To die-hard IKEA fans, the name connotes a one-stop shop for affordable contemporary D-I-Y furniture. And let's not forget those classic IKEA Swedish meatballs.

To its critics, however, IKEA is just Swedish for particle board furniture, long lines and frustrating assembly experiences.

Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is opening its first Utah store (and 30th U.S. outlet) on May 23 at 67 W. Ikea Way, near Interstate-15 and Bangerter Highway in Draper. The media will get a sneak peak today.

Like the other 250-plus Ikea stores worldwide, the blue and yellow building, representing the colors of the Swedish flag, is about 310,000 square feet in size.

The store will hold about 10,000 items -- from kitchen cabinets to candlesticks -- in 51 room settings. There will be furniture displays for three model homes.

The 350-worker store also features a 300-seat restaurant, a Swedish food market, a bistro at the checkout area and a supervised children's play area.

IKEA rivals strike back

IKEA's entry to the Utah market hasn't gone unnoticed.

In recent months, the new entrant has provoked aggressive publicity campaigns among some local furniture retailers -- from alleged anti-IKEA television ads to hosting a Provo casting call for "The Bachelor," a reality TV series.

"IKEA definitely means do-it-yourself. They're the biggest peddler of junk besides Wal-Mart," said I.M. Home founder Craig Knott, who hosted a "The Bachelor" casting call on Friday to boost foot traffic to his store.

"My wife and I shopped at IKEA when we lived in Chicago. We got some furniture like dressers, beds. Not one piece survived the move back to Utah.

"Once people realize they have to put everything together, and the furniture doesn't last, the allure will pass."

Already, there are furniture makers such as Ashley Furniture that are targeting what Knott calls the post-IKEA shopper or the post-college buying group who are ready for something more substantial.

Joseph Roth, director of public affairs for IKEA North America, disagreed.

"We have good furniture designs at affordable prices, and we've a successful track record around the world," he said.

That's certainly reflected in the company's financial performance -- IKEA's annual sales are growing at a healthy clip.

For fiscal 2006, the company's global sales jumped to $22.1 billion from $18.3 billion in the previous year. The U.S. market accounts for $2.5 billion of total sales in fiscal 2006, up from $2 billion a year ago.

Of a total of 20 new outlets set to open worldwide annually, four are opening in America this year, up from three in 2006. And the company wants to have 50 U.S. stores by 2010.

Knott acknowledged that his new competition does at least one thing well. He calls it "the IKEA Effect."

"They're masters of the fun shopping experience," he said. "You can pick up cups, pictures, stuffed animals or eat at the Swedish-style restaurant.

"They do such a good job with the look of the furniture, and eye appeal is sales appeal."

For example, IKEA names its sofas after Swedish cities like Karlanda and Stockholm, and its office chairs have boys' names like Stefan and Patrik. This quirky way of naming products supposedly makes it easier for customers to identify the product instead of having to remember a 12-digit code, Roth said.

I.M. Home isn't holding back when it comes to competing. The 2-year-old furniture retailer attracted several hundred people to its Provo store Friday evening when the casting crew for "The Bachelor" stopped in Utah to round up applicants for the show, which aims to help singles find true love.

The company also plans to launch a new billboard campaign next week to brand itself as "fresh, fun, quality and style."

"We want to give the Gen-X and -Y shopper a different experience," Knott said. "We have bright-colored, fun and fresh furniture. And we don't have high-pressure sales people breathing down our customers' necks.

"Because we believe furniture is a female-oriented business, we want our name to be neutral and have steered away from taking on traditional masculine names like Bob's Furniture Barn."

R.C. Willey ads

But I.M. Home isn't the only store gearing up for the competition.

The IKEA Effect has in part inspired what Knott calls a recent slew of "anti-IKEA" ads by R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, a longtime Utah furniture retailer owned by investment giant Warren Buffett.

"There's a funny ad on TV by R.C. Willey that has a kid resisting efforts by his dad to have him help assemble furniture together," Knott said.

But Jeff Child, president of R.C. Willey, disputed Knott's claims about the ads.

"Our ad campaigns were planned long before IKEA arrived," Child said. "We don't compete head-on with IKEA, other than in Sacramento, where we both have stores. Their furniture is fairly inexpensive and customers have to put it together. We don't really do that kind of furniture."

While Child acknowledged IKEA's strengths in areas such as housewares, rugs and accessories, he maintains R.C. Willey is local and has much better quality merchandise and service.

"It's really more a value proposition rather than a price-point proposition," he said.

Salt Lake City-based R.C. Willey has huge buying power. It has a main distribution center in Salt Lake City and 13 stores company-wide. There are eight Utah stores and outlet centers, two of which are in Provo and Orem.

IKEA's U.S. strategy

IKEA is particularly concerned about the U.S. market -- its second-largest after Germany -- especially after its initial product offering in the early 1990s failed to target many American consumers. Mattresses were measured metrically, not king, queen and twin. Sofas weren't deep enough and American customers were apparently buying vases to drink from because the glasses were too small, Roth said.

"We didn't have glasses large enough to accommodate ice and our picture frames and mattresses were measured in centimeters," he said.

But the company learned from its mistakes -- no more metric measurements, and its U.S. managers are paying close attention to trends.

"Two years ago, America's interest in big flat-screen TVs prompted us to build TV benches and book cases that can accommodate these television sets," Roth said.

And like other U.S. stores nationwide, the Draper store will have directional signage in English and Spanish to cater to its Hispanic customers.

"We're catering to college students, empty nesters, new families, senior citizens, Hispanics, everyone," Roth said. "There's a lot of awareness of the IKEA brand in the Utah market. It's a vibrant, populous metropolitan area and a fast-growing one with new homes and new young families."

The Draper store will be the 19th Roth will have assisted in the opening out of 30 U.S. outlets; he predicts several hundred to several thousand visitors thronging the store's opening on May 23.

The Draper store, which sits on 40 acres, will have more than 2,500 parking stalls to accommodate grand-opening crowds. Some 13 acres of IKEA's unused property will be sold to other developers next year.

"This is the furthest east we plan to go from the west coast," Roth said. "The Draper location is also compatible with our distribution network, in that it's easy to transport goods to the store from our existing distribution center in southern California and a future one in the Seattle-Tacoma area."

In the west coast area, IKEA has eight stores in California, two in Arizona and Seattle and one in the works in Portland, Ore.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.