IKEA's Elizabeth, New Jersey Store Undergoes A Complete Makeover, Creating Lots More Space Throughout The Store

Furniture World Magazine

In Elizabeth, New Jersey this past year, a very visible eight year-old has been undergoing a face-lift. And, despite this youngster's age and remarkable good looks, not a single person, group or organization has come forward to protest the procedure. In fact, they're excited...more room for products like FLOSSA, KIMSTA, VÄRNAMO, and friends, neighbors and relatives. In early October, IKEA Elizabeth will complete its multi-million dollar makeover, expanding the store to 350,000 square feet and making it the largest IKEA store in North America. The IKEA Elizabeth store, located in a tax enterprise zone, and already well-known by customers for its miniscule sales tax of only three percent, anticipates a sales increase of approximately 15 percent. The new renovations and expansion will better accommodate the increasing volume of visitors the store receives each year. The eight year-old IKEA store began its year-long renovation and expansion in August 1997 to better accommodate the increasing volume of visitors it receives each year. The Elizabeth store, which averages 40,000 visitors a week, is making these tremendous improvements to create an even more pleasurable shopping destination. Some renovation highlights include: more than 30% increase (82,000 square feet) in total square footage, more than 40,000 square feet added to the Showroom and Marketplace alone, a larger warehouse for more stock, and a bigger and better kid-friendly ballroom are just a few of the physical reconstruction "touch ups" to the home furnishings store. "IKEA prides itself with helping people to live better," said Bob Kay, IKEA Elizabeth store manager. "And we believe that philosophy applies not only to the products we offer, but also to our surrounding environment. We felt it was time to make a few updates to our Elizabeth store to create an even more enjoyable shopping experience for everyone." The IKEA Elizabeth remodel is just one of many expansion activities for IKEA in the United States over the next several months. On tap for the world's largest home furnishings store includes the opening of IKEA Chicago located in Schaumburg, the company's biggest store in North America, in November, 1998, and the announcement of a future store site in the San Francisco East Bay area is scheduled to open in spring 2000. "This is certainly an exciting time for IKEA in the United States," said Jan Kjellman, President of IKEA North America. "The remodel of IKEA's Elizabeth store and our expansion into the Chicago area, and soon the West Coast, allows us to help people 'live better' on a wider scale." IKEA Home Furnishings has 146 stores worldwide and 12 in the United States. IKEA Elizabeth is located at 1000 Center Drive in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Inside the remodeled 350,000 square foot building you could fit... 126 million Polish sausages 840 million Swedish meatballs 3.5 million jets or Giants footballs 168 million Devils hockey pucks 7 million Monica Lewinsky dresses 3.7 billion tunnel tokens 336 million EZ-Passes 120 million Beanie Babies 84 million New York City bagels or knishes 504 million ABBA CD's (ABBA is Swedish, just like IKEA)