The opening of the new Ikea store in Midtown St. Louis has brought a lot of attraction to the area and for good reason.

“They no longer have to drive to Chicago or Kansas City to get to an Ikea store anymore because they have their own store here, so there has been a lot of excitement so far,” Lisa Johnson, Local Marketing Specialist of the Ikea St. Louis Store, said.  “As you can see here by our parking lot, we are really busy here on this Saturday morning and everyone is excited. We’re excited to be here and be serving the St. Louis area.”

The massive opening at the end of September gave people a chance to receive free gifts for standing in line and being the first customers to enter the store.

“We’ve done that with all of our grand openings, so just to continue along with that,” Johnson said.

On September 30th the first 41 adults received a free three-seat-sofa, the next 100 adults received a free armchair, the first 100 children received a free heart- shaped soft toy, and the first 2,500 adults received a random prize envelope with IKEA gift cards ranging from $10 to $250.

“We know customers line up or camp in advance for the store opening, so we like to at least provide some form of recognition to them for their efforts,” Joseph Roth, Ikea director of public affairs.

Joseph Roth tells of the new location of the store and what they are still working to accomplish.

“Everything went very smoothly here and we opened right on time; in fall 2015,” Roth said.

The attraction to the new store are the unique goods that are sold.  Most people when they think of a furniture store they do not think crazy furniture, and that is exactly what Ikea has to offer.

“In general, customers come for the unique product offering, good design, good function and affordable prices, unique shopping experience, inspirational room settings/ displays, restaurant, supervised children’s play area, and frankly, even just for ideas,” Roth explained.  

“We are very confident of the success of this store, and are thrilled to have a more urban location.” This location is starting to attract the younger generation that like to shop crazy.

The amount of people that the store will attract will be very profitable.

“Our research has shown us that we have tons of customers that were already resided in the St. Louis area, so it was just a matter of time, place, and making sure that everything was aligned to make a store here in St. Louis.” Johnson said. “We were so excited that we were able to open up, and our customers are excited as well, so we look forward to serving them throughout the years,”

Many students from MHS have visited the Ikea store including, Kelly Hirschbuehler, junior, visited the store on opening week.

“The store wasn’t that different.” Hirschbuehler said. “It was ginormous. There were a ton of workers. A lot of them were directing the traffic since there were so many people there.”