IKEA to Open 11 New Stores, Shuns Iowa Once Again

I was only ever in an IKEA once, and it was an experience. An exhausting one at that. Unlike most department stores, or even superstores, IKEA is one you truly have to plan to endure. The store is massive, the options are huge, and certain departments in the warehouse are as large as some small businesses themselves.

From there, if you find an appliance you like, lugging it home can be an operation. And then, once you're home, you have to build the appliance, and famously, IKEA furniture is about as complicated and layered to construct as the hardest LEGO sets. My mother and I constructed a dresser from IKEA one time, and it took us hours.

Will Iowa Finally Get an IKEA?:

Per The Des Moines Register, IKEA is opening eleven more stores in the United States this year. As of this writing, Iowa doesn't have an IKEA location, and after a list of new stores that will be opening in 2025 was revealed, the Hawkeye State is not on the shortlist to get an IKEA anytime soon.

The new IKEA stores opening range from large-format to "Plan and Order" point stores with "pick-up" locations for online orders. Those are smaller than traditional IKEAs. The Plan and Order are approximately less than 5,000 square feet in size, while their flagship locations can be as large as 300,000 square feet and even greater, per The Des Moines Register.

Why There is No IKEA Store in Iowa:

An IKEA spokesperson gave some contest as to why Iowa doesn't have its own location when they spoke to The Des Moines Register:

We continuously test, explore, and develop our IKEA formats and take learnings from each new customer meeting point that we open, so that we constantly improve – becoming even more accessible and convenient for our customers throughout the country. At this time, there are not any plans for a location in the Des Moines, IA area. However, IKEA is committed to reaching even more of the many people how and where they want to meet us - an IKEA spokesperson, per The Des Moines Register

Furthermore, at least back in 2018, IKEA required at least two million people within a 40-60 mile radius to open a new store. The Des Moines metro would be the closest to those figures, but it still comes up gravely short, with a population slightly exceeding 767,000.