It was November, 2015 when the announcement was made – IKEA is coming to Central Indiana and Fishers would be the location.  Ever since, city officials have been preparing and area residents have been waiting for this day.  On Wednesday morning, October 11th, the Fishers IKEA opened its doors to customers.

Some people had traveled far and camped out near the entrance to the store for up to two days hoping to garner some of the free gifts bestowed upon the first few customers.  The Swedish-based furniture retailer is very smart in its marketing concepts.  They actually encourage people to camp out two days before the store opening, hoping for lots of free publicity.  They got it.

It says something about a furniture store when you need a map to navigate the building, but, IKEA is not like most furniture stores.

The big question now is – will city officials be able to handle the traffic going to IKEA, then starting Friday at Top Golf, and eventually The Yard culinary development still being planned?  So far, Fishers has been able to handle situations like this.  Traffic engineers may be facing their largest challenge yet.

Myself, I am not in the market for any furniture, and would likely not be able to put it together if I did buy from IKEA – but I do plan on sampling some of their Swedish meat balls soon.