The IKEA in midtown Atlanta has parking under the building. What is mind boggling is hearing the same people complain that OKC isn't "big city" enough and then make excuses for why OKC isn't "big city" enough. No OKC isn't Toronto, but it isn't Amarillo either. It wasn't that long ago OKC apartments didn't have parking garages or underground parking either, but here we are today with both.

This is a “all side” deal.

Instead of over simplistic descriptions of their demographics, here is a fairly simple little bit deeper explanation: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/marketing-case-studies-tutorial/ikea-marketing-strategy-case-study#:~:text=SpecialistExplore%20Program-,Ikea%20Target%20Audience,34%2Dyear%2Dold%20adults .

Yeah I kind of laughed at the first comment about 19th. Moore is a mix of everything. There's farms to multi million dollar homes down to terrible apartments, and everything in-between. It's a microcosm of the rest of the metro, squeezed into the Moore limits (extending to far southwest OKC). I live in Moore and I'm not making some grand push for it to be here. I'm not going to be making weekly trips to Ikea or anything. BUUUUUUT, what I can say is that there is a large plot of empty land in the remaining Frits Farm area behind the fire station (just west of CostCo). It's not right on 19th so it doesn't have to eat up the main frontage retail space. But it is the next row over (like you see with a lot of developments with a mix of large and small) in an area that can absorb a lot of surface parking because that's what it's designed for. And it's VERY close to I-35. Now would I love the added traffic on 19th? Heck no cause good grief it's insane already.

19th is not all the way down to Norman, so it saves another 10 minute drive (and yeah that's not much of anything) for the north siders if they want to come visit. But it also gets it REALLLY close to Norman and the 30k OU students there. If you're driving from Stilly to Ikea, you're not going to change your mind if it's on the north side or Moore. You're already driving 45m to an hour, so i dont think they care. Same for Tulsa. It could just as easily be out towards Yukon to be honest. Norman, of course is also just as practical of a choice in University North.

What we don't want, is for it to be somewhere that eats up super valuable land for a bunch of parking, that could have been something else. So it make zero sense for anything with 5 miles of downtown...at least. Do you want to put it up near Fidelity near Dolese? It's got a lot of land available that hasn't been developing for oh 50 years. Yeah there's some pretty aggressive stuff going in there now, but this could be a pretty big anchor there.

My only thought here is that there are a lot of places it can go besides just up on Memorial (which is what people on this forum love to default to). And those locations make sense and are not just out of my rear end. Memorial is actually somewhere i don't think it should go because of the amount of space its going to take up. It would either have to eat something that's existing today, or go further out east or west to have enough free space to build. There are just too many other areas with swaths of land, that are more convenient for a lot more of the demographic.

I always start with asking, "What is good urbanism" and then go from there. If it was up to me I would build it some where in East Bricktown, preferably on the parking lot between Oklahoma Blvd and I-40. Great freeway visibility, central location, fits with IKEA's desire for more urban stores, and could be built over parking.

I always start with asking, "What is good urbanism" and then go from there. If it was up to me I would build it some where in East Bricktown, preferably on the parking lot between Oklahoma Blvd and I-40. Great freeway visibility, central location, fits with IKEA's desire for more urban stores, and could be built over parking.

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

First of all, even if IKEA is looking at OKC, we don't know which of their 3 tier platforms they are looking at. The platform they would use helps dictate where in a locality they would land.

For those who want to take the topic up seriously there are a number of case studies available on line regarding location strategies, etc. that IKEA is using and how it and their designs are evolving . This speculation is just idle chit chat at this point and based on no specific IKEA plans.

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

I guess it comes down to what kind of City you want to live in. If you want urban sprawl then build on the suburban fringe and surround your store with large parking lots. If you want an urban city then focus on high density in-fill. You can't do both and not too many discount cities are making the list of desirability.

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/ikea-closing-upper-east-side-store-company-says

You can't do both and not too many discount cities are making the list of desirability.

To be fair, we are doing both, just in different parts of the city. Which is appropriate, IMO, and just about every city in America does both on some level.

Personally, if I'm living in a city, I, too want good "urbanism" to guide development, but if they put an IKEA on Memorial or in Moore, I can't say that I would see that as a missed opportunity for Oklahoma City to build on the success it has had with cultivating urban minded development over the last few decades. In fact, any IKEA located in OKC over the next, say, 10 years (at least) is going to have to accommodate a great deal of car traffic for it to be successful, So, it would most likely work against urbanization efforts in our central districts, regardless of what format or design they used.

