As Ikea opens its first NZ store this morning, shoppers face long queues \u2013 and its competitors face new questions about sustainability and value for money, writes Catherine McGregor in today\u2019s extract from The Bulletin.<\/p>\n
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A mega-morning for Auckland shoppers<\/p>\n After seven years of anticipation, New Zealand\u2019s first Ikea opens its doors in Mt Wellington at 11am today \u2013 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,\u00a0Stuff\u2019s David Long reports<\/a>. Shoppers are being urged to consider public transport, though that advice may be aspirational given the size and weight of many purchases.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0The Spinoff is live-blogging the morning<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cIkea-geddon\u201d, as we\u2019re dubbing it \u2013 and the prime minister will front a media stand-up at the store later this morning.\u200b<\/p>\n Ikea prompts a retail rethink<\/p>\n Beyond the queues, what makes Ikea\u2019s arrival notable is how it plans to integrate physical and digital retail. Fabian Winterbine, Ikea\u2019s 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 \u2013 store, app, e-commerce and 29 nationwide pickup points operating from the outset. This,\u00a0he told the Herald\u2019s Tom Raynel<\/a>\u00a0(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.<\/p>\n Retail strategist Chris Wilkinson\u00a0told The Post\u2019s Aimee Shaw<\/a>\u00a0Ikea will raise consumer expectations of quality and sustainability, particularly at the budget end of the market. \u201cIkea\u2019s 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A turning point for the Red Shed<\/p>\n For The Warehouse, the threat has already arrived.\u00a0At last week\u2019s annual meeting<\/a>, its executives fielded pointed questions from shareholders about the company\u2019s ongoing poor performance and the looming impact of Ikea. Chief executive Mark Stirton acknowledged that New Zealanders had been trained to \u201chunt for discounts all the time\u201d, eroding margins and forcing constant promotional activity.<\/p>\n Stirton said The Warehouse had \u201ctaken a lot of inspiration\u201d 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 \u201ceye off the ball\u201d and \u201cgifted a lot\u201d 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\u2019s Albany and Silverdale sites set to be the first testing grounds,\u00a0the Herald\u2019s Raynel reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kmart and Mocka quietly confident<\/p>\n Some established chains appear less rattled.\u00a0Kmart NZ has just passed $1 billion in annual sales for the first time<\/a>\u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n