As Ikea opens its first NZ store this morning, shoppers face long queues – and its competitors face new questions about sustainability and value for money, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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A mega-morning for Auckland shoppers
After seven years of anticipation, New Zealand’s first Ikea opens its doors in Mt Wellington at 11am today – though the crowds will have been gathering much earlier. The carpark opens at 8.30am, with Ikea warning that anyone arriving beforehand will be asked to leave for safety reasons. Auckland Transport expects up to 40-minute delays just to exit the Southern Motorway and as much as an hour to secure a park, Stuff’s David Long reports. Shoppers are being urged to consider public transport, though that advice may be aspirational given the size and weight of many purchases.
Inside the 34,000sqm store, day-one visitors will come face to face with more than 50 showrooms, the famous food court meatballs, and shelf after shelf of flat-pack. Online shopping also goes live from midnight, offering a crowd-free alternative. The Spinoff is live-blogging the morning – “Ikea-geddon”, as we’re dubbing it – and the prime minister will front a media stand-up at the store later this morning.
Ikea prompts a retail rethink
Beyond the queues, what makes Ikea’s arrival notable is how it plans to integrate physical and digital retail. Fabian Winterbine, Ikea’s expansion manager for Australia and New Zealand, says this will be one of the first markets where the brand launches as a fully fledged omni-channel retailer on day one – store, app, e-commerce and 29 nationwide pickup points operating from the outset. This, he told the Herald’s Tom Raynel (paywalled), finally made entering New Zealand feasible despite the geographical distance. The company also conducted extensive on-the-ground research, visiting more than 500 NZ homes and discovering local quirks such as the prevalence of carpeted garages and a chronic lack of kitchen storage.
Retail strategist Chris Wilkinson told The Post’s Aimee Shaw Ikea will raise consumer expectations of quality and sustainability, particularly at the budget end of the market. “Ikea’s products are built for a longer life than traditionally a lot of the cheaper choices that people have in New Zealand right now, so it is going to be a game changer in that respect,” he said.
A turning point for the Red Shed
For The Warehouse, the threat has already arrived. At last week’s annual meeting, its executives fielded pointed questions from shareholders about the company’s ongoing poor performance and the looming impact of Ikea. Chief executive Mark Stirton acknowledged that New Zealanders had been trained to “hunt for discounts all the time”, eroding margins and forcing constant promotional activity.
Stirton said The Warehouse had “taken a lot of inspiration” from the Swedish newcomer, and was looking for opportunities to challenge it on price. Regarding Kmart, on the other hand, he sounded less upbeat, conceding The Warehouse had taken its “eye off the ball” and “gifted a lot” of business to its old rival in recent years. The Warehouse is planning a product reset and a major store-revamp programme in 2026, with Auckland’s Albany and Silverdale sites set to be the first testing grounds, the Herald’s Raynel reports.
Kmart and Mocka quietly confident
Some established chains appear less rattled. Kmart NZ has just passed $1 billion in annual sales for the first time and is preparing to open a new Westgate megastore next year, highlighting its solid foothold in the local market. Its long record of trading successfully alongside Ikea in Australia suggests it will continue to hold its ground here too.
Meanwhile, homegrown flat-pack specialist Mocka is projecting a surprising level of optimism about the multinational’s arrival. Catherine Williamson, chief executive of the Christchurch-born brand, now part of an Australian-listed group, told Blayne Slabbert of The Press she thinks Ikea will “grow the pie” and boost awareness of affordable design. Like Kmart, Mocka has operated alongside the Swedish chain in Australia for years. While the company built its reputation as an online-only retailer, it’s now looking at opening its first physical stores, locations TBD. Williamson says local design knowledge remains Mocka’s edge. “We were founded in New Zealand, we still have a New Zealand team, and we very much design for Kiwi homes.”
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