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Ikea overflows with shoppers, and more keep arriving

Tribune photo by KATHY MOORE

Beaming shoppers ride the escalator in Ikea moments after the doors opened.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2009

Updated: 05/06/2009 10:50 am

TAMPA - Swedish retailer Ikea opened its 353,000-square foot Tampa store today, and TBO.com was on the scene.

10:40 a.m.: Second wave

The store has been open a little more than 90 minutes, and still more people are going in than coming out.

After the 353,000-square-foot store swallowed the first couple of thousand customers, more started showing up in packs as shuttle buses from remote parking locations started disgorging shoppers.

So many are arriving that another bottleneck has formed at the lone entrance, where employees are still greeting shoppers with cheers, though not as intense as during the initial opening earlier today.

Kayla Wildgoose was able to park and hop right on a bus.

"I got a first-floor parking spot, and the bus was loading so I just walked on. It was full," she said.

In all, it took about 15 minutes from stepping out of her car to stepping up to the store's front door.

"I guess I lucked out."

9:30 a.m.: A photo souvenir

Jessica McCormick vamped a pose on a lounge Ikea calls a Karlstad while Alexia White snapped a photo.

"We're into photography," said McCormick, 26, of Tampa.

But the photograph was more for memory than art, she added.

It was her first visit to an Ikea, but White has been doing a sales job on her for quite a while.

They weren't too sure how much shopping they'd actually do today. McCormick was looking for a Mother's Day gift for her grandmother. White, 28, got a $10 gift card, one of the cards handed to the first 2,500 customers.

McCormick's gift card wouldn't do much to buy that Mother's Day gift. She got a two-for-one card for a hot dog. Grandma doesn't like hot dogs much.

Later, it was White's turn to pose, this time on a loveseat called a Frasic.

9:10 a.m.: Early in, early out

Will Shields and his wife, Alisha, spent about 11 hours trying to sleep and waiting for the Ikea store to open.

He spent about 10 minutes inside. He was one of the first to exit the new store, wheeling the free chairs he and his wife snagged as reward for being among the first 100 in line.

"I wanted to be here longer, but I have to go to work," he said while Alicia picked up some cinnamon buns inside. "We'll come back later."

Huge Ikea fans, they travel frequently to the Orlando store, but now there's one in their hometown.

"We're excited there's one here," he said.

Though they are big fans, this is the first opening they've seen. The din can be stunning as employees line the entrance pounding on inflatable Thundersticks with the sound echoing off concrete walls and floor while customers file inside in a single line.

"It was incredible," Shields said. "They handled everything so well. And to go in with all 400 employees and the sound is amazing."

8:20 a.m.: Meatball heads?

Debbie Harlow and Naomi Frierson along with Frierson's 2-year-old daughter, Elaina, needed only a 10-minute drive to reach the store about 8:30 Tuesday night.

They planned to sleep in the car, but one was supposed to be in the first 100 in line to get a free chair. So Elaina slept in the car, and the pair took turns watching her. Neither got much sleep.

"It was hot and humid," Harlow said.

Frierson got hooked on Ikea in Houston and became a huge fan.

She didn't know whether the hard-core Ikeaphiles had a nickname like Dead Heads for fans of the Grateful Dead.

"Maybe meatball heads?" she suggested.

8:10 a.m.: It's gotta be the coffee

Zoe Sieber and Diana Daniels spent the night like many others camped out in front of the Ikea store, and with about an hour before the doors opened, the two women from Weeki Wachee found the energy to begin dancing when "Fins" by Jimmy Buffet cranked up on speakers about the size of small cars.

"There was no music last night. We did a lot of talking," Daniels said. "When the music started and the coffee came, we got started. Mainly the coffee."

They arrived about 9:30 p.m., just missing the 100-person cut-off. There were Nos. 101 and 102.

But though they missed the cut-off for free chairs, they were hoping to get some anyway, since store employees gave them one of the numbered wrist bands the first 100 received.

And when a worker handed out the cards for the chairs, there were ones with their numbers, too.