Of course, the worst possible outcome from an urbanization perspective, would be for them to open something like what we see in Moore or on Memorial in the core, but I can't imagine them even wanting to do that.

what about IKEA at Crossroads?

Plenty of Parking. Check
Two interstate highways junction. Check
At the population centre of the metro. state. Check
Infrastructure already exists. Check
Don't have to interfere with the push to urbanize central OKC. Check

The question is whether they'd tear down part of the mall or just build in the parking lot. To me, this is somewhat of an offer they can't refuse for the traditional store IKEA builds (which is what I hope OKC gets.

Hadn't thought about that one. Certainly would be a highly visible location and has PLENTY of room to spare. It's not the typical area you would find one. With all those multiple owners of the place, I wonder if this would be overly complicated to make a deal. Like you said, i think it would require demoing part of the building (one of the anchors) and contsructing a new main structure whilst using the existing surface parking.

IMO you wouldn't want to chain a big new development like an IKEA to a dead property like Crossroads. As a part of a completely redevelopment of the site, sure, but nothing less than that would be appropriate.

sure, I just thought we could add it to our list of potential sites that are somewhat viable for a variety of reasons; some stronger than others, some weaker. We wouldn't have to limit ourselves with just Moore or Memorial Road as choices, IMO.

Agreed. I mean everything here is just us spit-balling ideas anyway. It's not like we're in the board room at Ikea making the decision. We're just having some fun with our guesses on what could be.

Please note how IKEA opened a store on Manhattan and it's extreme urbanity only to close it after a short period of time. A store brand like IKEA needs space.

San Fran is close to opening an 87,000 sq ft. store on Market Street, just down the street from where a Whole Foods just closed up after just a year in operation.

Anyone see Steve Lackmeyer's thoughts about OKC getting an IKEA? Initially, he said that in his research he found that Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and OKC are the major markets in the US without one. Cincy and Indy both have them in their metros. He then mentioned Scottsdale as a market that would probably get one, which is weird for obvious reasons with Phoenix having one already. When he was questioned about it, he quickly edited the article. Just thought it was a little weird.

Lackmeyer just spouts whatever BS he thinks will get people to click on his so-called talks and articles. He's so far past having accurate information or being able to write a trustworthy article, i'm not sure why they still employ him. Anytime I see an article on the Jokelahoman now that actually does have merit, it doesn't seem to be written by him.

History is really his area and not current events. His view on current events is "something is going to happen" like he's Dave from the movie 2010 or something. I can't tell you what it is, but it will be "wonderful". Lame....

17 Years later, And We Still have to go to Frisco, TX for IKEA and This hasn't came true yet. Though we may finally have some promising Information regarding a Oklahoma City IKEA in 2023. was this a joke or something IKEA Said and never fell through with?

Why would IKEA need to or want to build downtown? There is plenty of cheaper land on the outskirts. That would be fiscally irresponsible of them to build downtown, on every level. Not even enough residents to try to justify it. It will be near Quail or in Moore. No sense for them to waste money buying expensive downtown land and building up versus cheaper suburban land and building out.

Yeah There are several possible locations. North Edmond, Quail Springs Mall Area, South Moore, Along the East / West Connector, Yukon or Mustang. many options, Only one will get it

17 Years later, And We Still have to go to Frisco, TX for IKEA and This hasn't came true yet. Though we may finally have some promising Information regarding a Oklahoma City IKEA in 2023. was this a joke or something IKEA Said and never fell through with?

We don't even have an official "pick-up" center like they do in Albuquerque, Nashville, and Lubbock. Granted, ABQ and LBK are 5+ hours from the nearest IKEA, but Nashville is about the same distance away from Memphis that OKC is from Frisco. It's also weird that Memphis, which is a lot smaller than Nashville in terms of metro population got one before Nashville did. I would think that OKC would have gotten one before Memphis due to its similar metro population and its proximity to Tulsa with another ~1 million metro population.

OKC/Tulsa are going to be tough markets for anyone to break into in the furniture business. We've had a modern "Nordic" store in OKC before, Dane Design, which had some cool stuff, but they didn't last. I'm sure that all puts us pretty low on the priority list for expansion.

OKC/Tulsa are going to be tough markets for anyone to break into in the furniture business. We've had a modern "Nordic" store in OKC before, Dane Design, which had some cool stuff, but they didn't last. I'm sure that all puts us pretty low on the priority list for expansion.

