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Word on the street is that Swedish retailer Ikea is thinking about finally building a store in Ohio and is currently considering the three big metro areas… Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the perfectly centrally-located retail-driven test-market-haven known as the greater Columbus Metropolitan area. Which of these three areas do YOU think would be the best fit for Ikea?
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- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
- racheltb: I don't see the Ohio Shrimp Fest on the list. It is truly a good time. h
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Ikea Contemplates Ohio Store, Potentially in Columbus
By: Walker
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Besides a lot of the stuff on the Ikea website is for sale instore only. So you can’t order everything. I would love to have a Columbus location. I guess the Pittsburgh one is close, but I’ve never even been there. So max driving time for me would be less than that. I’d be game driving to Cincy or Cleveland though.
OK…Walker sold me on all of that display room talk. But I still can’t see driving 3 hours to make a trip only for a store.
Mapquest says it’s 370 miles roundtrip to Pittsburgh. That’s about $40 in gas, or if you use the IRS mileage number of $0.445/mile, it”ll cost you $165. That can go a looooong way to cover shipping charges.
And I love Crate and Barrel. I actually think some of the non-furniture items are very well priced (especially compared to Pottery Barn).
It doesn’t seem like anyone can touch the furniture prices of IKEA though. So what if it’s made out of particle board. If you think that dining room table is a little worn after a few years, donate it to charity and buy another! It was only $299, and now you get a tax write-off.
I’ve driven to Pittsburgh just to go to Ikea, a couple times.
When I lived in Kingston, Ontario, I drove to Ottawa at least once just to go to Ikea and buy a desk I’d spotted there in the as-is room on the weekend before. That was a four-hour round trip.
So I’d easily do either Cleveland or Cincinnati. Cincinnati would be preferable for me since my parents live there, and Columbus would be most preferable because I live there, but nowhere in Ohio would be too far for me (Toledo would be pushing it, but I could hardly see them putting one there with the Detroit store so close)
i went to pittsburgh for the weekend once, with a trip to ikea being part of the plan. i thought it was cool at the time, but some of the stuff we bought hasn’t held together so well. i think ikea is great if you’re a college kid looking for cheap furnishings, but otherwise is rather overrated.
but if they built one in columbus, i’m sure i’d go there on occasion…
but if they built one in columbus, i’m sure i’d go there on occasion…
Right…good knick-knacks and smaller items. I wouldn’t buy a couch-bed-entertainment center there, but I would buy shelfs, lamps, glassware, etc there.
Here’s all you need to know (looked up on Google maps).
Indianapolis – 175 miles – 3 hr 20 min
Dayton – 70 miles – 1 hr 15 min
Cincy – 100 miles – 1 hr 45 min
Toledo – 138 miles – 3 hr
Cleveland – 142 miles – 2 hr 30 min
Lexington – 188 miles – 3 hr 30 min
Louisville – 206 miles – 3 hr 45 min
Pittsburgh – 185 miles – 3 hr 20 min
Cincinnati to:
Indinapolis – 111 miles – 2 hr 15 min
Dayton – 49 miles – 1 hr
Columbus – 100 miles – 1 hr 45 min
Toledo – 198 miles – 4 hr
Cleveland 243 miles – 4 hr 10 min
Lexington – 88 miles – 2 hr
Louisville – 106 miles – 2 hr 5 min
Pittsburgh – 284 miles – 5 hr
Cleveland to:
Pittsburgh – 134 miles – 2 hr 30 min
Cincinnati is the only logical choice. If they did make an Ikea in Columbus, Clevelanders would still have a slightly shorter drive to the Pittsburgh Ikea than the one here, which takes them out of the market, leaving you with only Indianapolis, Dayton, Cincy and the two Kentucky cities in the running (I’m leaving out Toledo). All of those cities are by far closer to Cincinnati. I’m not going to argue though, I’d still take an under two hour drive to Cincy over a three and a half hour drive to Pittsburgh any day. Besides that, Cincy is even farther away from the Pittsburgh location, so they’d have less to worry about as far as the two competing with each other.
