Ikea Inside & Out: A Store Walkthrough

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

On Friday, team Racked and team Curbed had the privilege of touring the Red Hook Ikea site. Here, reports and photos from the scene.

When you enter Ikea Red Hook, you'll encounter a moving sidewalk (official name for the thing tk) that carries carts and shoppers upstairs; the technology was pioneered by the Swedish furniture retailer. Patrons will also be able to use elevators (there are three) to move from floor to floor. Though the store is still far from being completed, we were able to spot some familiar features. There's the hot dog and soft-serve ice cream stand, the warehouse-like self-serve area and the many, many vignettes that the retailer uses to showcase its wares. A few things to note here: the store is on stilts, allowing for parking underneath (there's also a lot on one side of the store; together, there's room for 1,400 cars), there's a massive public esplanade surrounding the building (Curbed has some great photos of that), and a free ferry service will be running from to Ikea from Pier 11 every 40 minutes. That should give you an idea as to why it's taken about six years for this project to near completion.
· Ikea Inside & Out: A Racked & Curbed Special [Racked]
· Ikea Inside & Out: A Racked & Curbed Special [Curbed]