After an eventful and rather stressful week at work, boy was I glad when the weekend rolled around! When I mentioned needing to get some proper furniture for the apartment, Daniel and Michelle suggested going to someplace called the Tampines Retail Park, where there were furniture stores and a “hypermarket”. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the place, but I figured, why not, right?

The two of them came by in Dan’s car after lunch, and we all set off to the ‘Tampines Retail Park’, and when we got there, I was completely amazed. The place is absolutely HUGE! Imagine a huge expanse of land, with just three, enormous buildings, and nothing else!

Of the three, the most eye-catching was the huge, blue box-like building splashed with big yellow letters spelling out IKEA. We didn’t have enough time after visiting both Courts and Giant, so maybe I’ll check that one out the next time I come here. I can’t wait to go there. It looks so exciting! Dan said it is one of the best places to go shop for furniture so I’m hoping that I’ll find good things for my apartment next week.

Michelle told me that the land here was industrial land, and the idea of building places for shopping on industrial land is really a mind-boggling one! Honestly, the place is quite out of the way, and even though there are shuttle buses, it really isn’t convenient to lug huge pieces of furniture on a crowded bus. I guess that’s why they offer free parking here, and why the parking lots are massive, as you can see from the picture.

IKEA is known for its large shopping space, an even bigger self-serve warehouse area and the numerous products it showcases in the 2-storey store. Space has always been an integral part of IKEA’s success and with the building of the IKEA Tampines flagship store, it gives a whole new meaning to space and provides consumers endless opportunites and ideas to build the perfect home.

IKEA has taken advantage of the Economic Development Board’s Warehouse Retail Scheme, which lets companies use industrial land for retail and warehousing. Its new flagship store is located at Tampines North Drive 2, beside a wafer fabrication plant. This new location is termed the Tampines Retail Park, which houses Giant and Courts as well. The use of space here can thus be related to Michel de Certeau’s idea of tactics and strategy. While the land around Tampines North is typically catered to industrial plants and a nearby Civil Defence fire station (strategy), the concept of using the land for a mega centre of consumption provides a form of tactic to take advantage of the opportunites that the huge amount of space serves.

However, despite the inclusion of Giant and Courts, IKEA still attracts more than 300,000 consumers per month since its opening in November 2006. While some may feel that the new store is less accessible than the one at Alexandra, the larger space that is available at Tampines provides a pulling factor for both new and existing customers, and keeps them coming in. Space and its usage by IKEA have thus been carefully constructed and used, and in this way, have become key factors for IKEA’s economic success.

IKEA Tampines as a mega retail centre

As a place of consumption and consumerism situated in a space meant for industrial production, there is thus a tension between what the space at Tampines was meant for, and what it has been used for. However, IKEA has come up with several concepts to make use of the massive space they have, that successfully distracts the consumer from this tension. Due to the massive industrial land space that is allocated for retail, IKEA has come up with several new concepts to take advantage of this space. This includes 1,400 parking lots, coupled with a free entrance for those driving in. The lots are widely maximised, with ample space for families with prams or wheelchairs. This new feature in the Tampines store that was previously not available at Alexandra gives shoppers the freedom to browse IKEA’s products and showrooms for as long as they want without worrying about parking fees and queueing up for a parking lot.

With thousands of consumers streaming in every month, IKEA is indeed a space built for human flux. With its location in a heartland area between Pasir Ris and Tampines HDB estates, the movement of shoppers in IKEA reflects those in the suburban estates. At all times of the day, IKEA sees shoppers moving in and out of the store by cars, its shuttle service, or even by foot. The structure of IKEA thus conforms to this idea of mass movement of consumers – externally, as discussed above, as well as internally, which will be elaborated upon in the next page.

The idea of space here provides a whole new dimension to furniture shopping. The location of IKEA Tampines in itself provides a competitive edge by making full use of the available land space and converting these as benefits for the consumers. If before, only factory workers and industrialists flock the area for work purposes, now the area has been transformed to a mass area for consumption, and the new IKEA flagship store there has provided consumers with a new and refreshing feel that is not possible at Alexandra.

