Ikea and its impact

j1smithy

Will the arrival of Ikea kill off the struggling furniture business in Ireland? I know many people especially those in Ballymun are celebrating its arrival with 500 new jobs, but really will it do more harm than good to the home grown Irish retail sector? Many of these shops are struggling at the moment due to the fitting out of new houses drying up, so will this new superstore be the final nail in the coffin for the industry? Will even the big players such as Harvey Norman and Des Kelly be even able to survive?

SLUSK

If the Irish retail sector can't handle the competition why should it survive?

jimmycrackcorm

not all of up are into flat pack furniture.

SLUSK

It is much more easy to transport to your home and when it is time to move to another place you can easily move it and IKEA is usually quite cheap compared to other companies selling furniture.

kevteljeur

People regularly travel to both Belfast and Scotland to buy furniture from IKEA there and transport it back. Having an IKEA in Ireland isn't changing anything, it just means it'll cost people less, and take less effort, to buy things from IKEA. Might as well keep the VAT in the republic.

My only issue with it is that it shouldn't have been placed within the M50 area, but some distance outside of it in either Kildare or Meath, near a motorway. Putting it where it is could be very bad planning in the mid-term.



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Gurgle

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

not all of up are into flat pack furniture.

Most of what you see in any furniture shop is flat-pack. The difference is they've assembled it, and whacked a hefty premium on for the service.

Gumbo

kevteljeur wrote: »

People regularly travel to both Belfast and Scotland to buy furniture from IKEA there and transport it back. Having an IKEA in Ireland isn't changing anything, it just means it'll cost people less, and take less effort, to buy things from IKEA. Might as well keep the VAT in the republic.

My only issue with it is that it shouldn't have been placed within the M50 area, but some distance outside of it in either Kildare or Meath, near a motorway. Putting it where it is could be very bad planning in the mid-term.



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it will depend greatly on the actual cost of items in the irish market.

armchair in Italy - Priced at €15

same armchair in the UK - Priced at 111.58 stg

same armchair in Spain - Priced at €25

i may be wrong here or i may be missing something in the translation but are the prices way off?
how much will it be when it comes to Dublin?

KTRIC

All of my furniture apart from the sofa is flat packed. It hasn't fallen apart yet and doesn't look like its going to any time soon.

Gurgle

KTRIC wrote: »

All of my furniture apart from the sofa is flat packed. It hasn't fallen apart yet and doesn't look like its going to any time soon.

Theres a certain snobbery in furniture - if the shop assemles it before delivery then its not flat-pack and therefore 'better'.

I know someone who makes a damn good living making 'custom hand made' furniture, a fair amount of which involves minor modification to flat-pack stuff.

darc

kceire wrote: »

it will depend greatly on the actual cost of items in the irish market.

armchair in Italy - Priced at €15

same armchair in the UK - Priced at 111.58 stg

same armchair in Spain - Priced at €25

i may be wrong here or i may be missing something in the translation but are the prices way off?
how much will it be when it comes to Dublin?

Lost in translation - spanish & italian links are for the armchair cover.£18.60 in UK.


http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10118886

Gumbo

darc wrote: »

Lost in translation - spanish & italian links are for the armchair cover.£18.60 in UK.


http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10118886

gotta brush up on my EU language course

solice

kevteljeur wrote: »

My only issue with it is that it shouldn't have been placed within the M50 area, but some distance outside of it in either Kildare or Meath, near a motorway. Putting it where it is could be very bad planning in the mid-term.

This is my concern too. I commute from Meath every day and I dont know how much more difficult the journey will be with Ikea...im apprehensive about its opening.

They should have built it in a town like Portlaoise, motorway connections to Cork, Limerick, Dublin (Waterford) and relatively easy to get to from the M4 (Galway & Sligo). It would have brought some much needed employment to midlands and mid west too

darc

I was in London when the Lakeside Thurrock branch opened many years ago. Traffic was hell for the first 2 weeks - particularly bad the first few days and then it tapered off.

Same will happen here, whether it was located in a field in edenderry or on the M50.

One of the conditions of planning is the store cannot open before 11am. The planners were also cute enough to forbid any "pre-viewing" before 11am as Ikea do in the UK. - So it should not have a major affect on rush-hour traffic afetr the initial rush.

ceret

kevteljeur wrote: »

My only issue with it is that it shouldn't have been placed within the M50 area, but some distance outside of it in either Kildare or Meath, near a motorway. Putting it where it is could be very bad planning in the mid-term.

Why not? The M50 is a large motorway that can easily serve about 25% of the Irish population.

bernard0368

I bought most of my furniture in Ikea Glasgow and I am very happy with the quality and the price was great at the time. In saying that it will not be to everyones taste so I dont think there is any reason for any good quality customer orientated shops to be concerned about. The cheap and nasty shops could well be in for a shock.

jimmycrackcorm

Most of what you see in any furniture shop is flat-pack. The difference is they've assembled it, and whacked a hefty premium on for the service.

Yes - That's my point - some people want to buy ready made tables or sofas without buying flat pack. Not everyone is into Ikea style either.

Certainly there are areas that will be hit by Ikea such as Kitchen units etc but they would have felt the pinch from the Belfast branch anyway.

