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IKEA Takes Bauhaus to Your HouseThe design chief of home furnishing giant IKEA was recently asked in China, now home to two of the blue and yellow warehouses selling the Scandinavian lifestyle, if he was worried about being a "design imperialist".
The self-styled purveyors of "democratic design" -- stylish furnishings at affordable prices -- baulk at the idea that they are forcing their view of good taste on anyone.
"We can't force people to go to IKEA, we'll always have a lot of competitors," said Lars Engman, IKEA's global design chief, at company headquarters in Almhult, southern Sweden.
But with 202 stores in 32 countries visited by 365 million people a year and a catalogue running to 145 million copies in 25 languages -- IKEA says it is the most widely-read publication after the Bible -- it is hard to see how anyone could compete.
Its reach is phenomenal, opening in Shanghai, Jeddah and Kazan on the Volga last year, among others. Areas with no IKEA yet -- Japan, Africa, Latin America -- sigh over its low-priced sofas on a website with 106 million hits a year.
So how did a small-town Swede like founder Ingvar Kamprad, a billionaire who travels economy, counts the slices of cheese on sandwiches and knows how many meatballs are served per portion in the in-store restaurants, become a world style guru?
more: IKEA Takes Bauhaus to Your House
January 4, 2005 | Viewed 22,750 time(s)
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