods, Fresh Markets and now Aldi and Lidle. We currently have a Wegmans under construction slated to open in the Spring. I’ve never been to one since they are a chain out of the northeast but people were so ecstatic when it was announced here. Guess it’s a big deal.  Anyways, I just don’t get how so many grocery stores survive. I would always joke about all of the mattress stores popping up all over the place (at least they are here) and wonder how they could stay in business. Now look where Matress Firm is heading....Chapter 11. 

[LA_TN]

5 hours ago, samsonh said:

Are you guys really upset ikea isn’t coming? A store not being in your city affects your feelings? Strange.

I have never been in one, so I can't say. I know many people like it, so it would be nice to have for them

This was disappointing for Cane Ridge/Antioch because it was going to bring in a high profile retailer, which would draw more retail and attention to the area. Century Farms is still moving forward, regardless of IKEA, but a lot of effort and time from many people were wasted because IKEA changed their minds AFTERWARDS 

[titanhog]

4 hours ago, TNinVB said:

Heck with all that being said, perhaps Nashville could be back in the cards in the near future. It really is hard to figure out at this point. As far as the Aldi’s and Lidl’s that were mentioned above, they seem to be on every other corner here in Hampton Roads. They are nice, but I don’t see how they are going to do with such a large variety of grocery stores in the area. A local chain called Farmfresh recently went out of business because they couldn’t compete with all the Food Lions, Kroger’s, Harris Teeters, Whole Foods, Fresh Markets and now Aldi and Lidle. We currently have a Wegmans under construction slated to open in the Spring. I’ve never been to one since they are a chain out of the northeast but people were so ecstatic when it was announced here. Guess it’s a big deal.  Anyways, I just don’t get how so many grocery stores survive. I would always joke about all of the mattress stores popping up all over the place (at least they are here) and wonder how they could stay in business. Now look where Matress Firm is heading....Chapter 11. 

Have you ever been in a HyVee grocery store?  I wish we had some around here in Nashville.  I stayed in Omaha, NE for a couple of weeks on business 2 years ago and fell in love with that store.  Great variety...and they have a deli / market with hot food that's honestly restaurant quality.  Pop in and out with a meal in seconds...and not your typical fried chicken with veggies...but roast beef, chinese food, thai food, etc.  You name it, and they may be serving it that day...and it's really good. 

[urbanplanet17]

One reason people want Ikea is the same reason they want stores like Costco and Whole Foods. They're trendy places that people will pay a premium to live nearby.  It makes the community much more desirable which leads to higher property values, thus making those residents wealthier.

Also, smaller trendy retailers/restaurants tend to quickly follow behind these trendy anchor stores like sheep. They assume if that market is good enough for exclusive places like Ikea, Whole Foods and Costco, it's good enough for them too.

The articles below do a good job of expanding on this in detail:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/07/14/how-whole-foods-decides-if-your-neighborhood-is-worthy/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zillow/2017/06/19/living-near-whole-foods-can-boost-your-homes-value/

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by urbanplanet17

[urbanplanet17]

15 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I agree that there seems to be no rhyme or reason with their site selection process.  Both Raleigh and Nashville are incredibly fast growing metro areas yet cut from the list.  I don't know the specifics on how the Memphis store came to be but just looking at a map and population within certain miles would have told you Nashville would be a better location for all of Tennessee and most of Kentucky and the 2 large Alabama population centers. 

I think sometimes European chains don't know how to tackle a huge country like the USA.  For example German grocer Lidl when they announced their new grocery store locations they said they wanted to open stores from Atlanta to Philadelphia initially.  You can't  distribute groceries in such a large area without the infrastructure.  Now Lidl stores in the USA are mostly in NC, VA and some in adjoining states and they have open distribution centers in NC and VA only from what I know of.    They also said they wanted to open in Texas but soon abandoned that plus they really abandoned Georgia at this point.  

Lidl still kind of hurts.

My suburb of Atlanta had them under contract to build a location as part of a mixed use development. But after all of the trees were cut down and the plat was graded, they pulled out.  Now land that was previously a pleasing to look at wooded area land has a bunch of ugly weeds growing out of it, and will likely will for the foreseeable future.

We're apparently not quite good enough for Whole Foods, while Trader Joe's / Fresh Market aren't expanding. Meanwhile, Sprouts already has a location in a neighboring city and Kroger / Publix sit directly across the street from the site in question.

