WINNIPEGGERS sure like their Swedish-made furniture -- and over 2,400 diehard Ikea fans have joined an online group dedicated to getting the popular chain to open a store here.
Justin Phillips set up the "Bring Ikea to Winnipeg" group on the social networking website Facebook while he was on leave from work after surgery for a benign brain tumour, and looking for a way to combat boredom.
Within a month, the site had skyrocketed in popularity.
"I certainly didn't think it would grow to 2,300 people in four weeks," said the 31-year-old, who got the idea from his Ikea-loving wife, Sarah.
Ikea, a furniture store known for modern designs and low costs, used to have a low, flat rate for shipping, recalled Phillips.
His wife liked to rally 20 or 30 friends and acquaintances, and together they'd order thousands of dollars worth of furniture from the store.
But eventually Ikea put the kibosh on the low rates, he said, and that was the end of big furniture buying from the company -- and the start of a quest to get a store here.
Obsessing over whether the company might set up shop in Winnipeg has become something of a civic pastime, although the chain has never announced any plans to that effect.
In just a few weeks, Phillips' group has attracted some of the company's most ardent supporters -- and conspiracy-theorists -- with plenty of ideas on why there's no store in Winnipeg.
Some think the city denied the chain a tax break, or that Winnipeg's mail-order market is too large to be messed with, or that the city's top furniture-makers banded together to keep the Swedish giant out.
"I heard that Ikea was interested in building a store in Winnipeg a few years back but decided not to due to traffic safety issues," speculated one user from Chicago.
"Their conclusion: Winnipeggers cause too many traffic accidents while making right-hand turns onto major thoroughfares by slamming on their brakes for no apparent reason (ie: at the "yield" sign), when they should be merging."
But the truth is something some of the group's visitors have touched on -- Winnipeg's size. Ikea Canada generally sticks to cities with 1,000,000 or more residents, said corporate PR manager Debbie McDowell, and Winnipeg's population of roughly 630,000 doesn't quite make the cut.
As for the rest of the rumours about the store's absence here, "they're pretty much all false," said McDowell.
No plans
McDowell said Ikea appreciates the passion of Winnipeggers, but currently has no plans for a store in this city.
That should please two small but vehement groups that have sprung up to oppose Phillips' cause -- "DON'T Bring Ikea to Winnipeg" and "Keep Ikea out of Winnipeg," with roughly a dozen members combined, at last count.
"There are a lot of people who want to see Ikea come to Winnipeg, but this is a group for all those who are opposed to the idea of having this evil unleashed upon this city," reads the description of the "Keep Ikea out of Winnipeg" group.
lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca
For and against Ikea
FOR:
* "I think the population of Winnipeg has to reach 1,000,000, before IKEA looks at opening a franchise..... So start procreating."
* "Would LOVE to have Ikea in Winnipeg. I know tons of people that shop there whenever they are in Minneapolis. They are just too far away!!!"
-- Desperate shoppers at the "Bring IKEA to Winnipeg" group
AGAINST:
* "My fiance is one of those with an obsession with this place...I fear that she might pull me down into the vortex."
-- The vocal minority at the "Keep IKEA out of Winnipeg" group
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