Is IKEA still the IKEA of old days? No. Definitely not. It is already a super market, a crazy, crowded market. I didn’t realize IKEA has been such a great success in Shanghai. I went there, and took some picture.
Parking Lot
IKEA has one of the biggest garage in Shanghai. Look at these pictures. They have 10+ rows of parking lots like this. At the entrance, there is a person who dedicated to stop cars at the gate and allow equal number of cars enter the garage as the cars going out. The once empty garage is now completely full. Long lines appear before IKEA store and jammed the streat. It was free for several years, and now it charges 10 RMB per car. I believe the intention is not to increase revenue. It is to restrict cars from entering the garage.
Inside the Store
The huge store was full of people. Look at these pictures. Want to try the nice sofa? You need to wait for the person to stand up before you sit down. Want to get a storage box? Line up and wait for the person before you to get it.
Business Hour
This is IKEA’s business hour:
It is self-explainary.
Above is the elevator to garage.
Location
IKEA is located at the intersection of Inner Ring Road, and Humin Elevated Highway. It can be easily accessible by Metro Line #1 (Shanghai Stadium Station) and Metro Line #3 and #4 (Shanghai Stadium Station).
From the window of IKEA, you can see the Metro Line #3 and #4. The train is raining across the bridge.
Dining Room
IKEA’s dining room was once empty but now it is full of people. Many people are walking around with plate in hand, just to find a seat to have their meal.
People are paying for their meal.
Interesting Stuff
I like the color paper sheet.
Soft hand towel.
and paper box.
Besides the store inventory format (a term from eBay), they have cooks present how to create Sweden Meatball…
Things are Cheaper
Look at these Billy Bookcase!
We bought exactly the same one – same brand, same size, and same color, at 870 RMB with my first money salary in 1999. NOW, it is only 299 RMB. It is the result of local sourcing.
Kijiji Plate
Look at these Kijiji Plate:
Checking Out
We bought some small stuff, but we gave up when we see the long lines at check out counter. There are more than 20 people in each of the 20 counters. This is the first time we gave up our goods just because of the long line.
IKEA in China is a Huge Success
From an “Super Expensive” furniture store 10 years ago, to the current everyone’s furniture store, IKEA completed its 10 years of journey. It is a huge success. The first time I visited IKEA in 1996 was still as fresh a memroy as yesterday. At that time, there are definitely more sofa in the store than customers.
Ten years. IKEA is no longer my old IKEA.
P.S. It is not allowed to take picture inside the store. I am sorry that I didn’t go through all the processes to ask permission to prepare for this blog.
Your IKEA story reminded me of our recent October visit to Shanghai. After being very sick I swore off Chinese food for several days. We walked to the nearby IKEA store for their western cafeteria food. I particularly enjoyed the Swedish meatballs.
Once we were through the doors of the store, we could have been back in Canada. The store layout and products must be standardised around the world? The only possible difference may have been a slight tendency for customers to linger longer as they tested the chairs and the beds. One father and son were fast asleep on a sofa. I wonder if they bought it?
After a few days, I was back to enjoying Chinese food, and we went to IKEA no more.
Why do you think they don’t allow pictures? This was true all over China, even for little stores, as if they think we want to steal their trade secrets. Even the Physical in the Metro City bubble in XuJiaHui
didn’t want us to take pictures of the sign inside. Weird. They could be getting free advertising all over the world from our pictures.
this is very familiar (except perhaps for waiting to try sofa!) IKEA in the UK is just the same, very crowded, and good value! We too bought ‘billy bookcase’ about 3 years ago, but here the price is £39 (600 RMB!) Some people may complain
about ‘Globalisation’, but the success of companies such as Ikea & Starbucks proves it is what people want. personally I love them both!
zjemi, they have an icon not to allow it on the glass of their entrance.
Sorry but this is really not a Billy bookstore – it is a similar but cheaper version. It is nearly half the price of the normal Billy but also only available in one colour. Your Billy will be still the same price, because they are sourcing them from China for a long time now.
One thing I bought in Switzerland just now is from IKEA Shenzen. ;-)
The funny part is, that many products cost nearly the same in Germany/Switzerland and China. Something that may cost 1049 RMB in China will cost 99 Euro in Germany. The exchange rate is currently at around 10:1 so the price is really nearly identical.
yup, noticed that the price was excactly the same in Chinese Ikea stores and in Nordic stores if we ignore the small fluctuation of exchange rates…
The article is good. I find an error, “The train is raining across the bridge”, raining –>running, right?
Two weeks ago I bought a very similar bookcase from Target in the US at $29.99 (not sale or clearance). 71-1/4″ tall and 28-1/2″ wide, made in China. I spent 20 minutes installing it. :)
Yes. 20 minutes is good enough. I may spent more than that.
