Huge crowd flocks to IKEA store opening in Oak Creek

Maredithe Meyer, BizTimes.com (Milwaukee); see also (1)

Parking lot opened at 5 a.m. for 9 a.m. grand opening

Image from article, with caption: Shoppers lined up outside IKEA Oak Creek for its grand opening.

Excerpt:

Hundreds of eager shoppers this morning– some sitting on fold-up lawn chairs or clutching to-go mugs of coffee– gathered outside the new IKEA store in Oak Creek, forming a line that wrapped around the entire west side of the 293,000-square-foot building as they awaited the highly anticipated grand opening of the Swedish retailer’s first Wisconsin store.

“We’ve been waiting here since 5 a.m.,” one customer near the front of the line said. “We got here at 4 a.m., but they wouldn’t let us into the parking lot until 5. The freeway and the roads were all backed up with traffic when we got here.”

Doors officially opened at 9 a.m., but some customers arrived as early as 5 a.m. when the parking lot opened to hold a spot near the front of the line. The first 1,000 people in line were given a free IKEA drawstring bag filled with other merchandise.

“It’s hard to believe that one year ago, we were breaking ground on this site,” store manager Samantha Gravina said, during a pre-opening ceremony.

The ceremony included remarks from Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz; Monica Enqvist, the Swedish Embassy’s head of public diplomacy [JB emphasis]; and Anton van Dongen, IKEA U.S. senior vice president. To kick-off the opening, Gravina, Bukiewicz, Enqvist, and van Dongen participated in a traditional Swedish log-sawing ceremony that is said to bring good luck to the store. ...