Comments on: IKEA Comes to Kazakhstan

By: erik

erik — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:17:56 +0000

Hi Is that true the Ikea Store is opening in Almaty and Astana

By: Emanuel

Emanuel — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:28:52 +0000

This is just great! I live in KZ and I am from Sweden. Just today we were at IKEA and did some shopping for our housing in KZ. No need anylonger I assume! They are truly good and considering that “everybody” is “remonting” their homes they will do well I think! Go IKEA!

By: David

David — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:37:58 +0000

IKEA is investing $500 mln in Kazakhstan ($250mln in each city: Astana and Almaty). I think, this is a great thing which Kazakhstan market long deserved. Furniture prices are ridiculously expensive, while quality and style is low and outdated as it is brought mainly from China and the UAE, but sold as Italian. It will also drive prices down, I believe. Although, most of the furniture stores are empty anyway as smart shoppers would likely to go overseas and buy cheaper furniture there. A friend of mine, local in Kazakhstan, thinks that most of these over-priced furniture stores are opened not for money making, but for money laundering as their true owners are usually government officials or people who made quick bucks on oil and gas sales. Since they can’t show their true income sources, they hide them as “profits” from furniture stores, boutiques, and jewelery stores.

By: brian

brian — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:05:16 +0000

Will they still have cheap Sweedish meatballs and $0.99 breakfast?

By: KZBlog

KZBlog — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:49:14 +0000

What is lacking in the Kazakhstan consumer market is mid-priced quality stuff. Especially furniture. IKEA should be able to provide that niche. When outfitting our house, we could have bought a piece of crap pressed board shelf unit for like $500 or an Italian handcrafted walnut unit for like $3000. I would kill to pay $1000 for a decent, long-lasting nice looking piece of furniture.
And trust me the people of Astana and Almaty are willing to put out a LOT of money to decorate their apartments. They already dropped 500 000 bucks to buy a 1-bedroom flat.

That being said,
Dolkum: I highly recomend ZETA for couches. It’s a Kazakhstan firm and their couches are not too expensive and very nice.

By: Dolkun

Dolkun — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:09:54 +0000

“… far too many people will find even IKEA too expensive.”

Compared to what? the traditional outfitting of a yurt? Consumer goods including furniture are outrageously expensive in Kazakhstan; I’m sure Ikea will have a line around the block for some time to come who would gladly pay $300 for a cheap Swedish sofa than $900 for a Belarussian deathdivan.

By: Jamiyat

Jamiyat — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:30:37 +0000

I can see now Uzbeks heading North to buy furniture to be given as a gift for their newlywed children.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:25:57 +0000

OK, so I’m not a huge fan of a lot of IKEA’s furniture, but I do like a lot of their stuff. I suppose this news says there’s more prestige (certainly not that there’s more business sense…) in putting in stores in the heart of Asia than there is in putting in a store in the interior of the US. I think Denver is the only major US metro area farther from an IKEA than mine is. And that’s just barely because for some reason, there’s one in Utah.

By: Jamie Hollis

Jamie Hollis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:18:24 +0000

There was an “Ikea” in Bishkek two summers ago that even had a few authentic Ikea place mats and other such odds and ends in a new mall (quite expensive). They had blown up the Ikea logo and had it hanging on the outside of the mall towards the street, but it was gone this last summer. My husband and I ate at a cafe, however, that had what looked like legitimate Ikea silverware, it was good quality (relatively speaking) with the brand (spelled correctly) discreetly on the back-where they got them-I don’t know…maybe Moscow?