Raining should be running. Sorry about the typo.
Jian,
Please don’t apologise for your typo, I know that I don’t speak Cantonese, Mandarin, or any other second language as good as you do English. I also know many Brits who have less of a grasp of the english language than you.
Bruce, if you can write that message in Mandarin/Cantonese without spelling or gramatical errors then i’d be very impressed ;)
But really I just wanted to say thanks for providing such a useful resource…
Thanks
B
Do you have contact information of China Ikea buying office because we represent a French designer which has developed foldable wood just like carton to make any kind of box or other so we would like to introduce this new material to Ikea buying office…
Thank you for your help
All IKEA stores have the same basic range and everything is designed and purchased centraly.
You have to contact someone at the Design and product development department.
Responsible for this is a company called IKEA OF SWEDEN.
I know that there are a lot of people there working with different types of material and I found the mail-adress to someone working with wood.
So maybe you can try one of these guys?
Torbjörn Ellesson (Material Area Management) ITE@memo.ikea.com
Bengt Andresen (Business developer solid wood) LOOP@memo.ikea.com
Tomas Paulsson (Business development strategy solid wood) TEPE@memo.ikea.com
Ulf Johansson (Wood procurement) FJOH@memo.ikea.com
Viktoria Labadyova (Business developer wood) WIKL@memo.ikea.com
GOOD LUCK…
//Thomas
Their email address is interesting: memo.ikea.com ….
Jian,
thank you for providing such a good information about ikea in Shanghai.I’ve come back from Shanghai(I’m living in Kazakhstan) just a week ago.I just fell in love with Shanghai.Planning to come back soon for shopping!
Nice to be able to see IKEA in Shanghai. It looks exactly the same as the stores here in Sweden!
Last time visit of IKEA Shanghai.
Spenjt every few weeks several hundred RMb for dinning and some small daily used things. Anyway, on 02/20/2007 was my last visit, because being charged for parking without getting invoice, but spent as usualy 185.00 for a 2h visit. Do you think thats a way to be successful? I’m not interested to visit them anymore!
Beside this, Im realized that the quality of her goods is going down dramatical, looks good but the finishing is very poor as well as the material quality. Thats the impression of a specialist!
Does anyone have information on how to reach the buyer of Wool Blankets or Carpetsat IKEA. I represent several factories and have been searching for the buyer in these depts. Also, If you already have a contact in these dept’s please let me know, we can partner the deals. We supply mass merchants and government agencies like the US ARMY.
Please contact me with any helpful information.
Thank you!!
Here is my contact information not listed above
Does anyone have information on how to reach the buyer of Wool Blankets or Carpetsat IKEA. I represent several factories and have been searching for the buyer in these depts. Also, If you already have a contact in these dept’s please let me know, we can partner the deals. We supply mass merchants and government agencies like the US ARMY.
Please contact me with any helpful information.
Thank you!!
Here is my info again. The system did not print it as expected.
Cotton rugs and Wool Blankets
APG, INC.
USA
rrice7983@aol.com
hi Jian Shuo,
Thanks for providing such a detailed info on the current situation in China. I used to like IKEA some time ago, but unfortunately, currently, I normally go on weekdays to avoid the crowds.
I guess it happened in many Asia countries too. People flocking to stores, just because their item prices have been slashed down to an affordable one. Crazy crowds, crazy life!
Nux V,
Malaysia
hey jian!
thanks for the great info on ikea shanghai. i’m a big ikea fan and i’m so happy to learn that they have a store in shanhai.
my husband an i are going to shanghai next week and IKEA is part of our agenda and because of your article i’m now excited to go shopping!
Kathy
Manila
I’m looking for yuor employer, her name is Lilian Meng . She is my best friend and pleasE if Yuo KNOW HER contact me. Thank you.
hi Jian Shuo,
Thanks for providing such a detailed info on the current situation in China. I used to like IKEA some time ago, but unfortunately, currently, I normally go on weekdays to avoid the crowds.
I guess it happened in many Asia countries too. People flocking to stores, just because their item prices have been slashed down to an affordable one. Crazy crowds, crazy life!
Nux V,
The rule against photos is not just in China; it is something in IKEA stores all over the world. It used to be much more strictly enforced; now with camera phones and the way people like to communicate, most stores have given up policing it.
Nowadays, lots of people take photos inside, wondering if the photo-not-allowed sign still there .
Just heard on NPR yesterday that people were doing everything, wondering around, eating, “testing” on all chairs, bads and sofas etc, ect, but buying in IKEA Beijing… it was funny.