ikea

General overview

The company distributes its goods through its retail outlets, which sell contemporary furniture; IKEA follows the unconventional but often-copied principle that most of its furniture and accessories are made with the idea that the purchasers assemble the goods themselves.

The chain has 238 stores in 34 countries; most of them in Europe, the rest in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. More than 20 stores opened during 2005. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations both in Israel and in other Middle Eastern nations.

IKEA is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈke.a] but in many English-speaking regions, it is pronounced IPA: [aɪˈkiːə] rhyming with the word "idea". In addition, it is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈki.a] in Taiwan and China with a Chinese name Yíjīa(宜家).

The IKEA Catalogue, containing about 12,000 products, is printed in 160 million copies (2006) worldwide, and distributed free of charge, through mail and stores worldwide. ^[1] The IKEA Catalogue appears to meet or exceed the Bible (estimated at 53 to 100 million copies) in number of copies printed annually.^[2]

History

IKEA was founded in Älmhult, Sweden in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, then 17. The company name is a composite of the first letters in his name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. This acronym is incidentally similar to the Greek word οικία [oikia] (home) and to the Finnish word oikea (correct, right).

Originally, IKEA sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewelry and nylon stockings or practically anything Kamprad found a need for that he could fill with a product at a reduced price. Furniture was first added to the IKEA product range in 1947 and, in 1955, IKEA began to design its own furniture. The company motto is: "Affordable Solutions for Better Living".

At first, Kamprad sold his goods out of his home and by mail order, but eventually a store was opened in the nearby town of Älmhult. It was also the location for the first IKEA "warehouse" store which came to serve as a model for IKEA establishments elsewhere and on March 23, 1963, the first store outside Sweden was opened in Asker, a Norwegian municipality outside Oslo. (The store was located in the same building which houses the Bellevue hotel, about two km from the present site at Billingstad/Slependen, which opened in 1975. The store in Asker is currently undergoing a major expansion and remodeling.)

Products

IKEA furniture is well known for its modern, utilitarian design. Also, because much of it is self-assembly furniture (also known as "flat-pack"), it is designed to be assembled by the consumer rather than being sold pre-assembled. IKEA claims this permits them to reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air; the volume of a bookcase, for example, is considerably less if it is shipped unassembled rather than assembled. This is also a practical point for many of the chain's European customers, where public transport is commonly used; the flat-pack distribution methods allows for easier transport via public transport from the store to a customer's home for assembly.

IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture. Kamprad refers to the concept as "democratic design," meaning that the company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design (see also environmental design). In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the 20th and 21st century, the company implements economies of scale, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the extensive use of particle board. The intended result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings, scalable both to larger homes and smaller dwellings.

IKEA has also expanded their product base to include flat-pack houses, in an effort to cut prices involved in a first-time buyer's home. The product, named BoKlok was launched in Sweden in 1996 in a joint venture with Skanska. Now working in the Nordic countries and in UK, sites confirmed in England include London, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.^[3]

Although IKEA household products and furniture are Swedish designed, they are produced in developing countries to hold down costs. Very little production actually takes place in Sweden.

Product names

IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product name are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.^[4]

• Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)
• Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian placenames
• Dining tables and chairs: Finnish placenames
• Bookcase ranges: Occupations
• Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
• Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
• Chairs, desks: men's names
• Materials, curtains: women's names
• Garden furniture: Swedish islands
• Carpets: Danish placenames
• Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
• Bedlinen, bedcovers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
• Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives
• Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
• Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
• Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, JERKER ( a Swedish masculine name) is a popular desk, DINERA for tableware, KASSETT for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV.

A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the item's designer.

Because IKEA is a world-wide company working in several countries with several different languages, sometimes the Nordic naming leads to problems where the word means something completely different to the product. A well known example was the bed frame GUTVIK: in German-speaking countries, it can be translated in “good performing sex”.

Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.

Store format

Newer IKEA stores are usually very large blue boxes with few windows. They are often designed around a "one-way" layout which leads customers along "the natural way". This layout is designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety (as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a consumer to go right to the section that the goods and services needed are displayed). The sequence involves going through furniture showrooms, housewares (market-hall), then the warehouse where one collects flatpacks for products seen in the showrooms, and then the cashier.

