Giant crowds lined up for grand opening of new Toronto IKEA because of course they did

A brand new IKEA location has just made its debut in Toronto, and, foreseeably, hordes of eager shoppers turned up bright and early on this rainy Wednesday morning for its grand opening.

The store, located in what used to be the Sears in the Scarborough Town Centre (STC), is another of the Swedish furniture brand's smaller format, urban-friendly outposts with a more focused selection of housewares available for purchase.

Larger pieces such as couches and beds are on display, but only to browse and order for delivery, as this version of the retail giant is notably without its usual warehouse portion.

This marks only the second IKEA of this kind in the 6ix, following the one that launched in the Aura building at College Park last May, which was the first downtown Toronto IKEA and the first of these city-geared editions in Canada.

Of course, the lineup for that much-anticipated store's unveiling was likewise enormous, with people waiting for hours around the block to check out the new shop and maybe even cop one of the free gift cards given to inaugural customers.

Today, dozens packed into the east-end shopping centre's halls well before the opening at 9 a.m. to hear IKEA Canada's remarks and, of course, secure their place in line and be one of the first through the doors.

Given that these more compact IKEAs fit so well into shuttered anchor department stores and that the company did so well last year, we may be seeing even more of these locations in the future.

For now, you can visit IKEA City on the lower level of the STC at 300 Borough Drive near Highway 401 and McCowan.