Aren't we getting both an Arhaus and a Restoration Hardware, both of which are furniture stores. Or do you mean lower end furniture like Living Spaces?

OKC/Tulsa are going to be tough markets for anyone to break into in the furniture business. We've had a modern "Nordic" store in OKC before, Dane Design, which had some cool stuff, but they didn't last. I'm sure that all puts us pretty low on the priority list for expansion.

Dane Design sold couches for over 10k and its furniture was not made from particle wood. Real deal stuff in there. Compare it to IKEA in Scadanavianish design only and they didn’t serve meatballs, that was their true downfall.

Dane Design sold couches for over 10k and its furniture was not made from particle wood. Real deal stuff in there. Compare it to IKEA in Scadanavianish design only and they didn’t serve meatballs, that was their true downfall.

TBF, I got a media cabinet there which was made from particle board. It was exactly what I wanted, but particle board nonetheless--and the price wasn't awful.

Aren't we getting both an Arhaus and a Restoration Hardware, both of which are furniture stores. Or do you mean lower end furniture like Living Spaces?

Aren't those higher end chains though? I would think IKEA would have lower margins and lower end stuff, placing them in tough competition with our local furniture stores.

Aren't those higher end chains though? I would think IKEA would have lower margins and lower end stuff, placing them in tough competition with our local furniture stores.

I think most IKEA like furniture isn't really sold in OKC now. Who sells comparable in OKC?

I think most IKEA like furniture isn't really sold in OKC now. Who sells comparable in OKC?

Comparable by price? Any of the big box furniture stores on Reno. It's not that IKEA wouldn't do well here. I suspect they would. There are just other places they could expand where they'd do better. OKC has a pretty healthy home grown furniture market.

Comparable by price? Any of the big box furniture stores on Reno. It's not that IKEA wouldn't do well here. I suspect they would. There are just other places they could expand where they'd do better. OKC has a pretty healthy home grown furniture market.

I think that they would fill a niche not currently served in OKC. Consumers would benefit by having the choice if local suppliers cannot or will not fill that niche. I'm all for local business first, but not at the expense of limiting the choices of the consumers.

Overall solid stuff.
I guess I never saw any particleboard stuff, sorry for saying it was all solid.
In my defense I did have to help a friend move some stuff he bought there and it was the heaviest furniture I have ever lifted and everytime I went in there I was up front gazing at the crazy futuristic couches.

IKEA furniture is not meant to be legacy furniture. It is a certain style for budgets and is of good value. For the most part, it isn’t just cheap furniture. We’ve mixed in a few pieces with mostly high quality pieces and they do their job nicely. We did it for the styling thy had and aren’t pieces that are of heavy use.

IKEA furniture is not meant to be legacy furniture. It is a certain style for budgets and is of good value. For the most part, it isn’t just cheap furniture. We’ve mixed in a few pieces with mostly high quality pieces and they do their job nicely. We did it for the styling thy had and aren’t pieces that are of heavy use.

The Poang chairs are worth it!

I think the biggest misconception that most people who are not familiar with IKEA have is that IKEA furniture is all cheap particle board furniture.

Don't get me wrong, a portion of IKEA furniture is like the stuff you could pick-up at Walmart: made of thin particle boards, a touch wobbly, and once you put it together it might not survive getting moved anywhere else. These are the furniture pieces that are made for starter apartments, dorm rooms, etc.

But IKEA has just as many, if not more, high quality flatpack pieces that are build to last. They have many pieces that are made from solid wood instead of particle board, and that can withstand some damage and heavy use. We had IKEA furniture that survived a few moves without any damage, and my brother moved his IKEA furniture from Germany to the US and back, and it held up without any problems.

A good example of the two sides of IKEA are BILLY and HEMNES: A BILLY bookshelf can be had for $60, and the equivalent HEMNES bookshelf would cost you $200. BILLY is the particle board posterchild of what comes to mind when most people think of IKEA. HEMNES is made of solid wood and sturdy as they come.

And one thing I really have to say for IKEA, after having put together all kinds of brands of flatpack furniture from all kinds of places: IKEA's stuff just works. The instructions make sense, the pieces are actually prepared correctly, holes line up, the pieces you need are all included, hardware is mostly standardized, and you can put everything together easily. I have yet to find any brand from anywhere that is as easy to assemble as IKEA.

I think the biggest misconception that most people who are not familiar with IKEA have is that IKEA furniture is all cheap particle board furniture.