Whilst the original design involved the warehouse on the lower level and the showroom and markethall on the upper, some stores are single-level bungalow-style stores while many U.S. and Canadian stores and all German stores place the showroom upstairs and the marketplace and warehouse both downstairs. Some stores maintain separate warehouses to allow more stock to be kept on-site at any given time, although this occasionally results in challenges in finding the items, as well as a perception of having to queue in line twice.

Many stores include restaurants serving typically Swedish food, and beverages such as lingonberry juice. The restaurant area is usually the one place in the store where there are large windows. Outside of Scandinavia, these restaurants are sometimes complemented by mini-shops selling Swedish-made, Swedish-style groceries. As would be expected with IKEA, you can buy IKEA's specialities, such as Swedish meatballs, in parts (i.e. the ingredients) at these stores and assemble it (that is, simple, straightforward food preparation) at home.

Most IKEA stores also offer an "as-is" area at the end of the warehouse just prior to the cashiers. Returned, damaged and formerly showcased products which are not in "as new" condition are displayed here, and sold with a discount, but also with a "no-returns" policy. In the United Kingdom, this is referred to as "Bargain Corner".

In Hong Kong, where shop space is limited and costly, IKEA has opened four outlets across the city, which are actually part of conveniently located shopping malls. They are relatively tiny, compared to common "large blue box" store design, yet most of them are still in the "one-way" layout. However, the newest outlet in Telford Plaza does not follow this template, and the three independent floors can be accessed freely from each. Following IKEA tradition, though, the only cashier is located on the lowest floor.

Corporate structure

Despite IKEA's Swedish roots, the owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and concept is a Dutch-registered company, Inter IKEA Systems. The operator/franchisee of the majority of the stores worldwide is a separate entity, the IKEA Group, a private group of companies owned by a Dutch charitable foundation.

Of the 235 IKEA stores in 33 countries, 210 are run by the IKEA Group. The remaining 25 stores are run by franchisees outside of the IKEA Group.^[5]

INGKA Holding is the ultimate parent company for all IKEA companies, including the industrial group Swedwood but excluding Inter IKEA Systems. INGKA Holding is wholly owned by the Stichting INGKA Foundation, which is a charitable foundation registered in the Netherlands. In May 2006, the business magazine The Economist reported that the foundation was the world's wealthiest charity with a net worth estimated at exceeding US$36 billion (more than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), although the foundation's purpose is largely corporate tax-avoidance and anti-takeover protection for IKEA.^[6]

Community impact

IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in their merchandise have sometimes been at odds with the challenges that the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community.

IKEA stores are not commonplace, particularly in the United States, where consumers anticipate a retail outlet to be fairly accessible and have a number of locations. While the stores draw consumers from far and wide, the traffic and congestion impact of a store on a particular community can be a challenge.

