Ikea is looking at possibilities of opening inner city stores in the Netherlands

Home furnishing company Ikea is considering opening stores in inner cities in the Netherlands, just like the Swedish company did in cities like Paris and Hamburg. Ikea also wants to expand in the country with other small branches. The first of these so-called Plan & Order Points will open on Thursday in Leeuwarden.

The new location in Friesland is the first new Ikea store in the Netherlands in nine years. However, the store differs from the large home furnishing stores that Dutch people are accustomed to. Only 15 people work at the store, and At 650 square meters, the store area is many times smaller than the thousands of square meters in the 13 larger Dutch Ikea stores.

According to a spokesperson, this is a new type of store specially geared towards people making designs with employees for a new kitchen, for example. Ikea thinks people want to be able to do something like this closer to home.

The new location near rival home furnishing stores does not have room for an extensive warehouse, so customers will have to make large purchases to order.

Due to competitive considerations, the spokesperson could not say where other smaller Ikea locations will be. He did share that there are no plans for any new larger stores.

"We already have national coverage with our larger branches," he says. Anyone who wants to shop extensively at IKEA would be prepared to travel quite a bit for that.

Ikea was founded in 1943 and has been in the Netherlands since 1978. The first store opened in Sliedrecht at the time, but it does not exist anymore. Around 6,000 people currently work at Ikea Netherlands.