Edited October 7, 2018 by urbanplanet17

[timmay143]

12 hours ago, TNinVB said:

Heck with all that being said, perhaps Nashville could be back in the cards in the near future. It really is hard to figure out at this point. As far as the Aldi’s and Lidl’s that were mentioned above, they seem to be on every other corner here in Hampton Roads. They are nice, but I don’t see how they are going to do with such a large variety of grocery stores in the area. A local chain called Farmfresh recently went out of business because they couldn’t compete with all the Food Lions, Kroger’s, Harris Teeters, Whole Foods, Fresh Markets and now Aldi and Lidle. We currently have a Wegmans under construction slated to open in the Spring. I’ve never been to one since they are a chain out of the northeast but people were so ecstatic when it was announced here. Guess it’s a big deal.  Anyways, I just don’t get how so many grocery stores survive. I would always joke about all of the mattress stores popping up all over the place (at least they are here) and wonder how they could stay in business. Now look where Matress Firm is heading....Chapter 11. 

The one Wegmans I used to frequent (while on travel for my last job) was in south Jersey.  It was pretty dope, IMO.  Thing was huge, and they had everything under the sun.  A lot of prepped meals, nice food bars, etc.

[TNinVB]

14 hours ago, timmay143 said:

The one Wegmans I used to frequent (while on travel for my last job) was in south Jersey.  It was pretty dope, IMO.  Thing was huge, and they had everything under the sun.  A lot of prepped meals, nice food bars, etc.

Yeah the one under construction here looks pretty nice. It even has a steeple/clock tower and parking garage in the front. Looks pretty massive, 

[jmtunafish]

I don't know if this is much consolation for not having a real IKEA store in Nashville.

The furniture company IKEA is piloting its first pick-up point in the nation here in Nashville.

Even though the city doesn’t have an IKEA store, some existing customers in the greater Nashville area are able to order furniture online and pick it up at a location on Spence Lane.

“At IKEA U.S., we’re on a journey to transform our business to meet our customers wherever they are and however they like to shop,” IKEA told WPLN News in an emailed statement.

https://wpln.org/post/ikea-pilots-first-us-pickup-point-in-nashville/?fbclid=IwAR2I8b7L8bFNNdTFkdu_wL1tf3-jmmccPlponBLVNCLpMWgF3GgaNI1h1xE

[BnaBreaker]

43 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

I don't know if this is much consolation for not having a real IKEA store in Nashville.

The furniture company IKEA is piloting its first pick-up point in the nation here in Nashville.

Even though the city doesn’t have an IKEA store, some existing customers in the greater Nashville area are able to order furniture online and pick it up at a location on Spence Lane.

“At IKEA U.S., we’re on a journey to transform our business to meet our customers wherever they are and however they like to shop,” IKEA told WPLN News in an emailed statement.

https://wpln.org/post/ikea-pilots-first-us-pickup-point-in-nashville/?fbclid=IwAR2I8b7L8bFNNdTFkdu_wL1tf3-jmmccPlponBLVNCLpMWgF3GgaNI1h1xE

It still blows my mind that Nashville doesn't have an IKEA and I really can't understand the company's reasoning.  Nashville, Raleigh, Cleveland, and New Orleans are pretty much the largest metro areas without one as far as I can tell.  I mean.... Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Norfolk, Memphis, Jacksonville... but not Nashville? Bizarre.

[MagicPotato]

1 hour ago, BnaBreaker said:

It still blows my mind that Nashville doesn't have an IKEA and I really can't understand the company's reasoning.  Nashville, Raleigh, Cleveland, and New Orleans are pretty much the largest metro areas without one as far as I can tell.  I mean.... Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Norfolk, Memphis, Jacksonville... but not Nashville? Bizarre.

Especially Norfolk, like Norfolk seriously? 

[carolina1792]

2 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

It still blows my mind that Nashville doesn't have an IKEA and I really can't understand the company's reasoning.  Nashville, Raleigh, Cleveland, and New Orleans are pretty much the largest metro areas without one as far as I can tell.  I mean.... Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Norfolk, Memphis, Jacksonville... but not Nashville? Bizarre.

Norfolk but not Raleigh/Durham which has over a dozen universities and 110,000+ students in one metro region all needing furniture. Nope got to find a truck and drive 3 hours to Charlotte or 3.5 hours to Norfolk. So dumb. 

