IKEA Opens Up to New Food Experiences

Photo by Ingka Centres

Scrolling through FastCompany's website I found an article by Adele Peters about an innovative approach to an established fixture: the food court.  Those clever Swedes at IKEA are tackling the ongoing difficulties with attracting bodies to retail spaces by introducing their take on the retail eating space.

IKEA opened this food court next to its downtown San Francisco retail store.  IKEA calls their retail center a "meeting place" rather than a shopping center or (God forbid) a mall.  The retail store is a pared-down version of the traditional IKEA warehouse, and includes a coworking/office space on the top floor.

IKEA calls their food court "Saluhall" or "market hall" in Swedish, and it features five local restaurants with local tastes in mind.  Their goal is to rethink traditional retail spaces and to revitalize the neighborhood.  IKEA is betting that providing people with a destination other than just a traditional shopping center will bring people out of their post-COVID hesitations and better experience community. 

IKEA is known for its affordable flat-packed DIY-or-die furniture, but they're also known for bright, inviting spaces, comfortable atmospheres, and as they put it, "creat[ing] a better everyday life for many people."

By featuring local restaurants and creating this space, IKEA is trying to expanding their traditional food court's bright lights and steel self-serve approach, with a more local hip experience.  But it's a risky proposition considering that malls across the country are dying.  Just a block away from the IKEA store is a shopping complex called Westfield Center that's mostly abandoned, with anchor stores like Nordstrom leaving.  Locals blame retail theft and crime, but the author insists that COVID fatigue is why people aren’t visiting the area. The whole picture is that fewer people shop in the neighborhood, tourism is down, and remote working is up.  People just aren't experiencing people as much anymore.  IKEA is betting on the idea that people will come visit if there's more than just shopping.

As I mentioned, the food served will have a local flair, as much of the food is mostly plant-based and sustainably made.  Whether or not everyone has a toque blanche and a thick brown mustache is unknown, but probably unlikely. The Fast Company article spells out each eatery and its unique menus, and even for a carnivore like myself, it sounds inviting.  They'll even offer cooking and kitchen skill classes.

Personally, if I was the brand manager for IKEA, I wouldn't have tried this venture in the Bay Area, I would've tried Portland.  Not just out of home court respect, but because Downtown Portland has the highest rate of vacant office space in the US.  Portland city officials are trying to get more companies to locate downtown as businesses are fleeing to the suburbs. Probably would've gotten a great deal, too.

But what I'm seeing is that large companies like IKEA are willing to take a chance on revitalizing struggling urban areas and get people outside where they need to be: with each other.  

Time will tell if their gamble will pay off.  

You can read the Fast Company article here.