 
Digitalvision
Member
Username: Digitalvision
Post Number: 1355
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 5:45 pm: |    |
THIS is genius.
Was listening to the news, and I guess March 7th, Ikea is going to start doing shuttles of up to 40 people (I'm sure more if there's more demand) to their Canton Ikea store from Campus Martius. |
Chitaku
Member
Username: Chitaku
Post Number: 2105
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 5:47 pm: | |
How do you get the stuff home? |
Waymooreland
Member
Username: Waymooreland
Post Number: 102
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 5:55 pm: | |
It is a good idea, but I think they got it backwards in the first place. They should have used that big-ass parking lot in Canton as a park-and-ride lot and built the store downtown! |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 3792
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 5:56 pm: | |
quote:It is a good idea, but I think they got it backwards in the first place. They should have used that big-ass parking lot in Canton as a park-and-ride lot and built the store downtown!
Agreed.
But you must understand, this is METRO DETROIT (bizzarro world). |
Parkguy
Member
Username: Parkguy
Post Number: 361
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 6:09 pm: | |
Plus the Canton site is halfway between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and an easy freeway exit from Toledo, Lansing, and everywhere in between. People drive for hours to shop at Ikea. |
Krapug
Member
Username: Krapug
Post Number: 61
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 6:17 pm: | |
IKEA has operated a bus shuttle from Manhattan to it's store in Elizabeth NJ for years. It has become a regular NYC "thing".
They do deliver (for a fee), but at least for the NY-NJ Bus crowd they offer reduced deivery fees.
Enjoy the sweedish meatballs !
Ken |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 882
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 10:55 pm: | |
Waymooreland, I don't know for sure, you may have said it 'tongue in cheek', but it's an excellent idea. It's an idea for city planners to consider seriously. |
Wpitonya
Member
Username: Wpitonya
Post Number: 79
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 11:06 pm: | |
Friday I took the free Ikea water taxi from Wall Street to the new(er) Brooklyn Ikea. It was amazing! I think the Ikea shuttle in Detroit is a great idea. |
Focusonthed
Member
Username: Focusonthed
Post Number: 2067
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 11:40 pm: | |
Sorry to say, but an Ikea in downtown Detroit would be a really bad thing. They do not do urban-form stores, like Target does, for instance. It doesn't fit their model.
Do you really want what's out in Canton to be downtown? Because that's what they build. |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 776
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 1:11 am: | |
Focussonthed-
I would want a suburban type store downtown, But that much traffic, foot or car, world be amazing for Detroit right now!
image- 300,000 sf Flagship Ikea on Hudson block! You get me?, .,.,..
<313> |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 920
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 2:38 am: | |
Detroit can have Cantons traffic. My one cousin drove to Pittsburgh I belive to go to Ikea.If you go to Ikea, It's a 3 hr tour, Thats just trying to find the exit. |
Roq
Member
Username: Roq
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 6:11 am: | |
quote:
It is a good idea, but I think they got it backwards in the first place. They should have used that big-ass parking lot in Canton as a park-and-ride lot and built the store downtown
That is not IKEA's business model. |
Huraporta
Member
Username: Huraporta
Post Number: 10
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 7:39 am: | |
Most people go to Ikea to buy inexpensive furniture. How are you going to bring home a table or bookcase using a shuttle? |
Iheartthed
Member
Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 3754
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 8:08 am: | |
Building an Ikea downtown would require leveling several buildings for parking.
I have taken the Ikea shuttle from Manhattan to Elizabeth, NJ. It's a very convenient service and they probably make an enormous amount of money by offering it.
You can buy one of those cheap Ikea bags to carry your smaller items, and have the larger items delivered. It's really not much different than carrying things across a parking lot to your car, except the shuttle bus will probably pick you up at the door. |
Thejesus
Member
Username: Thejesus
Post Number: 3673
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 9:26 am: | |
Ikea is finally going after the lucrative downtown Detroit market, eh?
lol |
Detroitbred
Member
Username: Detroitbred
Post Number: 244
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 9:31 am: | |
" If you build it, they will come "( even if they have to take a shuttle ! ) |
Wpitonya
Member
Username: Wpitonya
Post Number: 80
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 11:10 am: | |
It is actually not bad at all taking most of your purchases back on the shuttle. Big things should be delivered but even with paying for delivery, you end up saving $. An urban Ikea would be goofy...it might fit ok in a vast open space, such as the old Tiger Stadium site (I'm not saying build it there, but something similar). I do, however think that an urban Target or something would be nice in maybe Midtown. |
Gdub
Member
Username: Gdub
Post Number: 264
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 11:28 am: | |
The Chicago-area Ikea is far from the city, too. I think it's in Naperville. I don't think Ikea management envisions their stores in urban areas, or even inner-ring suburbs. Target, on the other hand, is good at incorporating their stores in urban environments. There's one in the South Loop and one on the north side, more vertical than suburban stores, built above the parking lot, with escalators for shopping carts. |
Raptor56
Member
Username: Raptor56
Post Number: 749
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 11:30 am: | |
I like the shuttle idea, but who really is going to meet up at CM to take a bus to Ikea? Downtowner's (doubt there are enough to make this profitable). For me, it takes 20 minutes to drive to CM and park, then we have another 30 minute bus drive to Canton (50 min total not counting time waiting for a bus to show up and load). Or I can just drive to Ikea from home in 40 minutes. |
Sturge
Member
Username: Sturge
Post Number: 274
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 11:43 am: | |
IKEA has delivery service so you'd have to use that if you went on the shuttle. |
Detroitpetanque
Member
Username: Detroitpetanque
Post Number: 212
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 3:25 pm: | |
What if the shuttle from Campus Martius to Canton had a cavernous space underneath (like those chartered buses have) and you could pack your purchases (they usually box them flat at IKEA) in there for a slight fee. |
Psewick
Member
Username: Psewick
Post Number: 110
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 4:00 pm: | |
IKEA sells small stuff too, guys. |
Bob
Member
Username: Bob
Post Number: 1234
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 4:47 pm: | |
The Chicago IKEA is in Schaumberg. Kinda like Chicago's version of Troy. |
Iheartthed
Member
Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 3758
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 7:18 pm: | |
quote:What if the shuttle from Campus Martius to Canton had a cavernous space underneath (like those chartered buses have)
Most likely, the Ikea shuttle will be a coach bus like that. In NYC, they contract one of those coach bus companies to serve as their shuttle. |
Crash_nyc
Member
Username: Crash_nyc
Post Number: 396
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 5:05 am: | |
I think there are 5 Ikeas in the NYC metro area, but the only one I've been to recently is in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I believe it's their only urban location in the US. It's custom-tailored to NYC living, and they feature a number of enclosed showrooms of various small NYC apartment sizes:
"This is My xxx-sq-ft Apartment, and it's My Favorite Place in the Whole World"
You walk inside, and it's smartly designed from ceiling-to-floor with every space-saving item that Ikea has to maximize the space.
It's right on Brooklyn's East River waterfront. In addition to a number of shuttles, they also run the Ikea ferry boat, zipping customers to & from lower Manhattan, maybe a nautical mile away.
I know for years they used to run shuttle busses out of the Port Authority in Manhattan to their Elizabeth, NJ location (as Iheartthed can attest). Not sure if they're still running these shuttles since Ikea Brooklyn opened last year.
As far as the Campus Martius > Canton shuttle goes, I'm curious about it's volume. Shuttles & ferries are a no-brainer in NYC, but Detroit is a car-based culture... |