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Ikea Opens Its Orlando Store

KATHY MOORE / The Tampa Tribune

First time IKEA customer, Donisha MacArthur, 21, of Casselberry, arrived on Tuesday, tent in hand, to await the opening of IKEA in Orlando on Wednesday.

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

A Look Inside Ikea | Photo Gallery

ORLANDO - Ten minutes before 9 a.m., the doors opened to Florida's newest Ikea store, and for more than 20 minutes a unceasing line of shoppers streamed in, some after waiting more than a day or driving for hours.

Ranks of yellow-shirted employees, cheering and banging inflated thundersticks like those at hockey and basketball games, funneled the customers toward the lone escalator leading to the second-floor showroom.

The din from the banging noisemakers was a testament to the power of percussion as shoppers slowly fanned out into the 309,000-square-foot building, many yelling as enthusiastically as the employees.

Then there was the traditional Swedish log sawing that involved a 6-inch-thick oak branch - wisely sawed nearly through beforehand - that replaces ribbon cuttings at the store openings. When Ikea opened a store in Sunrise this year, someone sawed a palm log.

Get ready, Tampa, because this is scheduled to come to Ybor City in 2009 when the company plans to open another Florida store.

Inside the Orlando store, Angel Vandegrift, 26, was shopping for furniture. It was her first time in an Ikea, and likely not her last.

"I just moved to Orlando. I plan on buying everything here. Forget Target," she said.

A spokesman for the company said he did not know how many people were in line when the doors finally opened, but just more than three hours before that, roughly 300 people stood in a line that snaked in front of the trademark blue and yellow building.

The sun was barely nosing the eastern horizon.

Chavela Williams was huddled in a blanket and sitting in a folding chair. She arrived from Longwood about 6 p.m. Tuesday, No. 83 in line. She had never done anything like camping out for a store opening.

Her number in line was significant because the first 100 got a free chair valued at $89.

"The things you'll do for a chair," she said.

Officially, the store allowed people to begin lining up at 9 a.m. Monday, but that's not the way you get to be first in line.

Dianna Felch drove from Lakeland and arrived about 11 p.m. Sunday. She slept in her van in a shopping center parking lot, then spent the next 48 hours waiting to be the first customer through the doors.

And all this from a person who had never heard of the Swedish furniture store that inspires cultlike customer loyalty and spurs people to drive for hours.

"I didn't even know what Ikea was," she said.

During the night, Ikea workers entertained people in line with games such as Ikea Bingo.

Jason Kassley and his girlfriend drove from Tampa on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night, a sleepless one for Kassley.

"I pretty much sat in my chair and listened to the helicopters," he said.

Their goal once inside the store was to find a bed.

As the countdown to the opening neared its end, Betty Brown of Orlando was talking excitedly on her cell phone.

Not only is Brown an Ikea veteran, but she's also a veteran of Ikea openings. This was her third.

"One in California, they had to close the freeway," she said. "This is mild."

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at njohnson@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7731.

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