For Immediate Release
Kevin DeSantis
(212) 645-6900 x118 or
kevin@jerichopr.com
THE SWEDISH WORD FOR EXPANSION: IKEA COLLEGE PARK

IKEA Continues its North American Expansion, Providing Local Residents With the Chance to “Furnish their Dreams”

College Park, MD June 10, 2003 – IKEA, the leading home furnishings retailer, opens a brand new store in College Park, Maryland – its third in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. corridor. IKEA College Park, located at 10100 Baltimore Avenue, opens its doors on Wednesday, June 18 at 9:00 a.m. This is yet another step in the company’s overall expansion endeavor to open 50 new North American stores in the next ten years.

“We are extremely excited to be able to share our brand new store, one that offers opportunity and inspiration to help people create the life at home they really want,” said Paget Ingham, store manager, IKEA College Park. “Our store offers shoppers so many affordable, high design options for the home – providing everyone with limitless opportunities to create changes. We are also very pleased to be bringing approximately 450 new jobs to the community.”

Highlights of the new IKEA College Park store include:
Design Ideas, High Quality Products – The new 371,000 square-foot store offers more than 9,000 furnishing and accessories ranging from sofas and bookcases to clocks and dishes. Additionally, the new store features a Showroom with 55 room displays offering creative and unique approaches to efficiently organize space and design ideas for any room in the home.

Model Home Displays – With five model home displays depicting different “real life situations” complete with bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, kitchens and more, shoppers are provided with a wide variety of design solutions and home furnishings ideas. The displays include defined surrounding walls creating the look and feel of being inside an actual home. They also feature information about the "dwellers", from a single mother and her daughter to a family with two children, to help shoppers easily relate and feel inspired by the setting.

Just for Families– Places to play and imagine; Småland is a supervised play area developed with inspiration from the company’s Swedish roots that replicates the look of a typical farmhouse and forest in Sweden. Children who meet the 36”-54” height requirement can climb on make believe rock walls and a giant wooden shoe, play among pine trees, or join puppet shows and other interactive activities. For children who don't meet the Småland height requirement, there are smaller play areas throughout the store designed for children with their families on-hand! Also for our younger visitors, IKEA offers specially designed strollers.

Easy parking and loading– IKEA College Park offers more than 1,680 dedicated parking spaces which includes an underground garage with more than 600 parking spaces. To enable customers to easily take their shopping carts to the underground parking area, IKEA has installed a special moving walkway that transports both shopper and cart together. Another convenience includes the availability of prime parking spaces for shoppers with young children (22 spaces) as well as handicap parking (31 spaces). Additionally, visitors can now bring shopping carts to their cars to unload their purchases.

Feeling hungry? Need a break? – The 420-seat restaurant features a variety of Swedish favorites from meatballs to salmon, and the introduction of a new vegetarian meal called, Pytt I Panna. Children feast on menu choices just for them including a hot dog and French fries or a mini Swedish meatball platter. For younger visitors, the restaurant offers organic baby food. And, there’s a new Swedish Foodmarket in the exit area, which offers hotdogs, cinnamon buns and Swedish snacks.

Buying and Shopping Convenience – The new store has 30 checkout lanes as well as 29 loading spaces so shoppers’ can easily load their purchases into their car. Additional convenient features include resting areas with restrooms and phones located throughout the new store, which offer natural light and comfortable seating for a quick stop. Diaper changing stations are available in all restrooms, and nursing moms will find facilities just for them.

Grand Opening Celebration Festivities at College Park
Shoppers are invited to join in the IKEA College Park “Furnish Your Dreams” grand opening celebrations with Barbara Eden, of I Dream of Jeannie fame. On grand opening morning, Barbara will not only be greeting customers but also waking up and serving breakfast in bed to five shoppers who have slept out at IKEA since June 15. These five “dreamers” will receive a $2,000 IKEA gift card; also, IKEA will donate a total of $10,000 ($2,000 for each of the five dreamers) to the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. Also, the first 100 shoppers who arrive with proof they share the same birthday (June 18) will receive a $100 IKEA gift card and special grand opening entertainment will be on-hand from face painters, caricaturist artist, live music, jugglers, magicians, FREE giveaways and more!

Also, in an effort to help preserve many of the historically significant landmarks in the area, IKEA College Park partnering with the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission and donating $300,000 to make it possible to maintain historic sites in the area. IKEA will present a check in the amount of $100,000 (the first of three installments) to the county on grand opening day.

Grand Opening Festivities at IKEA College Park, IKEA Woodbridge and IKEA Baltimore
Shoppers can enter to win the House of their Dreams (a houseful of furniture valued at $10,000), the first 100 people in line will receive a FREE POÄNG armchair, the first 100 kids in line will receive a FREE FAMNIG soft toy heart, 500 stars will be handed out to shoppers with special offers.

Since its founding in 1943, IKEA has offered a wide range of home furnishings and accessories of good design and function, at prices so low that the majority of the people can afford them. IKEA is recognized as a socially responsible company, and continuously supports initiatives that benefit causes such as children and the environment. Currently, IKEA has more than 180 stores in 31 countries, including 16 stores in the United States and ten stores in Canada. To visit the IKEA Web site, please go to http://www.ikea-usa.com.