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Ikea

The great thing about the Queensway Ikea is that it's got at least a couple of non-Queensway "secret approaches", from North Queen way and from Evans way...
 
Only open for 4 days. Oh well.


MARKETER NEWS
http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20080717_164531_8072
[ IKEA POPS UP IN TORONTO DESIGN DISTRICT ]
July 18, 2007 | By Kristin Laird
It’s out with the Swedish meatballs and in with high-design settees, when IKEA Canada opens a boutique-style showroom for four days later this month near the corner of Church St. and King St., downtown Toronto.

The retailer will square off with some of the city’s high-end furniture design stores on July 31, with product featured in the company’s 2009 catalogue, which is set to be released the same day.

“We really wanted to position ourselves competitively against other higher end design stores and bring our new products to the street and get in front of a consumer who may not consider IKEA when their shopping for home furnishings,†said Madeleine Lowenborg-Frick, corporate communications manager, IKEA Canada. “We really think that our offer is comparative in quality and design.â€

The showroom will not display furniture in room settings the way typical IKEA stores do, but will feature “samplings of our best offers,†said Lowenborg-Frick.

Visitors to the pop-up showroom won’t be able to walk away with any purchases, although online terminals and IKEA staff will be on hand to provide any additional information.

The showroom opening coincides with the release of the 2009 catalogue and IKEA’s latest advertising campaign.

Created by IKEA’s creative agency Zig, the new advertising features So You Think You Can Dance star, Robert Muraine, promoting IKEA’s new collection and the catalogue, said Lowenborg-Frick.

Originally published in Marketing Magazine, July 2007
 
Am I reading that correctly? All this work for 4 days? Before anybody knows about it they'll be gone... They problably just say 4 days to get the hype, then they'll say do to popular demand, we've decided to stay :)
 
Am I reading that correctly? All this work for 4 days? Before anybody knows about it they'll be gone... They problably just say 4 days to get the hype, then they'll say do to popular demand, we've decided to stay :)

I had the same thought. No way they'd spend that kind of $$$ for 4 days. I'm sure IKEA thinks more long-term than that.
 
curtains pulled back..

You can see the show room.

It is only the street level. The upper two levels of this building are still under renovation, possibly for a different tenant.
 
just curious if anybody visited the showroom on the weekend to share their thoughts. Is the place all locked up? have they started emptying out the space?
 
My wife and I walked through. Nice space in a lofty way, nothing particularly fancy though. It mostly made me think about how great it would be to see this space used for something permanent. It seemed that IKEA was using it to showcase some of the newer higher end stuff from their catalog. No boring "billy" bookcases to be seen. Some nice kitchens.

Overheard someone asking an employee about the possibility of a permanent downtown location. The employee seemed to think that was a funny idea and pointed out that there were already two IKEAs in Toronto and the "best one" is at Kipling because "that one has the most parking spots".

So any hope of IKEA adapting their model for the urban crowd was kind of shattered right there. I think this was just a promotion.
 

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