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> 08/26/2004 Ikea Opens in Philadelphia to Big Crowds & Big Traffic (Ed Goppelt)
08/26/2004 Ikea Opens in Philadelphia to Big Crowds & Big Traffic (Ed Goppelt)
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The New Philadelphia Ikea
2004/08/26 Vantage point: southeastern corner of store.
According to store manager Alessandra Taffe 27,000 people visited Ikea's new store in South Philadelphia on opening day. The Ikea at 2206 S. Columbus Blvd. opened its doors for the first time to paying customers at 10:00 am on Wednesday, August 25, 2004.
Philadelphia Ikea by the numbers
| Annual gross sales (estimate) | $50,000,000 |
| Average Sale | $80 |
| Sales per sq. ft. (estimate) | $150 |
| Gross Square Footage (estimate) | 350,000 |
| Net Square Footage | 311,000 |
| Parking spaces (estimate) | 1,750 |
| Part time employees | 190 |
| Full time employees | 190 |
| Percentage of employees from Philadelphia | 80% |
| From South Philadelphia | 20% |
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Ikea Site November 2002
2004/08/26 Vantage point: Columbus Blvd.
Would you fight over this land? It's hard to believe looking at this piece of industrial scrub land, but Ikea came to Philadelphia only after a bitter political struggle. Citizens wrote 269 letters pleading with local officials not to blow Philadelphia's chance to have its own Ikea store. After some hair-raising brinksmanship the politicians were able to work things out.
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Ikea Site August 2004
2004/08/26 Vantage point: Weccacoe Ave.
The new Ikea location is slightly smaller than the national average for Ikea stores. By way of comparsion Ikea Conshocken measures around 320,000 sq. ft.
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Lowes and Best Buy will soon be joining Ikea at "Columbus Commons"
2004/08/26 According to the South Philly Review, Lowe's is scheduled to open next month.
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Ikea Site November 2002
2004/08/26 The derelict building in the background was the old Quaker City Cold Storage. It was demolished to make room for the new shopping center.
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Ikea Site August 2004
2004/08/26
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Ikea Site November 2002
2004/08/26 The railroads own a lot of land by the riverfront. According to public records CSX System owned the Ikea site since 1928, but when I stopped by in late 2002, it didn't look like the railroad had made any serious use of the land in years.
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$1.3 Million Traffic Signal Leading into Ikea
2004/08/26 Traffic crawled along Columbus Boulevard on opening day when I drove the stretch from Washington to Snyder at 3 pm and again at 7 pm. Ikea corporate guidelines call for stores to be situated within 2 miles/5 minutes of a major highway. Philly's store is served by two I-95 exits within half a mile of the store. Store Manager Taffe downplayed the possibility of traffic problems. "Ikea worked closely with City engineers on parking and traffic issues," Taffe said. She cited this traffic signal as evidence that the necessary road improvements had been made, but what will traffic be like after Lowe's and Best Buy open? As far as I could determine, other than a fresh coat of blacktop and a newly painted cross walk, Columbus Blvd. remains substantially the same as two years ago.
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Parking spaces were hard to find on opening day
2004/08/26
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Opening Day Crowd
2004/08/26 Opening day was a mob scene: I was reminded of the Atlanta Airport during rush hour. But when I visited the next day at 5 pm, the store was considerably less crowded.
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What it's all about
2004/08/26 What is Ikea's economic impact?
I estimate that the new Ikea will pump a toal of almost $13 million annually into the Philadelphia and state economies.
Taxes paid by Ikea to City & State
| Sales Tax State | $3,000,000 |
| Sales Tax City | $500,000 |
| Property Tax |
$468,000 |
| City Wage tax | $373,584 |
| Total | $4,341,584 |
Wages paid to Ikea Employees
| Wages for 190 part time workers | $2,900,000 |
| Wages for 190 full time workers | $5,700,000 |
| Total | $8,600,000 |
Where Philadelphia Ikea's Customers come from
Determined by counting the license plates of 100 cars parked in Ikea's parking lot.
| Pennsylvania | 65% |
| New Jersey | 27% |
| Other | 8% |
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2004/08/26 Based on public information, I believe Philadelphia's Ikea should gross around $50,000,000 a year in sales.
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A sign of things to come
2004/08/26
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