IKEA

[Midtowner]

They'll do fine. Furniture is one of the highest markup products around. If they can move a decent amount of inventory, profits will come quickly.

[misterman]

It would be cool to have IKEA, but OKC is too small a market and doesn't have the population required for IKEA to locate here. Most large chains or businesses have standards set up like that. I don't believe IKEA would ever come to Oklahoma based on this alone.

A couple of years ago, the furniture businesses in Dallas actually kept Mathis from moving in even though they had purchased property there. Dallas didn't want to water down their market with the "Mathis Brothers discount mentality"...believe it or not...but OKC is a great place to shop...prices are lower than just about anywhere else!

Also, even though OKC should have a broader base of styles and price points, we are still a more traditional market. Contemporary furniture is rising in popularity, but we're not there yet. And for the price point, most people are driving to Frisco with trucks and trailers, picking up furniture and bringing it back home. It is still cost effective.

Also, now that Directions in Furniture has closed, there really is no place even remotely similar to IKEA. Both Dane Design and Suburban are more sleek and high-end, where IKEA is lower priced and lower quality. You have to be very careful what you purchase at IKEA - you do get what you pay for.

Target actually has alot of things very close to the styling and price of an IKEA, just not the amount of items.

[CuatrodeMayo]

most people are driving to Frisco with trucks and trailers, picking up furniture and bringing it back home.

That was ME!

[Karried]

Me too! My good friend and I went there and purchased thousands of dollars worth of furniture for her salons.... mirrors, stations, shelving, etc etc... you should have seen the teenage boys trying to tie it all down in a Dodge truck ..it was so packed!

I was freaking out the entire way home.. I have a pic somewhere.. it was amazing to see. I still can't believe we managed to fit it all in and make it home safely. It would have been so nice just to have one near by.

[Luke]

My wife and I also usually make a trip or two down to Frisco each year and buy lots of stuff.

Sounds like this IKEA rumor is dead in the water though...

[Midtowner]

Why dead in the water? Corporations don't think in terms of single years... they project out 5 to 10 years. OKC could be as far as a decade away from having an IKEA store, but it'd still be "planned."

[Drake]

There is place in on Broadway in Edmond called Home Decoraters Collection. They are actually a Home Depot Company. They have a website.

They carry a segment of furniture that is very close to what Directions in Furniture carried. Prices are very reasonable also.

[OKBound]

We bought a new table at World Market here in Plano, but didn't want to pay the high price for the matching chairs. So we went to the IKEA here in Frisco and it was great. We bought 6 chairs and they were very easy to assemble.

We are looking at getting their Billy bookcases and a leather loveseat and 2 matching chairs when we get settled into our new home in Edmond. Great prices, and you get a choice of colors/stains, even glass doors can be added to the bookcases. Most of their furniture is a bit too modern for my tastes, but there are some items that I do like.

Even if IKEA does confirm that a store is to be located in OKC area, it will take a long time before it is actually open. If my memory is correct, I think it took almost 2 years from the announcement to the grand opening for the store here in Frisco.

Tip: for those who are going to venture down to Frisco to buy, go during the week if at all possible. It is still a zoo on the weekends and even more so when the Frisco RoughRiders(Ranger's AA team) have a game, since IKEA shares their parking lot. And wear your sneakers!!

[cedbled]

There is place in on Broadway in Edmond called Home Decoraters Collection. They are actually a Home Depot Company. They have a website.

They carry a segment of furniture that is very close to what Directions in Furniture carried. Prices are very reasonable also.

Man, that stuff looks nothing like IKEA, at all! And it damn sure doesn't look like what Dir in Furn used to have....we have too many people here in the metro now, for us not to have more than 2-3 of the most basic styles of furniture...Case in point:
How many damn times in the last 2 days have you seen the same stupid 2-tone (light /drk brown) sofa set on commercials?? The first 15 times I saw the couch, I actually liked it, but every store has it's version of the same sofa. That's bull....

[metro]

There is place in on Broadway in Edmond called Home Decoraters Collection. They are actually a Home Depot Company. They have a website.

They carry a segment of furniture that is very close to what Directions in Furniture carried. Prices are very reasonable also.

Thanks for the heads up Drake. I knew about this place, but didn't know they sold affordable modern furniture.

[Drake]

Man, that stuff looks nothing like IKEA, at all! And it damn sure doesn't look like what Dir in Furn used to have....we have too many people here in the metro now, for us not to have more than 2-3 of the most basic styles of furniture...Case in point:
How many damn times in the last 2 days have you seen the same stupid 2-tone (light /drk brown) sofa set on commercials?? The first 15 times I saw the couch, I actually liked it, but every store has it's version of the same sofa. That's bull....

Ced -

Well, thanks for the opinion. As someone who had shopped at Directions in Furniture and purchased from both, I feel qualified to speak on the subject.

HDC carries a broad range of furniture, but their SOHO collection is very similar to DiF. I did not mention IKEA.

The rear portion of the store on Broadway is all their modern furniture.

Soho Vega Sofa I - Living Room Furniture - Sofa - Modern Seating | HomeDecorators.com.

Check this out as an example.

