IKEA is a multinational group of companies that designs and sells
furniture, appliances and other household accessories. It was founded in 1943 by
, who was 17 at the time, as a
business. In 1958 the first
was opened in the Swedish town of
, with the name Möbel-IKÉA. Möbel is Swedish for
; the second part of the name was an acronym using the founder's initials, the name of the farm where he grew up (
) and his home town (the village of
).
A typical IKEA store is in a building whose colour features blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish
, and also of the company's
. They are usually designed so that customers will follow a sequence of steps through the store, starting with
that have the furniture and accessories set up as simulated room settings. This is followed by the open-shelf
, where selected items can be collected (unless there is a special order required) in
for easy transport, before payment is made on the way out. Aside from this progression, most stores have a
, featuring traditional Swedish food along with a selection of local foods. Every store has an area named
(meaning small lands, and also the name of the province in which the original store was located) where children can be dropped off to be supervised while parents browse.
The first stores outside Sweden opened in
in 1963, followed by
in 1969. The international spread continued steadily, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in
in 1973, and a global setup established in the following years. In 2022, the company closed its stores in
, due to that country's ongoing war with Ukraine, leaving 479 IKEA stores still operating in 62 countries - with plans for further expansion in the near future.
