I visited Ikea's new Manhattan location — and it was like nothing else I've seen from the retailer

04/10/19

Ikea has arrived in Manhattan. But the Big Apple isn’t getting a standard big blue box store.

Instead, the global furniture giant will launch a planning studio on Monday. The studio will employ around 25 people — a workforce that’s evenly split between new hires and Ikea veterans from other stores.

So far, the studio has already attracted some attention. Employees also told me that a few customers had already embarked on their own unauthorized tours, under the assumption that the space was open.

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Ikea invited the press in to see the Manhattan location on Tuesday, and I was able to go on a tour of the space and snap some photos. I also spoke with Ikea US COO Leontyne Green Sykes, who said that this studio was created with New Yorkers in mind.

“This unit gives us the opportunity to answer some very specific needs,” Green Sykes told Business Insider.

Here’s a look inside Ikea’s new studio: