Ikea Pulls Plans for Somerville Store

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

At this point, I'm not too surprised, but the official word was given to the city today.

http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2012/07/19/ikea-pulls-plan-for-somerville-store/PfHS9vViEaT8p5rcBmWuxO/story.html

Comments

[ron_newman]

I'm not surprised either. The city had already extended their building permit once, and it was scheduled to expire next month. Some earlier discussion is here.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Drat! Although now that it's official, who do I email at Wegman's to suggest they take that spot...?

[wardv.livejournal.com]

Ikea needs to hire some new market research people, I think. Maybe some that do not live in suburbia. Ikea has no clue how much (student) business they are missing out on by only have one store in Massachusetts, reachable by car only.

Then again, given how completely incompetently they run their online business, I can't say I'm entirely surprised that they do not understand the (young) urban demographic.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Hopefully Kraft swoops in and puts the Revs soccer stadium there.

[teko.livejournal.com]

As much as I would've liked to have had an Ikea right down the street, I'm just glad they finally took their thumb out of their collective tuckus so that Assembly Row can move forward in some form.

[ron_newman]

Ikea's property is entirely separate from Federal Realty's (Assembly Row) --- though I expect Federal Realty will try to buy it now.

[donal waide (from livejournal.com)]

Perhaps the notion of the outlet stores that was floated earlier this year will become a reality now.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the footprint is big enough for Trader Joe's (since the former Winter Hill Star market location was too small for them).

[avjudge]

My thoughts, too. Not just only reachable by car, but only reachable from the NE by going through Boston - maybe I'm not typical, but I just don't do that unless I have a good reason. So instead of dropping in every few weeks, I'll continue just visiting Ikea once or twice a year.

ETA, Friday night: and I just went down today, stayed a little longer than planned (into the evening rush), and took over an hour & a quarter to get back - that's why I only go down when there's something I can't resist! (In this case, a looming return deadline.)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed, too! However, IKEA has slowed down store openings in general due to the economy, so I suppose it isn't that they decided they don't like Assembly Square.

(Factoid of the week: I just found out that it's called ASSEMBLY Square because a Ford auto plant used to be there....)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

When it comes to a soccer specific stadium, Kraft doesn't swoop (unless we find out his newest girlfriend loves soccer).

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I did not know that factoid. Thanks.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Factoid, this factoid was actually in the article linked above ;)

[borgin.livejournal.com]

I'm all for this! I love Wegman's.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I think it's way too big for a TJs - Ikea tends to build not big-box stores like a supermarket, but huge-box stores with a vast sea of parking the size of the entire rest of Assembly Square so far.

A TJs in the former best buy location, that Walmart pulled out of, might be about the right size, though. Though I wonder if they are not that enthusiastic about more stores now that they have a few in Cambridge/Arlington alredy.

As for Assembly Row, I really hope something interesting winds up there besides the outlet-store concept!

[nonelvis]

More specifically, the plant where the Edsel was made.

[ceo]

Which explains why it's been a blasted wasteland ever since.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

You just found out?

Um, you know what Packard's Corner in Boston is named after? Please say yes.

[ron_newman]

I thought the Winter Hill Star Market was, if anything, too large for them -- the landlord would have had to subdivide out a space for TJ's and rent to another tenant as well.

[ron_newman]

... and if you say an auto dealer, you'd be wrong, actually. That was just a pleasant coincidence at the time.

Packard's Corner History

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

The news of Ikea deciding to not open in Somerville has made the folks over at R.W. Russell and Son very very happy!

[ron_newman]

Former Circuit City, actually.

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

Sorry I don't get the joke.

[teko.livejournal.com]

I may have dreamed this, but I remember hearing at one point that the plan for that area was to demolish the existing Home Depot and (former) Circuit City, use part of that space for either the Ikea or its parking lot, and build a mega-size Home Depot as part of Assembly Square. I'm curious if they're still planning on the new Home Depot.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Well, considering how big Ikea's are, you'd hope that the footprint would be big enough for a specialty grocery store, eh?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I didn't! Awesome!

[ron_newman]

Who are they?

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

Noooooooo! I've spent 15 years waiting for that store to open. Oh, the humanity!

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

They are the contractor for the city that provides curbside trash pick up.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

OK, you win.

[ron_newman]

Surprised me too when I learned it just last year. I'd been told for decades that the place was named for the car dealership.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

They know exactly how much student business they're losing: none. Students use the Internet to buy cheap furniture.

[wardv.livejournal.com]

You're wrong. You have never been to the Somerville Target in September/October. Of course students would shop at Ikea, if only they could get there. Oh, and IKEA sells a lot more than just furniture...

My point is more general - IKEA USA does not understand urban markets.

When they opened the Stoughton store in November 2005, they had underestimated demand so badly that they had nothing in stock for several weeks . One would go to Ikea, select the things desired upstairs, only to come downstairs and find out that most things had been sold out, and were not due for restocking for weeks. It was a big joke.

As for the argument that "one IKEA for Massachusetts is enough" - give me a break. Massachusetts has 6.5 million inhabitants. The only store is reachable by car.

Compare with a small country in Europe, about the size of Massachusetts (but with 10 million inhabitants):

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_AU/about_ikea/facts_and_figures/ikea_group_stores/belgium.html

Six stores. Most reachable by public transit.

Now tell me again that IKEA USA knows what they are doing?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have. I have also been a student recently. If they want to buy furniture from IKEA, they will go to the website. If they don't they'll go to Target.

I understand that you very much want an IKEA because their plastic shit is somehow better to you than the many other purveyors of plastic shit. But it's just a store.

[wardv.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have. I have also been a student recently. If they want to buy furniture from IKEA, they will go to the website. If they don't they'll go to Target.


Maybe they've improved their website... If they haven't, I hope those students have a lot of patience and a high tolerance for mismatched furniture. Oh, and an outsize shipping budget.

When I last tried to order something from there (in 2009?) it was pretty darn ridiculous. Specifically: they run their website as a separate 'store'. With very limited inventory. That means you couldn't find, say, matched sets of furniture. They would have one item only in white finish, another from the same series only in maple, and a third only in birch.

The checkout process was the most ridiculous though. They have (had?) no online shipping cost calculation. So what you would do is click the "yes I want to buy this" button, put in all your info including payment information (!) and then get to a page that said "we'll get back to you with the shipping cost".

And then... nothing.

It took them two weeks to send me an e-mail that said, oh, yeah, this will cost XXX to ship to you. Needless to say shipping was expensive, too. By that time I'd obviously long acquired whatever it was that I had tried to order at their online store, so they lost that sale.

I understand that you very much want an IKEA because their plastic shit is somehow better to you than the many other purveyors of plastic shit. But it's just a store.

Please don't put words in my mouth, that's not cool.

All I am doing here is observing that in my opinion, IKEA USA is poorly run and has no understanding of the (young) urban demographic. That lack of understanding lead them to pull out of the Assembly Square project. I think that is a stupid decision on their part, but whatever. Something else will move in. As someone else said in this branch, a Wegmans would be nice...