Toronto's first downtown IKEA store opens this month

Downtown Toronto residents will soon have easy access to the same Swedish furniture (and, of course, meatballs) as their suburban brethren, rejoicing at the news that IKEA is opening its first store in the heart of the city this month.

The long-awaited IKEA Toronto Downtown store will finally open its doors at the base of the Aura at College Park skyscraper at Yonge and Gerrard on May 25.

The grand opening celebration will kick off at 9:20 a.m. on opening day, the first customers to enter the store forty minutes later.

IKEA just confirmed the location of its first downtown Toronto store https://t.co/pWg5QodFTN #Toronto #IKEA

— blogTO (@blogTO) March 25, 2021

Occupying the first two floors of the 78-storey tower, IKEA's first urban format store in Canada is less like the warehouse-style retailers found in the 'burbs, taking more of a showroom-inspired approach that focuses on affordable and small-space living solutions catering to the city’s increasingly cramped condos and apartments.

According to IKEA Canada CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer Michael Ward, the 66,000 square-foot store "combines our home furnishing inspiration and expertise with omnichannel retail solutions in a small store format to uniquely meet the needs of downtown residents."

Over 2,000 products will be available to buy and take home immediately at this urban format store, though larger items will still be on display and can be ordered for home delivery.

It will be a completely cashless store with a scan-and-pay user experience via the IKEA app, also offering services like assembly for us city folk that don't know how to follow the simple instructions for something as basic a coffee table.

No IKEA experience is complete without the food, and the Aura location is set to feature a new food concept called the Swedish Deli, which will offer those famous Swedish meatballs as well as other modern, healthy options.

The store is expected to experience a busy opening week, and IKEA is setting up a digital queuing system to guarantee customers a place in line.