Daniels grinned and raised a thumb to Sieber.

"We got chairs," she said.

7:20 a.m.: Just 5 minutes earlier

Chanda Musial showed a kind of courage some people might find amazing. She, her mother and husband drove from Homosassa in Citrus County to Tampa on Tuesday night. Though the 90-minute drive was one thing, they also intended to camp out with her 4-year-old son and a pair of 14-month-old twin girls.

They arrived about 9 p.m. Tuesday, meaning they had 12 hours with a young boy and a pair of toddlers before store doors opened.

"The twins slept through the whole night. They don't do that at home," Musial said.

Her son conked out during the drive down and didn't wake up until about 5 a.m.

As for Musial. "I didn't sleep at all," she said.

She sort of lost count reciting the number of Ikea stores she has been to. Orlando, of course; a couple up north.

"Oh, yeah, the one near Miami," she said. "How could I forget? That was just a couple months ago."

She and her family just missed being among the first 100 in line.

"We should have gotten here five minutes earlier," she said.

7 a.m.: Last isn't so bad

Jon Sprankle hit the Ikea parking lot about 8:45 Tuesday night, not really expecting to be in time to be among the first 100 in line. In fact, at first, it didn't look like he would be. But when Ikea employees finished checking the line, he just made it, counting the Clearwater resident as No. 100.

For that, he got a blue T-shirt instead of the white ones the other 99 received. And, of course, the chair being given to the first 100 in the store.

"Being last really isn't a bad thing. I didn't expect to be in the first 100, but I'd have stayed anyway," Sprankle said.

He spent the night in a camp chair, using his laptop and watching movies on his iPhone. But those around him provided the bulk of his amusement.

"Mostly I watched the people," he said.

He's no stranger to Ikea, though.

"I'm from Maryland originally. I've been waiting for Ikea to come to Florida for 14 years."

No only is he an Ikeaphile, he also spreads the word. "I've told all my neighbors about it."

So, in addition to the seven pounds of meatballs he intends to buy, he's picking up a table for a neighbor.

6:25 a.m.: Bring more fruit and drinks

Donna Pfister and her daughter Savannah got to Tampa from their Clearwater home about 10:30 a.m. Monday, early enough for Donna to be the 18th person in line.

"It was worth it," she said.

It was her first time camping out on a sidewalk, and there were a few things she'd do differently.

One would be to bring a sleeping bag instead of the thin flannel pad that was her bed for two nights.

Also, her provisions would be different. A cooler would be among the items she packs next time. The only cool drinks they had were the bottles of water store employees handed out. Also, not as many chips.

"We brought two bags of chips and didn't go through half a bag," Pfister said.

Fruit would replace the chips.

"I didn't bring any fruit, and now I'm craving it," she said.

Behind the mother-daughter team in line, Tara Stidham of Lakeland was a bit more of an Ikea veteran. She was also among the first 100 for the opening of the Orlando store in 2007, meaning she gets another of the free chairs the store hands out for such occasions. This one will be for herself.

"Everyone keeps taking my chair," she said.

6:15 a.m.: Long couple of days

Hagen Reams showed the price he and three friends paid to be first in line to get into the store. His eyes were puffy and the enthusiasm he had at the start had drained a bit in the last hours before the store opened.

The quartet of college students arrived from Orlando before dawn Monday and were camped out by 9 that morning.

That left a lot of time to wait.

"It was so boring," Reams said after putting on one of the T-shirts given to the first 100 in line.

Add a bit tiring, too. "I slept two hours, total. On the ground," he said.

"We were more enthused at the beginning," said Ben Dziubeck.

They did bag a bunch of free swag, though, he said. And each will walk away with one of the free chairs the store hands out to the first 100 people.

Despite the lack of sleep and tedium, Reams said he'd do it again.

Probably.

For updated information on traffic, on-the-scene photos and live Twitter coverage from our staff, keep checking back with TBO.com throughout the day. You can even post your photos of the event or tell us what you see.

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