[dismayed]

Home Decorators strikes me as a place that tries to do modern contemporary but misses the mark. I get the same feeling at Suburban.

[JerzeeGrlinOKC]

Perhaps IKEA can move into the Bass Pro Building after their deal runs out of steam. That would be a great spot for IKEA and much more in keeping with the area.

I don't think this would be a good idea, I think new development in lower bricktown should be reserved for either smaller retail or entertainment. The Bass Pro Shop in its current location is such a waste anyhow. A spot up on Memorial might be more appropriate with what is already there. Most other IKEAs in the country are not in "downtown" areas, they are off highways near cities.

Eh I'm skeptical too about IKEA moving in, its not on their "coming soon" list, so we'll just have to wait and see. Its nice to walk around, but the furniture quality is sub-par (well, you get what you pay for), and its annoying when you want to fix things and need to special order parts.

One of the things I do like about IKEA is the food court - the gravlox, swedish meatballs, and Panzarotti (its a deep fried calzone, a New Jersey local fav, since the first IKEA in the US was in Elizabeth, NJ they sell them at all the IKEA food courts). Yum yum!

[tnajk]

Has anyone toyed with the idea that this is one of the large stores that is being reqruited for the Edmond, Covell shipping mall/Convention Center/Hotel? That developer is the very same to develop some of the shopping areas in and around Frisco. (SIMON)

Hmmm, I'm thinking it's definately a possibility!

[metro]

I don't think this would be a good idea, I think new development in lower bricktown should be reserved for either smaller retail or entertainment. The Bass Pro Shop in its current location is such a waste anyhow. A spot up on Memorial might be more appropriate with what is already there. Most other IKEAs in the country are not in "downtown" areas, they are off highways near cities.

Eh I'm skeptical too about IKEA moving in, its not on their "coming soon" list, so we'll just have to wait and see. Its nice to walk around, but the furniture quality is sub-par (well, you get what you pay for), and its annoying when you want to fix things and need to special order parts.

One of the things I do like about IKEA is the food court - the gravlox, swedish meatballs, and Panzarotti (its a deep fried calzone, a New Jersey local fav, since the first IKEA in the US was in Elizabeth, NJ they sell them at all the IKEA food courts). Yum yum!

I somewhat disagree. I'd much rather see IKEA in Lower Bricktown instead of Bass Pro if we're going to have a big box retailer down there. It would certainly help attract and retain the type of crowd we're going for downtown versus the average Bass Pro customer. Midtown Atlanta has a big box IKEA that is a major draw in the Atlantic Station area of Midtown Atlanta. Midtown Atlanta is more urban looking and has more skyscrapers than all of downtown OKC. So with that being said, I don't think it would be too bad of a thing.

[BG918]

Would love to see IKEA instead of Bass Pro, hell anything would be better than that thing. I've bought LOTS of contemporary furniture at Suburban, but it is on the expensive side. IKEA is much more economical. As contemporary design continues to gain in popularity in OKC I could see them relocating here, as well as Design Within Reach, probably somewhere downtown...

[misterman]

Home Decorators Collection is very odd...all the furniture is too trendy and the scale is way off. Is it just me? It looks like furniture you can buy in those little catalogues you used to get in the mail.

[Drake]

Didn't mean start a debate about the worthiness of HDC. Just trying to give heads up on a furniture option that we seem to have a very limited selection here in the OKC metro area.

We just kind of wandered in there and no idea they even carried anything like that.

[brianinok]

Interestingly, in my email today, the following add popped up. I doubt it means anything, but it is still interesting....

[NikonNurse]

can't see it.

[tnajk]

Yeah, me either.

[redcup]

I would love IKEA to be here. One day I checked out ALL of the stores surrounding Mathis Brothers and had to admit MB had the most to choose from and the best, but still not my style. I visited San Francisco in April and told my son that I wanted to check out the IKEA store before I left. LOL

I loved it, but got claustrophobia in the lower area, all that stuff and it seemed no way to get out. I did find a way out fast and waited for my shopper family to find me sitting outside, fanning myself. I may drive to Frisco to check them out.

I really think IKEA could make it here. Perhaps, a store that is not quite on the grand scale of the San Fran. one, but who knows for sure.

[bdub02]

Would love to see IKEA instead of Bass Pro, hell anything would be better than that thing. I've bought LOTS of contemporary furniture at Suburban, but it is on the expensive side. IKEA is much more economical. As contemporary design continues to gain in popularity in OKC I could see them relocating here, as well as Design Within Reach, probably somewhere downtown...

Bass Pro should have located elsewhere in the city, maybe NW Expressway or along I-40 west of I-44. I have nothing against them being in OKC, just downtown is not the place.

And lets not put IKEA downtown. That would be an eyesore there if its anything like the one in Houston on I-10.

[NikonNurse]

Just spent too much money in the Frisco Tx one today..on the way back from OU texas.

[bombermwc]

Its been a while since we talked about this. I heard someone mention it at my office not long ago, but with the "no time line" thing. So it sounds like the Frisco store is continuing to tell the OKC folks about a store, but nothig is happening.

You'd be surprised how many OKC folks take a truck/trailer down there for a trip. It's a great way to avoid the butt fleas at mathis brothers.