Ikea’s recent push to expand its smaller supercenter format into new and existing markets reaches Sarasota, FL, with a new store set to open November 18.
The new store will complement a full-sized 353,000-square-foot Tampa Ikea superstore already in operation a bit north of Sarasota. In February, Ikea announced it would open smaller-format stores in Culver City, CA; Tulsa, OK; Gurnee, IL; and Fort Collins, CO. More recently, the company reported it would open a small-format store in Westlake, OH, near Cleveland, and another in Naperville, IL. The Tulsa store, Ikea’s first in Oklahoma, opened in October. Ikea also said it plans to open a small-format store in Syracuse, NY, weighing in at 88,500 square feet, as well as multiple Texas locations.
Ikea called Sarasota an important market where growing communities want more convenient access to affordable, well-designed home furnishings. The 48,000-square-foot Sarasota store will become Ikea’s sixth store in Florida. Customers will be able to explore more than 5,000 products, as well as room settings curated around Florida’s Suncoast lifestyle, the company noted.
The store will offer more than 3,000 products for immediate takeaway, including home furnishing accessories, textiles, lighting, accent pieces and more than 100 smaller furniture products. Ikea will ship other larger items. Online shoppers can select Ikea Sarasota as their preferred pickup location and collect qualifying orders without charge.
Ikea Sarasota’s local living room settings will offer practical ideas for open-concept home designs, outdoor entertaining, flexible spaces, and smart storage suited to the Florida market. Buyback services and an as-is section will feature used and discontinued products that can make shopping at Ikea more affordable, the retailer noted.
The store’s dedicated planning area will provide customers a location where they can meet one-on-one with Ikea experts for help with room design and layout for kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and small-space living. Sarasota shoppers can also sample a taste of Sweden at the on-site restaurant.
“Florida continues to be an important growth market for Ikea, and Sarasota brings us closer to even more customers along the Gulf Coast,” said Rob Olson, deputy country retail manager, Ikea U.S. “Here, inspiration and convenience come together: customers can explore solutions tailored to coastal living, plan projects with an expert, take thousands of products home the same day and order from the full Ikea range, all from Ikea Sarasota.”
