Most of the people like shopping very much. They see the amusement in spending money on the things they want and also on the things they don’t want.
Almost every Indian says to others that they are proud Indians. They brag about the achievements of ancient Indians.
But, when it comes to reality, most of the Indians show interest in foreign products. They use foreign products but say they are Indians.
Some people buy costly products just to show off to others even though that product is not at all useful to them.
When the rest of the world is showing interest in Indian products, Indian culture, and Indian scriptures, most of the people in India are showing interest in foreign products, western culture, and western practices.
The English language itself is not our language but still, some people pronounce it with an awkward accent just to show off again.
I just couldn’t understand why some Indians do that.
Well, you might be wondering what this all about.
IKEA which is a Swedish-founded multinational group started its first India store in Hyderabad. And around 40,000 customers checked on an opening day. It fetched Rs 1 crore to IKEA on the first day itself.
What Is The IKEA About?
The Swedish-founded multinational group designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, and home accessories. Since 2008, it has been the world’s largest furniture retailer.
Swedish retail giant opened its first Indian store in Hyderabad on Thursday. Not only on the first day but the following day too, many people flooded to the store which also resulted in a stampede-like situation.
“This madness at #Ikea opening today at Hyderabad looks like temple Darshan queue,” wrote one user on Twitter.
#IKEA opened it's first store in #India and people are congregating like it's Black Friday or Boxing day
pic.twitter.com/RnPeQHlqCd— Flying Sam (@Naa_Cheese) August 9, 2018
On Friday, IKEA took extra measures to inform shoppers about the available parking spaces and also made arrangements for external parking facilities. IKEA has 1200 parking lots of private cars and 700 parking lots for private two-wheelers within its premises.
But the madness wasn’t just limited to the store. Thousands in the store meant the traffic too swelled exponentially.
When citizens took to Twitter to complain about the chaos on roads, Cyberabad Police responded by saying, “That’s not due to poor traffic management. But due to grossly insufficient parking space at IKEA building and no information to the IKEA customers regarding their external parking arrangements. Also, the roads around IKEA are not totally operational.”
Sir, That’s not due to poor traffic management. But, due to grossly insufficient parking space at IKEA building and no information to the IKEA customers regarding their external parking arrangements.Also, the roads around IKEA are not totally operational.
— CYBERABAD TRAFFIC (@CYBTRAFFIC) August 9, 2018
The situation was so bad that city cops had to issue a traffic advisory to warn the public about the traffic congestion.
TRAFFIC ADVISORY regarding IKEA stores pic.twitter.com/PqEBtHdE0c
— CYBERABAD TRAFFIC (@CYBTRAFFIC) August 9, 2018
Most of the people want to get a touch and feel of what lies in that 4-lakh-sqft store building. The Hyderabad store has 1,000-seater restaurant. According to sources, the Swedish retailer rang up a little over Rs 1 crore which is nearly a third of what it had estimated.
The global furniture giant also plans to start e-commerce operations from Mumbai next year.
“We would like to start online sales, to begin with from Mumbai and we are quite sure that in a couple of years we will be available for online shopping in a lot of cities,” chief executive Peter Betzel said in Hyderabad last month.
IKEA wants to set up large or small format stores in at least 49 Indian cities with a population of more than a million each over the years.
“After Hyderabad, we will open stores in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chennai and others. We are curious to try multi-channel sales — large format, small format, with the store, without store online,” Betzel said.
IKEA India Deputy country manager Patrik Antoni said, “We have managed to attract all kinds of people as that is exactly what we would like to do. Anybody who has a need at home must come to IKEA.”
When Antoni witnessed IKEA’s store openings in Russia and Portugal, he felt Indian customers were more curious and were seen examining products carefully.
Do you live in Hyderabad? If so, did you make a visit to this store? If yes, what was your experience? Share us in the comments. If you are the person who loves shopping, then make sure you know these best shopping centers.
