Trader Joes

[I-10east]

^^^I'm tiresome, that's laughable. I'm not the one that regurgitate the same info over and over again ad nauseam.

[I-10east]

^^^I know, the truth hurts. The only thing that's useless is whining and moaning about something that's out of the city's control, like adding a store that has a population criteria.

[I-10east]

^^^So this Roth dude from IKEA (on the Jax Business Journal article) is blowing smoke now? That sounds unlikely, esp with the existing higher population cities that has IKEAs. I can't believe people argue about a freaking store in the internet age; Last time I checked, it is 2012 not 1984.

[CityLife]

I can't believe people argue about a freaking store in the internet age

FYI, its as much a showroom as it is a store. Ever been in one? They have about 20 fully designed kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, etc. They also have a pretty good restaurant.

I know about 5 people who have done their entire kitchens from IKEA. Not exactly an easy or cost effective thing to do via snail mail...nor is it to drive to Orlando.

[Pinky]

I don't get the same thing from reading the article Stephen.  Roth is identified as "a spokesman"; he's speaking on behalf of IKEA USA.  And while he does acknowledge seeing "what about Jax" posts on Facebook, it's clear that the author of the article is quoting him in a conversation she's had with him. 

The South Florida Business Journal’s report that IKEA USA will build a second store in the Miami area â€" 40 miles from an existing store â€" begged the question: When will the Swedish home goods mega-retailer open a Jacksonville store?
For Swedish meatball and lingonberry enthusiasts, the answer is unfortunate: Not any time soon. Joseph Roth, a spokesman for IKEA USA, said he noticed posts on Facebook asking “What about Jacksonville?” when the Miami plans were announced.
“Basically it comes down to population size, and you tend to need approx 2 million people within a 40 to 60-mile radius or trade area,” Roth said. “And you guys aren’t there yet.”
That’s the biggest deciding factor in the store’s expansion plans.
“If you don’t have population size, you don’t really get to the second point,” he said. “It’s basically our stores are so large, they’re very expensive to build and need lots of customers to support them.”
There will now be four IKEA stores between Orlando and Miami: IKEA Orlando, IKEA Tampa, IKEA Sunrise, which is north of Miami, and the new IKEA Miami, to be built in Sweetwater.
“We get inquiries from developers and brokers all the time from Jacksonville, and they say, ‘What can we do?’” Roth said. “Well, double your population. It’s nothing personal. We recognize we have many customers up there, but not enough to support a large IKEA store.”

[I-10east]

City Life, no admittedly I haven't been to one, although I saw some of there furniture in catalogs, I can't say that I'm wild about some of the stuff that I saw, I'm a lil' tired of hearing about them, like they are the so much better than something like Ashley, and it is the holy grail of furniture. Unfortunately we aren't gonna get one anytime soon, so I'm gonna be forced to hear about the Jax/IKEA talk for the next decade or so on MJ. I'm glad for the info guys, but I'm done with talking about IKEA. Pity party continues unimpeded....

[Pinky]

It's OK  - Their stuff is cheap crap anyway.  It makes sense in a market like Gainesville, where you have hordes of poor college students who are going to chuck most of it away after graduation. 

[Tacachale]

^Read carefully. It's trader joes opening in Gainesville, not Ikea.

And I see no reason to doubt Ikea on the population requirement, considering the spokesman specifically said they want an area with 2 million people within 50 or 60 miles, and there are really no exceptions in their current setups.

[tufsu1]

But Gainesville???
You think Gainesville has a more "cool" factor than Jacksonville?

please...Trader Joe's opened their first Florida location in Naples...not exactly looking for the 'cool' factor!

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

They also have a pretty good restaurant.

Careful here.  Some of the powers that be might lump you in with others who made the mistake of calling out Winn Dixie as a food destination.

Meatballs and Hotdogs do not a good restaurant make. 

[tufsu1]

Jacksonville does not have a combined statistical area (CSA) figure easily available online.  Part of that is because our csa would also include parts of georgia.

that's because we don't have a CSA....in order to have one, you need to have more than one metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which we don't.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Jacksonville does not have a combined statistical area (CSA) figure easily available online.  Part of that is because our csa would also include parts of georgia.

that's because we don't have a CSA....in order to have one, you need to have more than one metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which we don't.

We have Middleburg?

[thelakelander]

Middleburg and Clay County are already a part of Jax's MSA.  For Jax to have a CSA, we would need to be grouped with either the Lake City, Palatka, St. Mary's micropolitan areas or the Gainesville or Palm Coast metropolitan areas.

EDIT: Palm Coast/Flagler County is already a part of the Orlando CSA.

[coredumped]

But Gainesville???
You think Gainesville has a more "cool" factor than Jacksonville?

please...Trader Joe's opened their first Florida location in Naples...not exactly looking for the 'cool' factor!

Hipster seniors like trader joes!

[I-10east]

And I see no reason to doubt Ikea on the population requirement, considering the spokesman specifically said they want an area with 2 million people within 50 or 60 miles, and there are really no exceptions in their current setups.

Taca, the voice of reason. It's crazy, I can't think of a post that I disagreed with you on. You are one of the few very objective posters on MJ. You want a progressive downtown,  but you analyze Jax related topics LOGICALLY with no bias. You are not the radical "Mr 800 square miles of Jax gotta be bustling urban grid streets"  like some on here. I had to get that out there.