[MagicPotato]

I don't understand the Ikea leadership. " We are changing our business model in relation to having an online retail presence." They're logic is so black and white. Okay so they're just going to stop building Ikea retail stores entirely just because there's competition from online retailers?  If they're so worried about online competition why not build smaller stores and continue to focus on online purchases? Every time I go to an Ikea, I can clearly see that there's still a large presence of customers. That's like Target and Walmart ceasing to build further new stores because of competition from Amazon.

Edited January 8 by MagicPotato

[Flatrock]

4 hours ago, MagicPotato said:

I don't understand the Ikea leadership. " We are changing our business model in relation to having an online retail presence

One problem with their biz model: both their online technology stack and their logistics suck. They are notoriously bad at updating inventory/availability, re-stocking popular items, and getting ordered goods to the purchaser in a timely fashion - or at all. They have been masters of online retailing snafus. I experienced this last year when trying to order a couple of Ikea Poang chairs and ottomans for my man cave. That endeavor was epic. During my research I found so many similarly irate #Ikea customers. My story ended well, as most first-world problems do. But I thought: how the h*ll can a retail and manufacturing giant like IKEA - be so bad at retail??? They should have a store here. 

[MagicPotato]

I agree, overstock and wayfair does a great job with shipping. I don't get how Ikea is having so much trouble with them being such a huge company, in comparison to Overstock and Wayfair. If they have terrible logistics, why not just have a smaller platform? Similar to the neighborhood Walmart's. 

Edited January 8 by MagicPotato

[donNdonelson2]

1 hour ago, MagicPotato said:

I agree, overstock and wayfair does a great job with shipping. I don't get how Ikea is having so much trouble with them being such a huge company, in comparison to Overstock and Wayfair. If they have terrible logistics, why not just have a smaller platform? Similar to the neighborhood Walmart's. 

Funny you should mention that…

There was an article in Business Insider back in October 2020 indicating IKEA planned to build 50 such stores globally, mentioning NYC, Chicago & LA as likely locations. Who knows if the continuing Covid situation may have delayed the plans, or if is underway?

 

[MLBrumby]

I find this whole discussion interesting because I'm probably the least familiar among UPers with IKEA. I've been only twice in my life and at the same location in Atlantic Station.  So my impression of the company is quite limited (I don't see much/any advertising here in Chattanooga).  With that background and the process by which the company selected Memphis over Nashville despite the obvious boom in the latter, I have to say I wonder if their corporate leadership is equipped for guiding the company beyond the bricks & mortar experience. We've seen lots of companies fail, or forced into changing their whole business model (sadly) after it was obvious that their B&M model wouldn't survive in the "digital world" which has been around now for more than 20 years. 

So I'm compelled to ask why IKEA is apparently "flat footed" with their American business.  Is it because they're based in a very small country where they've had a longer term presence?  As such, maybe they've been insulated from the most detrimental effects of Internet market forces.  Seems that their model has been based around a destination shopping experience, and they may not have responded well to the (late realization) Internet phenomenon in a very large and diverse market.  I understand that their products are very popular, especially among younger demographics. Did they just get blindsided by the Internet because the USA was having their first experience with their popular products?  Just wondering as I don't get to use my business education too much, but I always enjoyed those classes quite a bit more than my law classes. 

[BnaBreaker]

50 minutes ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Funny you should mention that…

There was an article in Business Insider back in October 2020 indicating IKEA planned to build 50 such stores globally, mentioning NYC, Chicago & LA as likely locations. Who knows if the continuing Covid situation may have delayed the plans, or if is underway?

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2021/01/ikea-opens-first-u-s-small-format-store.html?page=all

Apparently they opened the first of this concept in Queens in January of last year, but the only article I could find about it so far is this one about the opening, so no word yet on how it's doing.  Hopefully it works out and one shows up on the ground floor of one of our many coming projects!

[MagicPotato]

To be honest, what's the point of having a "pick up location"? Why not build a smaller store and integrate it with a "pick up location". They're just wasting money shipping the items to an ambiguous spot. Instead why not have a permanent location to ship and "house" the  items where they can make some profit by selling their items locally as well? Who knows, maybe Ikea knows something that I don't. 

