Business Insider Nordic
Earlier this month, Ikea opened a kitchen pop-up store in central Stockholm. To advertise its new and path breaking retail concept, the Swedish furniture giant has placed a vending machine selling kitchen tools inside the subway station of Hötorget, in the city center.
“We want to show in a playful way that Ikea is available wherever [our customers are], not only in our department stores,” says Miki Tabakovic, deputy country sales director for Ikea Sweden, to retail site Market.se.
Although its main job is to nudge bypassing commuters to a visit in the 400 square meter kitchen showroom just a stone’s throw away, Ikea’s vending machine is a pop-up store unto itself – where customers can buy items like the classic garlic press KONCIS.
“It’s a fully functioning vending machine. You can pay with card and get your product instantly. We sell garlic presses, egg slicers and other small items,” says Tabakovic.
The vending machine, due to stay up for a couple more weeks, is outfitted with a message encouraging customers to “get a kitchen to go with their garbage press”.
In a related stunt, Ikea has made the side of a Stockholm archipelago ferry into a commercial, saying (in Swedish): “Ride the ferry to the kitchen”.
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