Wednesday, May 6, 2009

IKEA Tampa Opens!!

To read all about today's IKEA Tampa grand opening festivities, and to see all of the photos from today's celebration, please click here. (You do not need a Twitter account to view the pics or read the tweets.)


Here are just a few pics...


This pic is of Shelby, she was first in line! Shelby and her brother and friends were super nice and fun, just really great people!!

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and IKEA Tampa Store Manager Monica Varela sawed a ceremonial log in half which officially opened the new store at 9am. "Sawing a log in Sweden actually brings good luck to the new home and its future guests," Ikea spokesperson Joseph Roth said. "We view Ikea Tampa as our new home ... so we really like to inaugurate in the same way and welcome all these visitors who are going to be guests in our new home."

In addition to brief remarks by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, Varela was joined by Tampa Council Chairman Thomas Scott who raised the U.S. flag; Honorary Swedish Consul B-G Holmberg who raised the Swedish flag; and Special Assistant to the Governor Michelle Todd who raised the Florida flag. 

The lines were long, but the time flew by with a lot of entertainment and freebies. Everyone was in by 10am-ish.

Upon entering the lobby, hundreds of IKEA Tampa co-workers greeted very excited shoppers with thunderstick and cheering...

We are excited to bring the unique IKEA family-friendly shopping experience to the Tampa Bay area and beyond,” said Varela.  “The enthusiasm the IKEA Tampa coworker family felt about this big day and about opening the store translated into excitement and a great shopping experience for customers.”

 

Last but not least, meatballs for breakfast at the new store! (When you get up at 5:30am, meatballs at 10:30am actually doesn't seem that odd :)...

  

4 comments:

Terri said...

I went to the grand opening and had A GREAT TIME because I found this blog and your very funny interview @ Clark Brooks's The Ridiculously Inconsistent Trickle of Consciousness. Do you know him? I think I might be a liitle bit in love with him. LOL

Morgan Barnett said...

I am currently employed by IKEA Tampa and jus want to say thank you to eveyone who showed up and supported our grand opening. I work in the resturant as a server my name is Morgan come visit me...by the way the meatballs are AMAZINGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!

Pacha Mama said...

We camped outside for the grand opening of IKEA-Round Rock (suburb of Austin, TX) and know that unless you have been to an IKEA opening -- you just dont get how much fun it is. It is like Swedish tailgating.

Colleen Jenkins said...

Here are some shopping tips if you've never been to an Ikea:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/deals/2009/05/tampas-ikea-is-here.html