[donNdonelson2]

33 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

I find this whole discussion interesting because I'm probably the least familiar among UPers with IKEA. I've been only twice in my life and at the same location in Atlantic Station.  So my impression of the company is quite limited (I don't see much/any advertising here in Chattanooga).  With that background and the process by which the company selected Memphis over Nashville despite the obvious boom in the latter, I have to say I wonder if their corporate leadership is equipped for guiding the company beyond the bricks & mortar experience. We've seen lots of companies fail, or forced into changing their whole business model (sadly) after it was obvious that their B&M model wouldn't survive in the "digital world" which has been around now for more than 20 years. 

So I'm compelled to ask why IKEA is apparently "flat footed" with their American business.  Is it because they're based in a very small country where they've had a longer term presence?  As such, maybe they've been insulated from the most detrimental effects of Internet market forces.  Seems that their model has been based around a destination shopping experience, and they may not have responded well to the (late realization) Internet phenomenon in a very large and diverse market.  I understand that their products are very popular, especially among younger demographics. Did they just get blindsided by the Internet because the USA was having their first experience with their popular products?  Just wondering as I don't get to use my business education too much, but I always enjoyed those classes quite a bit more than my law classes. 

They built in Memphis because of a HUGE tax break which had strings, of course. I understand they did not live up to those conditions and had to give up the 95 million tax savings.

[MagicPotato]

Just now, donNdonelson2 said:

They built in Memphis because of a HUGE tax break which had strings, of course. I understand they did not live up to those conditions and had to give up the 95 million tax savings.

That's probably the reason why they're so reluctant to build one in Nashville. There's already 3-4 Ikeas in about a 3-4 hour drive from Memphis, Indy, and Atlanta.  However, Atlanta does have two Ikeas in the same metro, but Nashville can't even get one.  It makes no sense. 

[jmtunafish]

37 minutes ago, MagicPotato said:

That's probably the reason why they're so reluctant to build one in Nashville. There's already 3-4 Ikeas in about a 3-4 hour drive from Memphis, Indy, and Atlanta.  However, Atlanta does have two Ikeas in the same metro, but Nashville can't even get one.  It makes no sense. 

Atlanta has just one IKEA.  But several large metro areas do have at least two:  Miami, DFW, Philly, DC, LA, Chicago, NYC.  IKEA is even more popular in Canada where smaller cities like Québec City (a city the size of Knoxville) and Winnipeg have IKEA, and Toronto has 6 of them.  It baffles the mind why IKEA stopped expanding in the US.

And the posters who said that IKEA's home delivery service sucks are so right.  I once ordered a chest of drawers for delivery when I lived in Knoxville.  That's it.  Just a chest of drawers.  They delivered it in a gigantic Mayflower type moving truck.  And my chest of drawers was the only thing in the truck.  I just drive to Atlanta now whenever I need my IKEA fix as I do not trust their home delivery.  Their cafeteria is really, really good, by the way.  When I lived in Atlanta I'd go there quite often just for lunch, and eating at their restaurant does help ease the pain of driving 3.5 hours to Atlanta just for furniture.

 

Edited January 9 by jmtunafish

[Licec]

14 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

Atlanta has just one IKEA.  But several large metro areas do have at least two:  Miami, DFW, Philly, DC, LA, Chicago, NYC.  IKEA is even more popular in Canada where smaller cities like Québec City (a city the size of Knoxville) and Winnipeg have IKEA, and Toronto has 6 of them.  It baffles the mind why IKEA stopped expanding in the US.

And the posters who said that IKEA's home delivery service sucks are so right.  I once ordered a chest of drawers for delivery when I lived in Knoxville.  That's it.  Just a chest of drawers.  They delivered it in a gigantic Mayflower type moving truck.  And my chest of drawers was the only thing in the truck.  I just drive to Atlanta now whenever I need my IKEA fix as I do not trust their home delivery.  Their cafeteria is really, really good, by the way.  When I lived in Atlanta I'd go there quite often just for lunch, and eating at their restaurant does help ease the pain of driving 3.5 hours to Atlanta just for furniture.

 

Well when I need to get my IKEA fix I drive 3 hours to Memphis. I prefer to have a shorter trip and I find the service at that store is far superior. I've had many exquisite luncheons there. I often wear my sweater tied behind my back when I have the delectable Soup, Salad, and Sandwich lunch.

Edited January 9 by Licec