Swedish retailer Ikea has announced plans for its first Rocky Mountain store, but it won’t be in Colorado.
The home-furnishings retailer with a nearly cultlike following will open a store in Draper, Utah – south of Salt Lake City – in 2007. The company, which has its North American headquarters in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has 26 U.S. locations and is opening about five new stores each year. It has more than 225 stores in 33 countries.
The retailer has developed an avid following among customers who love its low- priced and stylish furniture, linens and housewares. The sprawling stores also include restaurants serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates.
The planned 310,000-square-foot store in Draper adds another piece to the company’s Western expansion plans, which so far do not include Colorado.
Ikea recently opened or announced new stores in Arizona, California, Washington and Oregon.
“Utah is a natural extension for us based on our stores in California and now in Arizona,” Ikea spokesman Joseph Roth said.
Although Ikea representatives have reportedly scouted the Denver area for possible store locations, Roth said the company does not have any immediate plans to expand here.
“The central location of Colorado is not easy from a distribution standpoint when you would only have one store in the state,” he said.
The company relies on economies of scale to keep its prices down, and expanding into Colorado doesn’t make economic sense at this time, he said.
Even at a distance of more than 500 miles, the Draper store comes as welcome news to some Ikea die-hards. Currently, the closest Ikea is more than 900 miles away in Tempe, Ariz.
When the Utah store opens in the spring of 2007, Denver resident Jill Jennings said, she’d be willing to make the drive.
“It’s lot closer than the one I went to in Chicago,” said Jennings, 27.
Jennings, who works at downtown lobbying firm CRL Associates, first encountered Ikea when she was living in Seattle. She quickly became a fan.
“I walked in, and it was just amazing. It’s really cool furniture at really decent prices,” she said.
Before Jennings moved to Denver, she and her parents, who live in Illinois, made a two-hour trek to the Chicago Ikea to stock up on furnishings for her new apartment. They drove her purchases, which included a bed, a coffee table and dining-room chairs, to Colorado.
“It’s fun, funky, affordable stuff. The only problem is you have to assemble it yourself,” she said.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at karellano@denverpost.com or 303-820- 1902.