Don't get me wrong, a portion of IKEA furniture is like the stuff you could pick-up at Walmart: made of thin particle boards, a touch wobbly, and once you put it together it might not survive getting moved anywhere else. These are the furniture pieces that are made for starter apartments, dorm rooms, etc.

But IKEA has just as many, if not more, high quality flatpack pieces that are build to last. They have many pieces that are made from solid wood instead of particle board, and that can withstand some damage and heavy use. We had IKEA furniture that survived a few moves without any damage, and my brother moved his IKEA furniture from Germany to the US and back, and it held up without any problems.

A good example of the two sides of IKEA are BILLY and HEMNES: A BILLY bookshelf can be had for $60, and the equivalent HEMNES bookshelf would cost you $200. BILLY is the particle board posterchild of what comes to mind when most people think of IKEA. HEMNES is made of solid wood and sturdy as they come.

And one thing I really have to say for IKEA, after having put together all kinds of brands of flatpack furniture from all kinds of places: IKEA's stuff just works. The instructions make sense, the pieces are actually prepared correctly, holes line up, the pieces you need are all included, hardware is mostly standardized, and you can put everything together easily. I have yet to find any brand from anywhere that is as easy to assemble as IKEA.

Yep I'm so glad you said this cause this is something that bugs me. Whenever people will talk about cheap furniture and reference it as Ikea, I always correct them and say they must be referring to either Ikea's low end stuff or the knock off Ikea stuff.

We have 2 large (5' x 5') CD/DVD/Blu-ray storage cabinets that have been moved from Downers Grove, IL to Puyallup, WA to Sumner, WA to OKC and again within OKC. Had them for 20 years, still sturdy, nowhere close to cheap particle board, only a few dings that were covered up with a Sharpie, no other structural problems.

Ikea is actively looking at sites in Oklahoma (primarily in Tulsa). It would come with pick-up locations in both Oklahoma City and Northwest Arkansas - Tulsa store would act as the distribution space for the others. Possible pick-up locations in the future for Springfield and Wichita too that the Tulsa location would be middle ground between the Kansas City, St. Louis, and Dallas stores. Deal is being worked on much similar to how the Scheel's deal was put together. The pick-up location model has been a huge part of their expansion plans in the US, they have pick-up locations in Lubbock, Brownsville area, etc. now in Texas and have opened these sites in other markets too and will continue to add many others. No guarantee Tulsa get's a full store either, it could end up only being a pick-up location if they feel the Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas stores are close enough to work - comes down to shipping costs vs. store costs, etc. etc.

maybe this will come to Tulsa or OKC?

Howdy Dallas/Fort Worth – IKEA plans to open a new format store in Southlake, Texas

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/newsroom/corporate-news/dallas-fort-worth-ikea-new-format-store-in-southlake-texas-pub58a84ad0

"This new customer meeting point, called a Plan & Order Point with Pick-up, will have all of the features of the IKEA Plan & order point, including home furnishing inspiration and personalized interior design planning, with the addition of an IKEA Pick-up point, allowing customers to pick up their online purchases at the new location.IKEA Southlake will join two large-format IKEA stores in the DFW market in Frisco, TX and Grand Prairie, TX and IKEA Pick Up in Arlington TX. IKEA Southlake will be located in the Park Village shopping center at 1041 East Southlake Blvd, Suite 100 & 110, Southlake, TX 76092 in 10,809 square feet of leased space."

^

Interesting.

Just sent that link to the people at Oak -- would be a great fit with all the other home furnishings and decor tenants.

^

Interesting.

Just sent that link to the people at Oak -- would be a great fit with all the other home furnishings and decor tenants.

They're looking in Oklahoma currently - within the last 3 months they started again.

maybe this will come to Tulsa or OKC?

Howdy Dallas/Fort Worth – IKEA plans to open a new format store in Southlake, Texas

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/newsroom/corporate-news/dallas-fort-worth-ikea-new-format-store-in-southlake-texas-pub58a84ad0

"This new customer meeting point, called a Plan & Order Point with Pick-up, will have all of the features of the IKEA Plan & order point, including home furnishing inspiration and personalized interior design planning, with the addition of an IKEA Pick-up point, allowing customers to pick up their online purchases at the new location.IKEA Southlake will join two large-format IKEA stores in the DFW market in Frisco, TX and Grand Prairie, TX and IKEA Pick Up in Arlington TX. IKEA Southlake will be located in the Park Village shopping center at 1041 East Southlake Blvd, Suite 100 & 110, Southlake, TX 76092 in 10,809 square feet of leased space."