• When an IKEA opened in April 2000 in Emeryville, California, the traffic was so severe that traffic lights had no effect. Emeryville police were forced to manually direct traffic daily for three months.
• When an IKEA opened in Tempe, Arizona in November 2004, the traffic jams on Interstate 10 were so severe that the Arizona Department of Public Safety had to close the nearest off-ramp to the store just to spread out the traffic among other nearby off-ramps.
• IKEA's most popular store in Brent Park, London frequently has traffic jams on the weekends.
• A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors due to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (due to the large number of customers, there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February 2005 with no additional incident.
• In Saudi Arabia three people were crushed to death in September 2004 when IKEA offered a limited number of free $150 vouchers. The IKEA store in Jeddah used to be a popular place for flirting for unmarried couples, a practice strictly forbidden by Saudi rigorous religious law. The religious police would then frequently raid the IKEA store to lecture patrons or chastise what is considered indecent or inappropriate behaviours.
• The Stoughton, Massachusetts store opened on 9 November 2005. Nearby highways were at a standstill; approaching the store from less than 1 mile took upwards of an hour. IKEA employees indicated that on the first Saturday of operation, the Stoughton store would have sales of $1-1.2M. Over 300,000 visitors were expected on the first weekend of operation.
• IKEA was vetoed planning permission for a further store in England in 2004 (to be based in Stockport in Greater Manchester) by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It applied for judicial review but lost in 2005.^[7][8]. However, they later received permission to build a store in Ashton-Under-Lyne (Greater Manchester)^[9].
• A store that opened in Canton Township, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit) in June 2006 caused traffic jams for hours and experienced a huge crunch of people when it opened. [1]
• The IKEA Redhook megastore currently under construction (as of 2005) in Brooklyn, New York is dividing the community. The section of Brooklyn where the the store is being constructed is located in the neighborhood of Red Hook, which is notably isolated from major transportation arteries. IKEA is attempting to mollify critics with ferry service from lower Manhattan island, increased and extended city bus service, as well as their own shuttle service to the nearest local subway stops (see below). IKEA Brooklyn is going to be the largest IKEA in the world, and local residents of Redhook have cited such concerns as: Traffic congestion, noise, sound, air, and waste pollution, decrease in property values, among others. IKEA contends that it has factored in all these issues and that, traffic as simulated, will not be an issue, plans for pollution control are in the works, and that development plans for the 22 acre site on Beard Street will revitalize the neighborhood and increase property values. Concerns about IKEA's "hasty" destruction of historically significant buildings on and around the site were also raised.

Despite many negative impacts, there are some positive roles that IKEA plays in the local and global community.

• All UK IKEA stores support world wide children's charities such as UNICEF and Save the Children [2].
• Partnering with UNICEF, IKEA has established over 100 "bridge schools" to enable children to join the mainstream educational system in India. Liberia's schools have also recieved similar help [3].
• Like most international companies, when disaster relief is needed, IKEA responds with supplies and donations [4].
• IKEA UK also support a number of local schools, Scout & Guide groups, hospices such as the Little Havens Children's Hospice and various other children's charities through recycling, product donations, bag packing and on site collections.

Shuttle bus

As part of IKEA's global mandate to make their stores more convenient and accessible, and with community impact in mind, IKEA operates free shuttle buses at some of their stores, including:

• IKEA Etobicoke (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - Ford E350 bus to and from store to Kipling (TTC) subway station
• IKEA North York (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - Ford E350 bus to and from store to Leslie (TTC) subway station
• IKEA Richmond (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada) - bus to and from store to Airport Station [5]
• IKEA Elizabeth (New Jersey, USA) - Large tour bus (60+ passengers) to and from store on weekends to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, New York City.
• IKEA Singapore (Singapore) - Coach (40+ passengers) from all corners of the island including Tampines, Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Timah
• IKEA Edmonton (North London, UK) - Small bus (25 passangers) to Tottenham Hale Tube station

Criticisms

Some criticisms of IKEA:

• IKEA has demolished historic buildings, in at least one case for a parking lot.
• In the 1990s, there were several complaints arising from IKEA's British television advertising campaigns:
  • “Stop being so English”: In which a “Swedish psychologist” claims the British are uptight due to their taste in “English” furniture (complaints were dismissed).^[10]
  • An advertisement where a management consultant suggests how much more furniture a company could buy, if it fired an office worker. (complaints were dismissed but IKEA voluntarily withdrew the advert)^[11]
  • A campaign under the slogan, "Just pack up, ship out, find a place of your own. And for all your new things, you know where to come. Make a fresh start," got complaints that it was trivializing marriage breakups. (complaints were dismissed) ^[12]
  • An advertisement in which a boss tells members of his staff to smell each other's armpits.
• Difficulty in following the instructions for product assembly, which rely on pictures only. However, this is another way the company saves money. Pictures are printed instead of words that would require multiple translations due to IKEA's wide international presence.
• IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was, as a teen, directly involved in the pro-Nazi New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) until at least 1945, causing tensions when IKEA began opening stores in Israel.^[13] Kamprad devotes two chapters to his time in Nysvenska Rörelsen in his book, Leading By Design: The IKEA Story and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of his life."^[14]
• Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has criticized IKEA for not depicting women assembling furniture in its instruction booklets, despite the fact that many sets of instructions do, in fact, show women - though not often. The official explanation from IKEA is that depicting women at work assembling furniture could be construed as offensive in Muslim countries.^[15]
• In 2004 there was controversy about the law in Ireland, restricting the maximum size of a retail outlet. The law had previously stated that no shop may exceed 6,000 m² in size. When it was revealed IKEA had the intention to build a store in Dublin the law was put up for debate as 6,000 m² was deemed far too small. In the end the law was changed to allow for retail outlets selling durable goods to be built without a limit in designated areas (providing the building itself is approved by standard planning laws). The then Minister for the Enviroment came under fierce criticism for what was seen as changing the law to suit one company. He defended his decision citing that if they hadn't been changed, IKEA would have most likely built a store in Northern Ireland which would be used by customers from the Republic of Ireland anyway. This would have been undesirable as in that scenario, the VAT on the goods would end up going to the UK government. ^[16]
• The 2007 IKEA catalog was involved in a controversy concerning a dog in the interior-front-cover photo apparently showing a surprisingly large and prominent human looking penis, prompting suggestions that the photo may have been deliberately "Photoshopped". IKEA Canada has denied this rumour and that the "object in question" is the dog's leg. ^[17]. BBC Radio 1 disc jokey Scott Mills also drew attention to this photograph while on-air. The picture was posted on his show's internet forum, and Mills requested speculation from his listeners, some of whom were allegedly in an IKEA store at the time, as to whether they thought anything was unusual about the picture. ^[18]

