IKEA opens its first smaller format store

IKEA has opened its first U.S. location with a smaller format.

The company opened the store last week at the Rego Center shopping mall in Queens, New York. The store offers a full range of products across 115,000 square feet of space (about half the size of an average IKEA). The products and featured room sets focus on small-space living solutions.

The Queens store is IKEA’s third location in New York City. The chain also has a store in Brooklyn and a 17,350-square-foot “planning studio” in Manhattan.

“At Ikea we’re on a journey to transform our business to meet our customers wherever they are and how they like to shop,” said Javier Quiñones, president & chief sustainability officer, IKEA Retail U.S., in a release. “As life at home has taken on a new meaning this year for so many people, our customers’ needs and behaviors are changing too, and we hope our new Queens store will serve as a convenient and accessible source of inspiration and home furnishing expertise for New Yorkers.”

This isn’t the first thing IKEA has downsized recently.

The home furnishings giant, which has a location in West Chester Twp. between Dayton and Cincinnati, is stopped publication of its annual catalog after 70 years, citing the increased shift to online browsing and shopping.

IKEA opened its West Chester Twp. store in March 2008.

When it opened on 28 acres of a 56-acre parcel along Interstate 75 at the southeastern corner of Allen and Muhlhauser roads, IKEA West Chester was the first and only Ohio store. New locations debuted 114 miles away in Columbus in June 2017 and 122 miles away near Indianapolis in October 2017.

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