Remember the days of waiting in line for things like concert tickets, the iPhone or Black Friday sales?
IKEA is hoping to capture that type of excitement by inviting customers to begin lining up at its new Jacksonville store at the corner of Gate Parkway and Interstate 295 on Monday, November 6.
Then, 48 hours later at 9 .am. on Wednesday, November 8, the doors will open to one of Jacksonville’s most anticipated stores in years.
IKEA Jacksonville will feature nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, 50 room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area, and a 275-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties including meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates.
“We are thrilled by the excellent construction progress made to date, and believe we can complete the remaining milestones and interior build-up by early-November," said IKEA Store Manager Leontyne Green Sykes in an email to WJCT News.
Approximately 250 workers have been hired for the new Jacksonville location with some job openings still available. "We are also focused on continuing recruitment and training of all the co-workers joining the IKEA family," said Sykes.
The single-level 290,000 square-foot store reflects the architectural design IKEA is known for and includes one of Florida’s largest retail solar rooftops as well as charging stations for electric vehicles.
The Jacksonville store will be the fifth to open in Florida. The others are in Orlando, Sunrise, Sweetwater and Tampa.
Related: Slideshow of the new store
To help encourage a big opening day crowd IKEA is planning promotions on its Jacksonville website.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
