Take a look inside the new Fishers Ikea
FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — It’s six weeks until Swedish furniture store Ikea opens in Fishers, and furniture trucks are already lining the parking lot at 116th Street and Interstate 69.
Store manager Holly Davidson, a Hoosier native, took WISH-TV crews on a tour of the 289,000-square-foot store Tuesday. The Fishers location features 50 preassembled and decorated furniture show rooms, three model home interiors, a 325-seat restaurant, a children’s play area and a Swedish food market.
Davidson walked through the kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom displays explaining that Ikea’s goal is to inspire customers with their designs and enable them to recreate their scene of choice in their own homes.
“Storage solutions, bedroom sets, mattresses, mattress covers, pillows, sheets, blankets, you name it, we have it covered,” said Davidson. “You can look and browse, test out the product, and then see what you like to make some decisions.”
Ikea crews can also be hired to assemble furniture, cabinets and appliances in a customer’s home. Davidson also noted a 365-day return policy, if a customer changes his or her mind after purchasing and assembling furniture.
The supervised children’s play area is to the right of the front door and features a free hour of supervised child care.
“It’s an amenity for our customers that come through,” she said. “It’s not a daycare per se, but it allows you to drop off your kids for a short amount of time.”
The back of the store features a restaurant with three kinds of famous Ikea meatballs: Swedish, chicken and vegetarian. The front of the store also hosts a Swedish food market and snack area. Davidson says some people come to Ikea just to eat.
“We have an exterior entrance to the restaurant that will be open a half hour before the store opens, just to cater to those who want to get breakfast on their way to work,” she explained.
The west wing of the building is a cavernous self-service facility with 48 aisles of boxed furniture and flatbed carts. Davidson says that wing is where customers pick up what they liked on the showroom floor.
According to an Ikea statement, the Fishers location brought 500 construction jobs to the area and 250 staff positions inside the store. While officials say they are no longer hiring, coworkers are still recruiting and training new employees.
Ikea opens to the public at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 11. Ikea will host several activities for the day, including a ceremonial log-sawing by the Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness and the Ikea store manager. Joseph Roth with Ikea public relations says the log-sawing is a Swedish tradition thought to bring luck to a new home and its guests.
Davidson says Ikea allows customers to camp out 48 hours before the big opening day.
“We’ll have a lot of giveaways and things to look forward to, and we’ll announce that when it gets closer,” Davidson says.