My only issue with it is that it shouldn't have been placed within the M50 area, but some distance outside of it in either Kildare or Meath, near a motorway. Putting it where it is could be very bad planning in the mid-term.

After the first couple of weeks the traffic will die down. If the 6 lane M50 cannot handle traffic for Ikea then how would a two lane road anywhere else do any better?

All of my furniture apart from the sofa is flat packed. It hasn't fallen apart yet and doesn't look like its going to any time soon.

I don't think it's a question about the quality of the furniture - just that the perception of being non-DIY. There will always be a market for non-mass consumer furniture, people are very individualistic when it comes to home decor.

kevteljeur

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

After the first couple of weeks the traffic will die down. If the 6 lane M50 cannot handle traffic for Ikea then how would a two lane road anywhere else do any better?

Well, it could be a problem but hopefully it won't be. The 6 lanes will hopefully be enough, but development on the M50 has generally trailed far behind demand; the reason that capacity will catch up with demand is probably going to be reduced traffic from the recession. It's a bit off-topic, I guess, and I am supposing a little here.

My point was that the powers that be tend to look less at planning in the mid to long term (particularly infrastructure), and more at the vote potential from delivering a) jobs and b) IKEA.



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SuperDude87

Before I went to Ikea I used tothink it was the bee's knees.

It's just as expensive as most other furniture places and sometimes the stuff isn't great. I mean I wouldn't mind but if you know where to look you wouldn't pay much more for something thats not Ikea.

Good for cheap glasses and the like but nowhere near phenomenal value with people trekking from all over the country to snap up flatpack tables and glow in the dark pillows!

Jo King

I was in the Dublin IKEA today. I can't see what all the fuss is about. The food was terrible, not even a tea pot. Putting a teabag into a cup of boiling water is something I might do on a building site, not what I want to do in a shop. I was not impressed with a lot of the furniture. I bought a small number of low priced items and I have no immediate plans to go back.

mehmeh12

I dont see what all the fuss is about. IKEA is just another giant mnc coming

to the republic etc. Tbh seeing as their is another IKEA is Belast which is

cheaper due to sterling one wonders how long IKEA will remain in the republic.

SuperDude87

mehmeh12 wrote: »

I dont see what all the fuss is about. IKEA is just another giant mnc coming

to the republic etc. Tbh seeing as their is another IKEA is Belast which is

cheaper due to sterling one wonders how long IKEA will remain in the republic.

Once you factor in petrol and even renting a van for a day or 2 I doubt it's much better because I think Ikea is overpriced even in sterling!!!

mehmeh12

Ah yes but what if you went up north to do more than just shop at IKEA?

spacetweek

Uh oh. Bad start. That armchair cover that someone linked to upthread is higher priced in Dublin than everywhere else.
Dublin 35 €
Switz 12 €
Spain 25 €
Denmark 200 kr = 26 €
Norway 250 kr = 28 €

Jo King wrote: »

I was in the Dublin IKEA today. I can't see what all the fuss is about. The food was terrible, not even a tea pot. Putting a teabag into a cup of boiling water is something I might do on a building site, not what I want to do in a shop. I was not impressed with a lot of the furniture. I bought a small number of low priced items and I have no immediate plans to go back.

How were you in it since it isn't open yet? (Another 10 mins until official opening)

spacetweek

Though it might be a false alarm, cause for some other stuff, they're matching pretty well. The UK price is lower but that's only cause of the exchange rate. In fact Spain's prices are higher than the UK's, even though Spain is a much cheaper country.

Benno Coffee Table
Dublin €59
Switz 65 €
Norway 67 €
Denmark 67 €
UK £49 = 57 €
Spain 59.90 €

Aneboda Bedside Table
Dublin €39
Norway €39
Denmark €40
UK £29.90 = €34.50
Switz €26
Spain €39.95

Kintarō Hattori

spacetweek wrote: »

Uh oh. Bad start. That armchair cover that someone linked to upthread is higher priced in Dublin than everywhere else.
Dublin 35 €
Switz 12 €
Spain 25 €
Denmark 200 kr = 26 €
Norway 250 kr = 28 €


How were you in it since it isn't open yet? (Another 10 mins until official opening)

They had a friends and family day last saturday. I was there myself and I quite liked it. Bought a few small things but nothing major as we're renting at the moment.

tlev

ceret wrote: »

Why not? The M50 is a large motorway that can easily serve about 25% of the Irish population.

Lol, really have you ever been on the M50

Hookey

spacetweek wrote: »

Though it might be a false alarm, cause for some other stuff, they're matching pretty well. The UK price is lower but that's only cause of the exchange rate. In fact Spain's prices are higher than the UK's, even though Spain is a much cheaper country.

Benno Coffee Table
Dublin €59
Switz 65 €
Norway 67 €
Denmark 67 €
UK £49 = 57 €
Spain 59.90 €

Aneboda Bedside Table
Dublin €39
Norway €39
Denmark €40
UK £29.90 = €34.50
Switz €26
Spain €39.95

I'd guess they're price matching to the Belfast store with a variation due to difference in VAT rates.

Personally I loathe Ikea, for the same reasons I loathe Ryanair, I don't like being treated like a sheep; however, Ikea is worth the pain now and then, unlike Ryanair.

I did hear they are charging for parking and limiting the creche facilities in Dublin though, which seems a wee bit short-sighted to me.