Diversity

IKEA ran a commercial widely thought to be the first commercial featuring a gay couple. It aired only once, in 1994. [6] It has also had other commercials targeting the gay community, as well as a commercial featuring a transgendered woman. [7]

IKEA was also named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005 by Working Mothers magazine. It ranked 96 in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2006.

Design reform

As pointed out by circuit lecturer Will Novosedlik, IKEA embodies the principles of design reform begun by William Morris and John Ruskin, insofar as the company seeks to elevate public taste by providing quality goods at affordable prices.

Popular Culture

Television

• Teams in one season of The Amazing Race had to visit the world's largest Ikea store on Sweden for a Detour task.
• In The Simpsons episode "Eight Misbehavin'", the family visits a blue and yellow store called "SHØP" with meatballs, Lego forks and items named such things as Pöpli pencil holder. In it they meet a 6-foot walking Allen wrench that explains how you put everything together yourself.
• In an episode of 2DTV, they made fun of former England national football team manager Sven-Göran Eriksson after he had an affair with a woman when he had an IKEA condom which he had to take out of a box and assemble much like the furniture in the store.
• In the episode of the US cartoon Futurama where Professor Farnsworth purchases a self-assembly supercollider from πkea (pi-kea), which subsequently explodes. Incidentally, the supercollider is delivered by a robot designed to look like an IKEA TV-stand (who almost completely falls apart on his way out after delivering the goods.)

πkea Robot: (leaving) Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!
Bender: Finished! And only seven missing pieces!
Fry: Those Swedes sure know how to put in almost everything you need!

• IKEA was mentioned in an episode of the US sitcom Friends entitled "The One With all the Poker" in 1995:

Rachel: So basically, you get your ya-yas by taking money from all of your friends.
Ross: Yeah.
Chandler: Yes, and I get my ya-yas from IKEA. You have to put them together yourself, but they cost a little less.
(Chandler sits on rich guys couch)
Chandler: I-KEA this is comfortable...

• IKEA was also mentioned in another Friends episode entitled The One With The Fertility Test. Where Phoebe pretends to be Swedish to avoid Rachel

Rachel: So, what’s your name?
Phoebe: It’s a normal Swedish name... Ikea...
Rachel: Oh... what an interesting name.
Phoebe: Ja!

