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IKEA's Charlotte Store

monsoon

By monsoon
in Charlotte

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Andyc545 Burg

Andyc545

Posted
Posted

It's more than just steel framing now. The front, or what I imagine to be the front, is already being clad in something. It's a little too far off the road to tell just what the material is though. It doesn't really appear to be any nicer than a normal Walmart at this point judging by what's up already.
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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Um, is it a good thing to have a big box store so large that it has 3 model homes inside? When do we get to the point where we are proud to have a SMALLER more efficient store? Atlanta's is in a urban location with decked parking. Ours was built on greenfield in the suburban development with a cliche' strip mall siteplan masquerading as a mixed use project by simply swallowing up more land.

I'm still generally glad that they chose the city of Charlotte versus a satellite city, that at least this is near transit, and that they did allow for decent road connectivity. But let's not waste a page being proud that this thing is larger than it ought to be to sell goods that are primarily targeted to help make small spaces more efficient.

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AuLukey Town

AuLukey

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Well, in a footprint standpoint I agree. But you also have to consider that IKEA is a very environmentally conscious company. Their shipping methods have a much smaller carbon footprint in general and their buildings are multi-level, rather than being one sprawled out space. They have to have an enormous footprint because of the size of their warehouses. This store is forecast to have more than 1.3 million visitors a year, so they have to have a large amount of inventory stocked in the store. Otherwise you'd have way more shipping trucks driving all over the place in Charlotte rather than to just this location. And, in general, furniture showrooms are almost always large in footprint. IKEA is furniture, home goods, etc. so it naturally would be larger than a typical furniture store. Thus, it makes perfect sense for this to be so large. We should be thankful that they chose a location right next to the interstate, which, while it is a greenfield, it isn't the best land on earth in terms of environmental friendliness and pollution.

I do 100% agree about the parking. I wish to no end that they had chosen to make this development incorporate a deck and made this all more mixed-use.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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It is a mixed bag on being 'green', but from an urbanism perspective, this project is only redeemable in the points I wrote above.

As for being green, shipping is an extremely large part of the embodied energy, and most of these products are shipped across an ocean. Granted, they flat-pack most of their stuff, but that only serves to reduce the share of that shipping energy per product. Whereas if you compared it to furniture made in NC with NC-farmed lumber, it would be vastly greener to get the NC furniture.

IKEA uses a lot of MDF, which is glue and sawdust. They might use low VOC glue if they are environmentally conscious, but most glue has a lot emissions both in your house and during manufacturing. It is cheaper than actual wood, but it is not so easy to say that is greener.

The main reason people are excited about IKEA coming are that it is stylish for young people and that it is priced well (for young people). Because of that, it is good for the city economically. But I would not go so far as to rave about the urban benefits of this location (even though there are some redeeming points) nor its eco-friendliness (even though there are some redeeming points).

And I'm definitely not clear on why our store being bigger than others so it can have a massive models benefits us. It mostly says to me that they don't think we have the imagination to know what their products would look like in a room.

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AuLukey Town

AuLukey

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Well for one, I wasn't speaking on behalf of their construction methods, I was comparing it to other retailers that "ship air" (large amounts of empty space and styrofoam inside their packaging.) There is no such thing as a retailer that is "good" for the environment.

And I'm definitely not clear on why our store being bigger than others so it can have a massive models benefits us. It mostly says to me that they don't think we have the imagination to know what their products would look like in a room.
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Temeteron Burg

Temeteron

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How in the world is a company, that specializes in selling cheap, low quality furniture and junky home fashions, produced in 3rd world countries, environmentally conscious? A company that had no problem stripping 100+ acres of forested land to build a big box that can only be reached by the automobile. A company whose own adverts show a trendy gen something or other, throwing out their old stuff replaced by Ikea junk. (rather than recycling, etc)

Ikea is about as environmentally conscious as its next door co-developer of this property, super-Walmart. To attempt to say there is a difference is a green washing justification.

Ikea is nothing more than another trend that nobody will remember in 20 years and one which will do nothing, like all of the other commercial oriented regional draws, that have been thrown up here in the last 20 years. The fact that people think a few extra ft. of floor space over the store in Atlanta is testimate to that.

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caterpillar2 Hamlet

caterpillar2

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Charlotte IKEA will be 356,000 sq. ft. , hire 400 employees, have a restaurant for seating 300, and a parking lot for 1600 cars. If information previously provided is correct, Charlotte will be number 4 out of 36 as far as size. IKEA is a great store for students and people that like good values and not heavy, bulky furniture. It will be a good additon to the city.

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jhaugens Crossroads

jhaugens

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We're actually pretty excited about IKEA coming to Charlotte. It was one thing we were concerned about because we love their merchandise. Definitely have grown to appreciate their more higher-end products due to life span of more college-student oriented products.

Actually we're excited overall that a lot of the businesses we visit regularly have popped up in Charlotte, makes the move much easier and all the better!

By the way, if you have not been to the store in Schaumburg, it's ridiculously big. The Bolingbrook store is dwarfed by it.

The idea of IKEA being TOD? So just how am I suppose to get my new king size bed frame, coffee table, and computer desk home from IKEA? True, not all IKEA customers are buying large items to bring home and maybe just browsing, but if someone were to take the bus or even a train (if one ends up near by), how do you expect them to manage bringing the items home? I am not fond of the idea of Wal-Mart sprouting up near an IKEA, I'm not sure how you could stop that though.

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Andyc545 Burg

Andyc545

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Posted

We're actually pretty excited about

The idea of IKEA being TOD? So just how am I suppose to get my new king size bed frame, coffee table, and computer desk home from IKEA? True, not all IKEA customers are buying large items to bring home and maybe just browsing, but if someone were to take the bus or even a train (if one ends up near by), how do you expect them to manage bringing the items home? I am not fond of the idea of Wal-Mart sprouting up near an IKEA, I'm not sure how you could stop that though.

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