Good list there.
I agree, from those stats Cincy makes the most sense. The good thing for us is I think they are likely to build it on the North outerbelt there, so it will be a bit closer than going into the city. I don’t see them putting it downtown.
I guess I don’t understand why Cincy, Columbus, Cleveland, and Indy can’t all have one. If these stores live up to the ungodly hype, then you’d think a single metro of 2,000,000+ people could easily make one very, very profitable without requiring people to drive 3 hours. Hell, if this were Walmart, there would be 47 of these built at various locations throughout the midwest. They said that they plan to add about 5 new stores each year. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that all 4 metros have one within 10 years?
Yeah, that’s some good info so far. What I’d like to find out though is what the populations of the major metro areas within 3 hours of Columbus is and what they are 3 hours of Cincy, and take into consideration that anyone closer to Detroit or Pittsburgh will go to those instead. Columbus is the most central spot for all of Ohio, but a good portion of NW and E Ohio has closer IKEAs. Cincy would be further from competing stores and closer to other markets, but some of those metro areas (Lexington, Dayton) are much smaller, so they may not have the same impact on store sales.
I’m thinking it may be more logical for a Cincy store, but probably not by much. The Cleveland Metro area is huge and from downtown Cleveland to Columbus and Pittsbugh may be roughly the same distance, but plenty of the metro area towards Akron and Canton may be a quicker drive to Columbus than to Pittsburgh. Plus there’s the small factor of state loyalty. If you have two stores equal in distance but one is in your state and one is in another state, many people would prefer to keep their money in state. Also… what is PA’s sales tax compared to Ohio? I know we’re pretty low…
Another thing to consider is growth. Central Ohio is growing rapidly while other areas are shrinking. Are these other metro areas projected to grow or shrink in the next 10-20 years?
So many factors to consider. Too bad I’m not getting paid to do this. :lol:
They’re not an everyday store like Walmart. They’re big, but the majority of their items are home decor. I don’t think they’d have the same sort of repeat customers as a Walmart or Target would.
Actually, last I heard, essentials in PA have no sales tax. I’m not sure if furniture falls into that category, but I know clothes and food do.
Ok, I just sat down and figured some things out using this list of U.S. metro areas (yes I know they’re 2 years old, but they’re still pretty accurate) and good ol handy google maps.
I figured out which of these metro areas are within a 3.5 hour drive of Columbus and which are within a 3.5 hour drive of Cincinnati. I eliminated any that were closer to existing IKEAs in Pittsburgh, Detroit, or the two in Chicago. These eliminated metro areas include Toledo, Youngstown, Sandusky, and most of northern Indiana, just to name a few.
A lot of the metro areas are overlapping, both being in reach of Cols and Cincy. The few advantages that Cincy has includes smaller areas like Elizabethtown KY, Bloomington IN, and Columbus IN. The advantage that Cols has is the large populated areas in Northeastern Ohio including Cleveland, Akron, and Canton. Each of these three metro areas map out as being a slightly shorter drive to Columbus than Pittsburgh, and share the same state.
So, the total figures I came up with (and anyone is welcome to check/challenge my math) is:
Columbus can serve 12,170,799 people in metro areas within a 3.5 hour radius
Cincinnati can serve 8,932,197 people in metro areas within a 3.5 hour radius
Of course, these figures do not include smaller towns and areas not defined as a metro area (under a population of 50,000 people) so both of those numbers will actually be higher for a total population reach, but I think most small-town residents would probably rather shop at walmart instead of IKEA anyway. :lol:
So, the next thing to consider is growth. I’m not even going to try to tackle this tonight.
