IKEA

[Midtowner]

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.

[fortpatches]

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?

[Shortsyeararound]

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.

[Midtowner]

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.

[Midtowner]

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.

[Rover]

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?

[Midtowner]

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.

[Rover]

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.

[Shortsyeararound]

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.

[Rover]

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.

[Shortsyeararound]

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!

[d-usa]

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.

[Zuplar]

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.

[TheTravellers]

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.

[UrbanistPoke]

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.

[Triggerman]

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/...as-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."

[Pete]

^

Interesting.

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

[UrbanistPoke]

^

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.

[UrbanistPoke]

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/...as-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.

[btmec]

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.

[midtownokcer]

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.

[scottk]

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.

[TornadoKegan]

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

[TornadoKegan]

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

[scottk]

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.