File this under yet another “Perk of Being a Blogger:” last Wednesday I got to be part of an official Press Preview of the brand new Kansas City Ikea! The store doesn’t open until September 10 but I got to join press and bloggers from throughout the city for a special preview event a week before the opening. How cool is that?!
We were treated to a buffet lunch of Ikea’s signature Swedish food items (smoked salmon, pickled herring, deviled eggs, and of course, meatballs) plus sparkling cider and lots of pretty desserts.
The store manager and the marketing director addressed the group and told us about the upcoming promotions for the Grand Opening. Here’s the scoop on the giveaways:
September 10: The first 40 adults in line will get a free sofa; the next 100 adults will get an armchair; the first 100 children will get a stuffed toy; the first 2500 customers from 9/10-9/14 will get an envelope with a surprise gift of a gift card between $10-$250 or a BOGO food voucher; and if your birthday is September 10 you get a free $40 gift card!
September 12: The first 40 adults will win free meatballs for a year.
September 10-September 14: All customers can enter a drawing for a $1000 gift card.
After the speeches we were split into small groups and escorted on a tour of the store. If you’ve never been to an Ikea before, let me tell you: this store is massive! The whole building is 359,000 square feet, and the warehouse takes up 2/3 of the building, so the shopping area is over 100,000 square feet. I’ll tell you now that if you go, you’ll want to make a day of it. Good thing they have a restaurant there so you won’t starve during your 3+ hour shopping trip (3 hours is apparently the length of an average shopping trip at Ikea).
You’ll start your shopping journey upstairs, which is where all the big stuff is (furniture, kitchen cabinets, closet systems, etc). They have just about anything you could ever need in a variety of styles, from traditional to ultra-modern and everything in between. They also have 37 fully outfitted rooms and 3 complete model homes, with the largest clocking in at almost 600 square feet. Small for an actual home, but huge for a display inside a store.
They have a great kids section with tons of furniture for every age from baby to teenager and lots of colorful toys and accessories.
The downstairs is where you can pick up all your accessories, from dishes to duvets to picture frames and lighting.
Something else to note if you’re an Ikea novice like I was is that while you shop for your furniture you’ll keep a list of what you’re going to buy, and then take that list to the warehouse to pull your own items. If you don’t want to spend your time wandering through an enormous warehouse you can pay them to pull the items for you and then deliver everything to you no later than the next day. If I was buying more than a couple small things I would definitely choose this option.
Another interesting feature at Ikea is the free supervised play area. If you have kids and you don’t think they would enjoy shopping with you for hours, you can drop them off at there for an hour while you shop in peace. The kids just have to be between the posted heights and they have to be potty trained.
On the way out of the store you might stop by the food market to pick up some yummy Swedish food to take home with you. Although not exactly Swedish, I recommend the cinnamon rolls (a package of which was given to us as a gift for attending the preview).
And so concludes my virtual Ikea tour. The Kansas City Ikea opens this Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m., will any of you be there for the big festivities? If you go this week let me know what you think, hopefully it won’t be too insane.
P.S. come back tomorrow to see what’s on my Ikea wish list!
**Linking up at Life of Meg**
