IKEA time machine: 40 years of Dreaming the Possibilities

1985: Forty-two years after Ingvar Kamprad dreamt of and founded your fave furniture company across the pond in Sweden, IKEA opened its first U.S. store in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Just a hop, skip and a jump away from Philadelphia, grabbing an affordable, ready-to-assemble bookshelf and a delicious Swedish meal no longer required jet lag.

1992: IKEA U.S. expanded in Southern California and Texas by taking over Stor Furnishings International, a furniture business competitor. Hello, sunny SoCal! OK, which way to the beach?

1994: IKEA aired an ad on television featuring a same sex couple. “IKEA is introducing what is believed to be the first general advertising effort in the mainstream media to feature identifiably gay consumers,” wrote The New York Times. 

1995: The IKEA PS collection launched at the innovative Milan Furniture Fair under the banner “Democratic Design.” This bold collection exemplified our mission of providing modern furniture designs at an affordable price. It hit shelves in the U.S. soon after and some pieces, such as the now iconic IKEA PS 1995 clock, are still tick tocking on the shelves at your local store. 

1997: Hej, we’re online! Shopping was not yet an option (everyone, not just us, was still learning, we swear!), but you could browse and see all the latest furniture and furnishings.

2000: Ingvar Kamprad put together the first ever print IKEA catalogue in 1951 and it underwent many evolutions over the years. In 2000, it launched for the first time in print and digital format. Did you download it?

2001: Online shopping is a thing, hurray! Too busy to swing by your local IKEA store? Not a problem. For the first time, customers in the U.S. could shop online. 

2007: Goodbye, free plastic bags! In a move toward improved sustainability, we began charging 5 cents at checkout for plastic bags. For the next year we donated all proceeds to American Forests, a conservation non-profit, as well as lowered the price of our reusable blue FRAKTA bags.

2011: Welcome to IKEA Family! Our loyalty program made affordable furniture even more affordable with offers and other perks, like free coffee and tea every time a member visited. Think you’re dreaming? Think again.

2016: We published our first ever IKEA US Life at Home Report based on a massive research campaign and created to give a snapshot of how everyday people lived at home. The survey asked questions about recycling, household norms around texting during dinner, people’s favorite room in their home and more.

2016: We were the first U.S. furniture retailer to start selling only LED lighting. Considering the environmental benefits and cost-saving consequences for our customers, it was a no-brainer.

2016: 200 million copies of the IKEA catalogue were distributed in 32 languages, making it the most ever distributed since it launched in 1951.

2018: So maybe you didn’t have time to put together your new IKEA furniture - Taskrabbit to the rescue! Taskrabbit was rolled out in 2018 to help people assemble their new items, whether one piece of furniture or everything in the haul. Initially only in select markets, Taskrabbit is now available everywhere.

2021: The Buy back and resell program was launched to help promote circularity. By buying back people’s gently-used IKEA items and reselling them in our As-is section we helped prolong the life of the furniture and improved sustainability for the business and for customers.

2024: The first IKEA Style Guide launched to help showcase four exciting design styles – including Scandinavian folklore and warm minimalism – and to provide tips on how to bring these styles home.  

2024: We launched a Spanish language website in the U.S. to make our affordable furniture even more accessible to Spanish speaking customers. Bienvenidos!

2025: We dreamt up more ways to make our IKEA Family loyalty program more robust. In May, IKEA Family members started earning rewards in addition to other discounts and benefits. Yes, just like when it launched in 2011, it’s still free! No, you’re not dreaming.