Anyway… thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? I think I may map something out for visual effect on this. 8)
Columbus can serve 12,170,799 people in metro areas within a 3.5 hour radius
Cincinnati can serve 8,932,197 people in metro areas within a 3.5 hour radius
So, the next thing to consider is growth. I’m not even going to try to tackle this tonight.
Anyway… thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? I think I may map something out for visual effect on this. 8)
You could use a weighing scale based on actual distance, as one could argue 100k people 20miles away are more valuable to the store than 100k people 100miles away. For example, Indy’s population ought to be a bigger boon to Cincy than C-bus since it’s closer to Cincy. Sure, it’s a doable drive to either place, but that difference in distance will cause some number of people to drop out, deeming C-bus not worth the drive.
We’re such dorks :lol:
Ugh. That’s a lot more work! :shock:
Anyway, I’m not even sure how much those sorts of calculations come into play for a “destination store” like IKEA. Certainly the difference in 20 miles compared to 100 miles matter for Walmart, but for IKEA not-so-much.
Still… it would be very interesting to see their marketing research at work.
I’ve gotten to Pittsburgh in 2 hours 45 min, easy.
While I don’t know what the exact “figures” would be (and it’s definitely not worth the added work unless they were PAYING you to figure this kind of stuff out), I think that distance definitely DOES factor in, even for a “destination” like IKEA –maybe not on the 100 mi. vs. 20 mi. level, but DEFINITELY on the 3 hr. drive each way vs. 6 hr. drive each way level.
There gets to be a point where someone will no longer make the drive specifically for IKEA (or whatever the destination) and will instead need other draws to get them on the road for that long.
There gets to be a point where someone will no longer make the drive specifically for IKEA (or whatever the destination) and will instead need other draws to get them on the road for that long.
Right. And this is why I went with the 3.5 hour limit for my little bit of research. It seems like most people I’ve talked to who are interested in going to an IKEA will drive 3 to 4 hours to get to one. So those would be the main metro areas that IKEA would serve inside of that radius. If you want to include a small fraction of people further out in the 5 or 6 hour radius it’s not going to really impact the numbers a whole lot.
Plus, even though there are bigger metro areas within 6 hours of Cincy (like Nashville or Knoxville) that I didn’t include in my 3.5-hour radius, those cities are actually closer to Atlanta where there’s another IKEA. Same goes for more of Indiana and Illinois… Chicago has two IKEAs.
So yeah… I still think Columbus is best suited for a store. Again, I haven’t looked into growth much yet, but judging from most news articles Columbus would still be a better choice than Cincy.
It might well depend on where specifically in Columbus they set up shop. People do make the drive in from Cincinnati to go to Easton (odd as that sounds to me). I think shopping centers make better destinations than single stores (I wouldn’t drive 2 hours to go to a single outlet store, but I *never* had trouble finding a carpool going from OSU to Jeffersonville Outlet Mall).
Easton still has a fair amount of open land for a nominally developed area, too.
If they were to locate in a less well-known center, though, to save on the lease, that really would mean that people would have to make the trek just for Ikea. That probably lessens the “gravity” of the store, so to speak … its force of attraction will be stronger or weaker depending on where in Columbus it sets up shop. “Columbus” is a pretty big place, after all, especially if you include the whole metropolitan area. I’m sure the same could be said of Cincinnati, though I admit I’m less familiar with the geography there.
Wha??? There are a LOT of people willing to make a trek just to go to IKEA! The two I’ve been to have been specific treks. I don’t know if it’s common, but both of those stores were not part of larger shopping centers. It’s easy to spend 5 hours going through an IKEA, which is about the same amount of time someone would spend hiking around a mall or outlet mall.
I don’t think they need to worry much about being part of a larger shopping plaza.
Well, I heard today from a “source” (okay, if you must know, someone from Casto) that Cincinnati is where it’s going to be. Don’t shoot me if I’m wrong, but I trust the person and they sounded very confident in saying that. Right now the big decision is where in Cincy it’s going to be.