• In the pilot episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, Leonardo Leonardo refuses to have his butler buying him an exclusive old fashioned desk in pro of an IKEA desk. He puts it together with ridiculous results.
• In the first episode of American Dad, Stan (the dad) puts an order out for 2 million halogen lamps and 500 thousand coffee tables from IKEA, which will be sent to Iraq, to "refurnish" the country.
• IKEA products were heavily featured in the season premiere of Project Runway, season three. This included a metal ring chandelier decoration with leaves hanging off the sides (Laura Bennett), and a handwoven basket (Vincent's hat)

Film

• The IKEA furniture line was satirized in the movie Fight Club, as a fictional "Furnï" store featuring generically designed products lacking soul or substance in the greater context of humanity. Although the catalogs shown in the film state "Furni" Edward Norton's character actually says it is IKEA. In Chuck Palahniuk's novel it is actually IKEA mentioned and not Furni.
• The interiors of the homes in John Woo's film The Killer were furnished completely with IKEA items.
• IKEA furniture was heavily featured throughout the recent Swedish film The Ketchup Effect.

Music

• IKEA is featured in a song of the same title by folk/rock singer Jonathan Coulton.
• Kanye West mentions buying a bed from IKEA in the song "Last Call":

Kanye: 'I unpacked all my shit. You know, we went to IKEA, I bought a bed, I put the bed together myself. I loaded up all my equipment, and the first beat I made was, uh, 'Heart of the City.'"

• In a song by the Arrogant Worms, entitled "Ezra Eats", about a little kid who eats everything, there is a line that mentions IKEA:

"We took him to IKEA, and while I sat on the benches, he ate a sofa named Bjorn and seven Allen wrenches"

• There is a Pavement song called "Date with IKEA".

Literature

• IKEA furniture is described as "semi-disposable Swedish furniture" in Microserfs by author Douglas Coupland.
• In the parody The Soddit, Biorn (a parody of Beorn who cannot actually transform into a bear, but believes that he can) is named after Björn Ulvaeus, speaks with constant references to ABBA songs, and whenever he is asked about his house explains it with IKEA-salesman-like zeal:

  "This chair. It is tinted clear lacquered solid beech with Wharg skin green-woven seat." ... "She may use my specially sharpened dining knife, with wooden handle and flower pattern twenty-seven..." ... "This shelf in bi-ply laminate with silver brackets, I was putting it up yesterday. I was doing this putting up the day before you came."

Other

• Cherie Blair (the wife of the British prime minister Tony Blair) was once reported to have said in May 2006,

  "The cabinet is like an IKEA cabinet — one dodgy screw and it falls apart." ^[19]

• In the pre-E3 Nintendo Press Conference Reggie Fils-Aime justified the Nintendo Wii name to be weird at first, just like what happened with Google or IKEA; this underscores how IKEA has become a household name.
• It is widely reported that one European in ten was conceived on an IKEA bed^[20][21][22], although it is difficult to tell if this is simply a frequently repeated web legend.
• An IKEA in Stockholm, Sweden was visited on The Amazing Race 6. A Detour was performed there.
• Internet cartoon characters Weebl and Bob, who have a fixation on pies, visit PIKEA, a similarly themed pie retailer. ^[23]

IKEA's debut in each country

• 1958 Sweden — Älmhult
• 1963 Norway — Asker (Nesbru)
• 1969 Denmark — Copenhagen (Ballerup)(moved to Høje Tåstrup about ten years later)
• 1973 Switzerland — Zürich (Spreitenbach)
• 1974 Germany — Munich (Eching)
• 1974 Japan — Kobe (joint venture with a Japanese department store, withdrew from the market in 1986 because of stagnant sales; an IKEA opened in Funabashi, Chiba in 2006 that included a distribution partnership with the Mitsubishi Corporation under the supervision of prominent account executive, Ai Kobayashi-Boswell.)
• 1975 Australia — Sydney (Artarmon (Closed 2005, in preperation for new store in Homebush])
• 1975 Hong Kong — Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui)
• 1976 Canada — Halifax (Burnside Park) (Temporary North American market test store, closed in 1998. It was very successful. First permanent store was built in Richmond, British Columbia later in 1976). Current number of stores: 11.
• 1977 Austria — Vienna (Vösendorf)
• 1978 Netherlands — Rotterdam (Sliedrecht)
• 1978 Singapore — Queenstown (A new store is set to open in Tampines at the end of 2006)
• 1980 Spain — Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)
• 1981 Iceland — Reykjavík
• 1981 France — Paris (Bobigny)
• 1983 Saudi Arabia — Jeddah
• 1984 Belgium — Brussels (Zaventem and Ternat)
• 1984 Kuwait — Kuwait City
• 1985 United States — Philadelphia (Plymouth Meeting)(This store has moved about 2 miles away to a larger location, and as of June 25, 2006, the first building sits empty)
• 1987 England — Cheshire (Warrington) near Manchester
• 1989 Italy — Milan (Cinisello Balsamo)
• 1990 Hungary — Budapest
• 1991 Poland — Warsaw
• 1991 Czech Republic — Prague (Zličín)
• 1991 United Arab Emirates — Dubai
• 1992 Slovakia — Bratislava
• 1994 Taiwan — Taipei
• 1996 Finland — Espoo
• 1996 Malaysia — Bandar Utama (Re-located to Mutiara Damansara in 2003)
• 1998 China — Beijing
• 1999 Scotland — Edinburgh
• 2000 Russia — Moscow (Khimki)
• 2001 Israel — Netanya
• 2001 Greece — Thessaloniki
• 2003 Wales — Cardiff
• 2004 Portugal — Lisbon
• 2005 Turkey — Istanbul
• 2007 Ireland — Dublin

