The shelves are stocked, the chillers filled, the pillows fluffed: Ikea is ready

Monday, 1 December 2025

The shelves are stocked, the chillers filled and the pillows fluffed: Swedish furniture giant Ikea is ready to open the doors to its first New Zealand store on Thursday.

Ahead of its New Zealand opening at 11am on Thursday, Ikea gave media a first look around its 34,000 sqm Sylvia Park store and restaurant.

The store will sell 7500 products, everything from outdoor furniture through to lighting, frozen food and children’s toys. The showrooms and model homes are ready for shoppers to walk through for inspiration - there’s even a sign advertising the entire contents of a living room for $820.

“Ikea is not only a retailer, it's the whole experience. As I call it, it’s an adults’ dollhouse. You can play with the range, you can play with different room sets and really enjoy … dream big and then pick what you would like to do to your home,” said Ikea NZ manager Johanna Cederlof.

The Swedish furniture giant is expecting between 15,000 and 20,000 people through Ikea Sylvia Park on opening day.

Ikea will also turn on its online shopping from 12:01am on Thursday, giving people outside Auckland the chance to shop ahead of the store opening.

Ikea executive Fabian Winterbine, expansion manager for Ikea Australia and New Zealand, said Ikea was expecting a “huge” opening week. It anticipates some super fans will wait in line hours to get inside the store come Thursday, and some to even camp out overnight.

Ikea believes its launch will force other retailers to up their game. But Winterbine says the retail giant also hopes its launch lifts overall furniture and furnishing spending for the category.

“Hopefully people will be wanting to reinvest in their home; have nice homes, have functional homes, and I think that will be good for everyone.”

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Physical shopping in the store - the top floor is a showroom, with goods to be collected and purchased on the floor below - remains Ikea’s biggest means of selling its goods, but Cederlof said shopping hybridly in store via the app and walking out with the goods without having to use the payment terminals was picking up in popularity.

“Utilising the Ikea app while you are physically in the store, is getting more and more popularity because it simply is more convenient; you don't need to reach the co-workers (staff) or learn about the product range in depth beforehand.,” Cederlof said.

“If you have your Ikea app, you can just scan the product and get all the product information and add it to your shopping basket, do even hands free shopping if you wish, and get the products directly delivered to your home.”

The Mt Wellington store is cashless, and bigger than the average size of an Ikea store globally and larger than eight of 10 big blue box stores in Australia.

The store has a 420-seat restaurant and the menu at Ikea Sylvia Park will feature all the usual favourites found in Ikea stores such as meatballs and schnitzel, plus a handful of Kiwi-inspired dishes that can only be found in the Sylvia Park store, such as hoki fish and chips ($14), pavlova with whipped cream and Swedish lingonberry jam ($4), lamb and kūmara pie ($6.50), salmon poke bowl and a Thai beef salad.

It will also sell a small cooked breakfast for $3.50, a medium cooked breakfast for $9, a ham and cheese croissant for $6.50, and a range of desserts such as a slice of gooey chocolate cake for $5.

Ikea expects to sell 3500 of its $1.50 (plant-based) and $2 (meat) hot dogs each week.

The store has a second hand goods department called As Is, selling previously used and display furniture and furnishings at a discounted price. It will also buy back used Ikea furniture in good condition.

Cederlof said Ikea anticipated its secondhand As Is department would be particularly popular with Kiwis, especially with those that enjoyed switching up their interior styling regularly.

“As Is department is made for treasure hunters, and Kiwis really love a good bargain so I think it will be a super popular here,” Cederlof told The Post.

“There's always some things to be found in the As Is department, because we changed our model pieces very regularly on the shop floor. But also people might bring back their beloved items that they don't necessarily need or want anymore at their house. We are buying back also some Ikea products from the market, and then putting it to As Is and selling it with a good bargain. Daily you will find their refreshed articles and items.”

Cederlof said Ikea would accept any Ikea furniture in reasonable condition, regardless of if the item was still sold or where it was purchased from previously.

Ikea also expects personalisation of its furniture, such as adding different doors and colours to be popular with Kiwi shoppers.

“We expect Kiwis to refurbish, modify their items and personalise a lot, that’s a part of DNA of the people in New Zealand.

“So we’ll give tips and ideas, but we also want to follow the trends and have a look how does it go and what parts of our furniture or items will be used on the different purposes and different ways,” Cederlof said.

Ikea has spent $400 million to set up shop in New Zealand. While that is mostly in line with what it would spend to launch into a new market with a megastore, Winterbine says the company had spent a couple of million more on the Sylvia Park store, on additional steel needed to meet seismic requirements.

Here is a sneak peek of what Ikea has to offer from Thursday: