Business and Economy
Why is IKEA overtaking Twitterverse?
FILE: Swedish furniture giant IKEA (Photo: IKEA/Facebook)
When the world’s largest home furnishing retailer, IKEA, announced on Tuesday, November 20, that it will be building a new home in the Philippine market, many netizens cannot stop sharing stuff about it on Twitter — making the subject trend on the social media site.
But while many are excited about its opening in the country, there are various reasons why people are talking about it. Curious? Then here’s why IKEA is getting the public’s attention:
- It’s going to be HUGE
Occupying 65,000 square meters or at around 150 basketball courts in total — yeap, IKEA’s store in the Philippines to be launched in 2020 will be the biggest branch in the world to be located at the Mall of Asia complex, in between SMX Convention Center and SM MOA Arena.
Inside the IKEA Philippines are 9,000 “well-designed, functional home furnishing products” that, believe it or not, won’t hurt your wallet. Given that the store is going to be huge, perhaps you might get tired and hungry while you are looking for an item that perfectly fits your taste. If you are worried that you might be interrupted as you have to look for, maybe something to eat outside the store, fret not because IKEA Philippines will not just offer the entire living room settings, but also the popular Swedish meatballs that are making people go crazy about the opening. What more could you ask for?
- Welcome to IKEA, doggos!
It is not only the big opening in the Philippines that made IKEA be the talk of the town because its branch in Italy is also making noise on Twitterverse. IKEA Italia melted the hearts of people all over the world when it was learned that the store went further from selling home furniture to its shoppers to actually providing a home to stray dogs.
One of IKEA Italia’s customers, Martine Taccia told The Dodo that these homeless dogs get daily food and pampering from the store’s employees and clients. Some of these cuties, she added, did not only find a safe place to stay in, but also their forever homes with the shoppers.
According to The Dodo, IKEA has previously advocated for animals when it worked with Home for Hope in a campaign where they encourage “pet adoption” through placing cardboard cutouts of dogs in some parts of their stores. Earning positive impression globally, many netizens are now encouraging other businesses to emulate IKEA’s kindness and compassion to animals.
- Employees leaving IKEA?
While IKEA Philippines will be offering a lot of job opportunities to Filipinos once it opens, employees of the furniture giant in the United States (U.S.) are “reporting an exodus” from the store, according to Business Insider.
The business site said they had talked to a group of five IKEA “coworkers” across three states, who all requested not to be named due to “fear of retribution.” Based on the report, these employees were not ‘satisfied’ with the new IKEA US-wide policy called “organization for growth,” also known as “O4G,” which “restructured employee roles within the stores.” This policy was officially launched in October 2017 but was not yet applied at any non-US-based IKEA stores.
Since “new roles” were established when the policy was announced, an employee told the media outlet that some of them were able to get a pay hike, while others did not. This is only one of the reasons why the policy drew a lot of dissent from several IKEA personnel.
An IKEA’s spokesperson, however, explained to Business Insider that the IKEA Retail US decided to roll out such policy “to change the way we were organized and the way we work together throughout our organization” in order for them to “meet” their customer’s expectations and “strengthen” their position in the US retail industry.