See also

• List of Swedish companies

Notes

1. ^ IKEA Q&A section, on the Swedish language site.
2. ^ Martin Roth. The Bible vs. the Ikea Catalogue – Which is Winning Hearts?.
3. ^ "Buying a house? Pick up a flatpack at Ikea", guardian.co.uk, 2005-02-02.
4. ^ (German) Waren Sie schon mal in Klippan?.
5. ^ IKEA Group corporate site: about us.
6. ^ IKEA: Flat-pack accounting.
7. ^ "Ikea loses fight to build store", BBC News, 2005-02-18.
8. ^ "Fury as Prescott blocks Ikea store", manchesteronline, 2004-08-03.
9. ^ "Ikea's superstore plans approved", BBC News, 2006-01-11.
10. ^ Television Advertising Complaints Reports: uptight British. ofcom.org.uk.
11. ^ Television Advertising Complaints Reports: management consultant. ofcom.org.uk.
12. ^ Television Advertising Complaints Reports: homosexual marriage breakup. ofcom.org.uk.
13. ^ Founder of Ikea store haunted by Nazi past (2000-04-07).
14. ^ Ingvar Kamprad - IKEA Founder and One of the World's Richest Men.
15. ^ Norwegian prime minister slams IKEA (2005-03-10).
16. ^ RTÉ report on the loosening of shop planning laws
17. ^ 'Unfortunate' photo wasn't tampered with: IKEA
18. ^ 'The Scott Mills Show Reviews' Unofficial Mills, September 7, 2006
19. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2179379,00.html
20. ^ Ben Hoyle. "Ikea stands up for women's rights - to spend hours assembling furniture", Times Online, 2005-03-11.
21. ^ James Cockington. "Loose change", The Age, 2006-08-23.
22. ^ Iain Hollingshead. "Help! I'm lost in the crush at Ikea", Telegraph, 2006-08-23.
23. ^ http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pikea.htm

External links

• IKEA - Official site
• How IKEA works
• IKEA UK website
• IKEA Advertising Campaign
• Banned IKEA Commercial
• Positive Fanatics - The Unofficial IKEA Web Journal
• OH, IKEA! - a weblog monitoring rumors regarding IKEA possibly coming to Ohio
• IKEA Fansite FAQ's and Photos primarily focusing on IKEA Kitchens
• IKEA Fansite Forums
• Find an IKEA store, get an IKEA Catalog
• Lyrics to Jonathan Coulton's 'IKEA'
• "The miracle of Älmhult" by Oliver Burkeman from the Guardian newspaper. The writer talks about his visit to IKEA's HQ in Älmhurt
• IKEA Etobicoke
• IKEA Lakeside
• Private bus service opens door to `the other way' Is two-tier transit coming to Toronto?
• IKEA North York
• Shuttle schedule
• "IKEA: Flat-pack accounting", The Economist, 2006-05-11.

Business data

• IKEA International A/S at Google Finance
• IKEA International A/S at Yahoo Finance
• IKEA International A/S at Hoover's