Fun Things You May Not Know About IKEA

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor

You may have noticed that I like IKEA. When I need something for the home I think of IKEA. I love their simple, inexpensive ways to freshen up the home, to fill a specific home décor need or to make a simple meatball with gravy dinner. To me, IKEA is for the home just as a grocery store for food. The more I find out about IKEA, the more I like it and what it stands for. I thought you might also be interested in these little known facts about the brand:

• IKEA is an acronym for the initials of Ingvar Kamprad and the initials where he grew up, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, Sweden.
• The first store in Canada opened in 1976 in Vancouver.
• The first store in United States opened in 1985 in Philadelphia.
• There is a grand total of 301 IKEA stores in 41 countries/territories. The IKEA Group itself owns 267 stores in 25 countries. The other 34 stores are owned and run by franchisees outside the IKEA Group in 16 countries/ territories.
• IKEA was one of the first retail stores to charge for bags and then to completely get rid of plastic bags.
• IKEA was one of the first to introduce reusable bags.
• IKEA can cater your next event, small or large.
• 150 million meatballs are sold each year around the world. Mmmmm, just thinking about their meatballs is giving me acraving. Here is a link to make your own Swedish meatballs.
• IKEA has a store front section to completely outfit your own store or boutique with everything from counters to stylish shelving.
• In 2009 660,100,000 people visited an IKEA store worldwide.
• All IKEA products have a designer’s name on them.
• BILLY, the classic bookcase for book lovers, was born back in 1979. Since then they have sold about 41 million of them around the world.
• IKEA consists of 9,500 home furnishing articles – most of them packed flat and ready to go!
• IKEA allows you to be your own interior designer by using their planner guides.
• Globally, IKEA is the largest corporate donor to UNICEF.
• Sustainability is integral to the IKEA culture and business. IKEA’s environmental practices, including flat packing to diminish our CO2 footprint are key to the way IKEA does business. Here is a list of some of their latest sustainability improvements.
• IKEA US and American Forests have planted over 1.5 million trees through in-kind store customer donations.
• IKEA Canada sells Christmas trees for $20 at all their stores. A portion of sale proceeds will go to their long-standing environmental partner, Tree Canada for the “Pick a tree, plant a tree” program.  In addition, customers receive a coupon for $20 off a $75 purchase made between January 2 and February 28, 2011. Christmas Trees will be available for sale starting November 25 until they are sold out.
• IKEA is sponsoring the Life Improvement Project. They are accepting proposals until November 8th, 2010 on how you would spend a year and a $100,000 helping others.  If interested check out the website.

Fun facts. I would love to hear an interesting tidbit you may know about IKEA that we don’t know.