Ikea Stores facts

While investigating facts about Ikea Stores, I found out little known, but curios details like:

IKEA started serving food in its stores because the owner Ingvar Kamprad learned that many customers were leaving without buying anything due to hunger. Over 1.2 billion hot dogs and 11.6 billion Swedish meatballs have been consumed since its opening.

There's a show called "IKEA Heights" that is filmed entirely in an IKEA without the stores permission

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 26 of the best facts about Ikea Stores I managed to collect.

1. Nobody other than its owners really know who owns IKEA. Parts of it are owned by multiple shell corporations, and many of the stores themselves are technically owned by a non-profit charitable organization and thus do not pay taxes on their income.

2. IKEA hired Thai translators to carefully scrutinize product names four years before opening a store in Thailand because some IKEA product names, when literally translated into Thai, suggest sexual acts.

3. Ikea ran a commercial in 1994 featuring a gay couple, widely considered to be the first to do so on U.S. television. The ad caused controversy among conservative groups and was pulled from airwaves after a store received a bomb threat.

4. In Japan, all 9 IKEA stores are exactly 430,000 square feet.

5. The famous furniture company IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943, and has stores in many countries around the world.

6. The paths in Ikea stores were deemed "sadomasochistic" by a London architecture professor due to their maze-like patterns and lack of clear exits

7. IKEA is moving to make their stores energy independent, promoting renewable energy

8. IKEA opened a store by accident in 1973

9. There is a miniseries filmed entirely in an Ikea store, without their consent.

Ikea Stores data charts

For your convenience take a look at Ikea Stores figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

What is true about ikea stores?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

There's a soap opera called IKEA Heights and is filmed entirely inside IKEA stores.

A soap opera was filmed inside an IKEA without the store's knowledge. - source

Ikea let loose 100 cats in one of their store to see what happens. - source

IKEA stores are designed like mazes to try and prevent customers from leaving

The world's second largest IKEA store is located in Kungens Kurva, Sweden. Kungen Kurva literally translates to "The King's Curve". The area got its name 1946 when King Gustav V's Cadillac skidded off the road and ended up in a ditch - source

In Sweden, IKEA stores offer free bus services to the store.

The first IKEA store to open in North America was in 1977 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It would close 13 years later and not return to the city for forty years.

IKEA hosted a sleepover at their store in England. 100 winners were selected from the 100,000 people that signed up. They had to be over 25 and needed to follow a strict dress code which was pajamas-only.

Ikea Heights, a soap opera filmed entirely inside of Ikea without the store's knowledge.

The furniture store IKEA is pronounced EE-KAY-UH and not EYE-KEE-UH

Dillon Francis sells "Awesome Shit" in his merch store, consisting of different services he will perform for a fee. Huffington Post bought "DILLON FRANCIS WILL PUT TOGETHER YOUR IKEA BED" because it was the only way he'd do an interview with them.