Ikeamay be the world's greatest source for design-forward furniture on a budget, but there's another reason worth shlepping to your local store: the meatballs.
Soon, however, you may be able to get your hands on the delicious, Swedish meatballs that everyone knows and loves without having to pretend you need a new headboard/sofa/dining table as an excuse to get near them.
According to a report byFast Company,the brand'sfood divisionhas been so successful that it's considering opening up a series of freestanding stores that sell some of their most popular menu items without the accompanying Ektorp couches. In 2015, Ikea released a healthier menu (think: chicken andvegan meatballs), which boosted food sales from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $1.8 billion in 2016, or around 8 percent annually. According to the report, about 30 percent of Ikea food customers head to the store just to eat (so, they don't even pretend like they're there to plan out a kitchen reno).
“We’ve always called the meatballs ‘the best sofa-seller,’” Gerd Diewald, who runs Ikea’s food operations in the U.S, toldFast Company.“Because it’s hard to do business with hungry customers. When you feed them, they stay longer, they can talk about their [potential] purchases, and they make a decision without leaving the store. That was the thinking right at the beginning.”
Ikea has tested the waters with pop-up restaurants in Europe, and is considering placing restaurants in urban areas not connected to its furniture stores, which are usually in the suburbs. In addition to world-famous meatballs, Ikea's restaurants sell grilled fish, vegetables, baked goods, andall kinds of snacks. No word yet on if, or when, it will make the freestanding restaurants official (and what the new menu will have on it), but fingers are crossed that it'll happen soon.