This is what I was just talking about with the pick-up stores. This is 90% of their long-term growth plan for the US. Model will shift to smaller stores and utilize the network of the bigger stores as distribution hubs. This is just a slight expansion to their pick-up locations I had mentioned, and gives someone access to staff to ask more questions and customize orders. Think Container Store when you're ordering a closet, etc.

The store/distribution hybrid model is something Walmart and others are moving toward. Ikea doesn't want to do same day delivery like Amazon, Walmart or Target but currently if you're in an area like OKC or Tulsa your order can take a week or more to arrive.

Reason? Because Ikea doesn't deliver.

They contract with third parties in areas that basically take a moving truck to the closest store, pick it up, and then drive it back to OKC and then drive around the next few days to deliver it all. When you order anything online it literally comes from a shelve from one of their physical stores - not from a distribution center or somewhere else. This can make ordering difficult too if something isn't available at one store but is another - if you've every ordered a large order from them online you've probably had that issue and they lose out on orders that way. Now they'll be able to ship in from multiple areas/stores much easier. It's not like Lowe's and some others that have their own delivery staff and many times Ikea stuff (especially the materials it's made out of to be so cheap) is way too heavy to send via FedEx, UPS, USPS. This will allow Ikea to cut out that cumbersome process and also save money on delivery costs/increase profits.

Question for Oklahoma is do they feel they need one large format store or do they think they can serve OKC, Tulsa, NWA, SW Missouri from the Dallas, KC, and STL stores. Tulsa is likely the best option for a large format store just because it's the biggest population center closest to the center point between all three. I believe if you drew straight lines between all three of those metro's the center point is near Pryor.

OKC/Tulsa are going to be tough markets for anyone to break into in the furniture business. We've had a modern "Nordic" store in OKC before, Dane Design, which had some cool stuff, but they didn't last. I'm sure that all puts us pretty low on the priority list for expansion.

At the two stores you mentioned I can't go in a buy a shelving unit for $80 or a table for $100. I can furnish my kid's bedroom for $700 @ Ikea vs. $4,000 at Dan Design. I shopped at Nordic once at their Tulsa location and I didn't really like what I saw.

Good news. Looks like OKC now has a free pickup point for orders over $50 as an option from the IKEA website located at a trucking/logistics depot labeled as CRST/NAL OKC pickup point at 1815 S. Agnew.

Tulsa doesn't appear to have a pickup point yet.

Good news. Looks like OKC now has a free pickup point for orders over $50 as an option from the IKEA website located at a trucking/logistics depot labeled as CRST/NAL OKC pickup point at 1815 S. Agnew.

Tulsa doesn't appear to have a pickup point yet.

That's great news! Saves a trip to Frisco and wondering if everything will fit in the back of the vehicle as you play Tetris with the flat packs.

Interesting location just south of Stockyard City, even though there is a giant FedEx facility just around the corner.

what ever happened with the SW Corner of the East West Connector and I 35 Interchange Idea

Ikea is actively looking at sites in Oklahoma (primarily in Tulsa). It would come with pick-up locations in both Oklahoma City and Northwest Arkansas - Tulsa store would act as the distribution space for the others. Possible pick-up locations in the future for Springfield and Wichita too that the Tulsa location would be middle ground between the Kansas City, St. Louis, and Dallas stores. Deal is being worked on much similar to how the Scheel's deal was put together. The pick-up location model has been a huge part of their expansion plans in the US, they have pick-up locations in Lubbock, Brownsville area, etc. now in Texas and have opened these sites in other markets too and will continue to add many others. No guarantee Tulsa get's a full store either, it could end up only being a pick-up location if they feel the Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas stores are close enough to work - comes down to shipping costs vs. store costs, etc. etc.

The Tulsa Only Argument cant be made as Frisco and Grand Prairie TX have Ikeas and they are 30 Miles Apart

The Tulsa Only Argument cant be made as Frisco and Grand Prairie TX have Ikeas and they are 30 Miles Apart

They also have 8 million people in the DFW Metroplex.

OKC of course has more population in the metro than Tulsa, but western Oklahoma absolutely kills population radius rings for OKC when trying to locate a business with evenly distributed population on all sides. Tulsa can easily pull in multiple directions as they have Springfield, NW Arkansas, Wichita, and OKC all within about 2-3 hours drive.

that wouldn't be a accurate number to base it off of. when the frisco location was announced the population was 4.6 million and when the grand prarie location was announced it was5.8 million

Good news. Looks like OKC now has a free pickup point for orders over $50 as an option from the IKEA website located at a trucking/logistics depot labeled as CRST/NAL OKC pickup point at 1815 S. Agnew.

Tulsa doesn't appear to have a pickup point yet.

Has anyone used this? I tried to have something picked up there instead of home delivery and can't seem to make it pick that point. I always get Frisco?

that wouldn't be a accurate number to base it off of. when the frisco location was announced the population was 4.6 million and when the grand prarie location was announced it was5.8 million

Where did you get your numbers from, Macrotend? The DFW-Arlington metro had these population figures per the official Decennial census: 2000 5.2 mil ; 2010 6.4 mil and 2020 7.7 mil. IKEA Frisco opened in 2005 and Grand Prarie in 2017. So when Frisco opened, DFW had approx 5.8 mil and Grand Prairie around 7.1 mil.

Anyway, back to IKEA!

i am basing these numbers from when the stores were announced. not when they opened

i am basing these numbers from when the stores were announced. not when they opened

Your population figures are still too low based on the government census figures. Frisco was announced in 2004 and Grand Prairie in 2016, DFW already had 5.2 mil in 2000 and 6.4 mil in 2010. Your numbers are a whopping 1.2 mil + short of what the census says otherwise so I'm curious where you are getting your figures from. Mine is from the government census

I don't see what the big deal is about IKEA. Their products seem to be of low quality, suitable only for apartments and tiny houses. Good place for families to hang out though.

We replaced many of our overhead light fixtures in our house with lighting from Ikea. We've also bought tons of little things there, but we haven't purchased any major furniture pieces.

I don't see what the big deal is about IKEA. Their products seem to be of low quality, suitable only for apartments and tiny houses. Good place for families to hang out though.

That's been debunked a long time ago. We currently have 2 CD/DVD/Blu-ray storage cabinets from them that have survived moving from IL to WA to WA to OKC, and they're still sturdy as hell.

I don't see what the big deal is about IKEA. Their products seem to be of low quality, suitable only for apartments and tiny houses. Good place for families to hang out though.

Just like a lot of furniture stores sell low quality items (ever been to Mathis Bros, et al). Some of what they sell is very inexpensive and none of their furniture is meant to be legacy furniture. But most is solid, stylish enough, and lasts a pretty long time. Overall, they are a great value store for affordable furniture options for many, many people. Not everyone can spend $10,000 for a dining room table or a sofa, or $1,500 for an end table.

... lasts a pretty long time. ...

Forgot to add another data point - in addition to moving a bunch of times and not falling apart, they're about 20 years old.

I don't see what the big deal is about IKEA. Their products seem to be of low quality, suitable only for apartments and tiny houses. Good place for families to hang out though.

The majority of their products are actually pretty high quality, even stuff on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I've had an Ikea Malm platform bed for over 10 years and it's been pretty solid, despite being veneered particle board. I've also got some stainless steel towel racks and hangers that have withstood the test of time, so far. They offer products across a wide range from very cheap up to very expensive (even solid wood furniture!) and I'd say most are well-designed and better quality than you'd find most other places for the same type of product. There's a reason Ikea is highly regarded by most of their customers.

I applaud their efforts;

https://www.newson6.com/story/665d2e2660a04c346ebbd116/tulsans-travel-to-ikea-in-texas-for-campaign-to-bring-the-store-to-oklahoma#:~:text=Lori's%20Safety%20Tips-,Tulsans%20Travel%20To%20IKEA%20In%20Texas%20For%2 0Campaign%20To%20Bring,trip%20on%20a%20charter%20b us.

Tulsa has had a few of these grassroots efforts to lure stores there. They seem to work.

Darn it, DFW is getting a 3rd IKEA, 4 years after a Fort Worth IKEA was shelved due to Covid.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ikea-planning-new-store-north-texas-heres-where/287-ccb100d4-5ce4-4fbf-a4df-8827b8de469f?ref=exit-recirc

Ikea planning new North Texas store

The Swedish furniture company known for budget-friendly pieces and restaurants serving meatballs, is eyeing Rockwall for a potential new store. Ikea already has stores in Frisco and Grand Prairie, and a smaller site in Southlake, according to their website.

I've never felt like IKEA in OKC was a realistic opportunity.