Wow, I had forgotten how much fun it is to shop for furniture. Michelle and I walked around the place without realising how much time we spent in the store. We arrived at three and didn’t get out until it was eight! I loved how IKEA allowed its customers to test out their products in the store and I felt that I could have spent more time there if we didn’t have to go and meet Dan for a movie. The pieces of furniture in the store were a great place to rest when we got tired! Michelle and I even stopped at the cafeteria to have tea, and she made me try Swedish meatballs even though I don’t usually eat meat. They were so delicious, no wonder the cafeteria was so full of people!

-those yummy meatballs!

-so many people!

-the queue reminds me of conveyor belt sushi – something Michelle introduced me to recently!

Anyway, the furniture itself is just great. I can get virtually anything that I want for my new apartment, from tables to beds and even new kitchen cabinets! I can even customise my wardrobes and choose from the different styles that they have. And look at the sheer size of the warehouse where you can pick up your own furniture, without having salespeople harassing you! I definitely cannot wait to go back there for a closer look. I think I want to customise my wardrobe and I definitely want to get a new kitchen as well. Maybe a sofa and cushions to go with it. I just hope everything fits my budget especially when there are those Ferragamo shoes I want so badly!

-the huge warehouse!

As mentioned earlier, the surrounding landscape is mostly undeveloped and there are no other mega-structures, save for Courts and Giant Hypermart, to distract the customer from the massive blue building that is the IKEA showroom and store. The building is instantly recognisable with the IKEA name in yellow, in huge block letters, on top of the blue building. The immense size of the building leads the customer to believe that IKEA is indeed a giant in home furnishing and that they would be able to find everything that they need for their home under the roof of IKEA.

The movement of the consumer throughout the store is also guided by the signs in the store and by the paths that lead seamlessly from one showroom to another, which makes the consumer feel that he or she is merely drifting from one room to another in a real house, when in fact, the constant presence of arrows on the ground and maps all over the store guide consumers through the store in a manner that has been carefully planned and orchestrated.  

It is as if the consumer is placed on an invisible conveyer belt which makes the viewer visit each and every showroom that IKEA has to offer, moving from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen and to the bedroom. While the consumer has the choice of whether or not to stop at any of the smaller showrooms, the route that the consumer takes has already been planned for him or her. This leaves the consumer with actual little choice of direction throughout the store. IKEA’s management has, of course, provided short-cuts for consumers who are in a hurry. However, the consumer is made to go through other showrooms, as well as the self-serve furniture section before he or she is able to exit the store. The same conveyor belt movement is also present in the cafeteria, where customers have to go through a winding queue which leads them from appetizer to entrée to dessert stations, before they can finally pay for their food.

IKEA presents the illusion of the availability of choice to its consumers, allowing them to customise their furniture with different lacquers or mixing and matching different pieces to create a customised wardrobe or kitchen. At the same time, there are no salespeople around the store to harass the consumer into buying a certain piece of furniture. By doing this, IKEA places the agency on the consumer and makes them believe that their experience and choices in the store are theirs to determine. However, this is not the case as everything the consumer experiences, from walking through the showrooms to buying food, to buying actual pieces of furniture, is influenced by the way IKEA is constructed. Thus, there is, in actuality, little choice for the consumer as there is very minimal difference between the pieces of furniture on sale. Adorno and Horkheimer argue how mass production has led to little actual individuality or what they succintly term “pseudo-individuality”. The same goes for IKEA. Despite the fact that consumers can choose a variety of table-tops and table legs, they are essentially buying the same table. The ability to customise their furniture is limited to superficial aspects such as the material of the table-tops. The agency that is placed upon consumers blind them to the fact that their ability to choose is limited to superficial aspects and that there are many others, probably numbering in the thousands or even more, who own the same object.

In addition, IKEA sells itself as a place where consumers can be inspired and get new ideas on how to decorate their houses, furthering the illusion consumers have of IKEA as a place that allows them agency and individualism. However, the fact of the matter is that the ideas for home decoration are generated by IKEA, thus, in reality, there is hardly a choice that the consumer makes independently or individualistically, although they do not realise this. IKEA is thus not just a highly constructed space, but also one that presents a reality that is not a true representation of the real, as will be elaborated upon in the next page.

my new kitchen, which the IKEA contractors are going to fix up next week:

and finally my sanctuary:

i do love the purple bedsheets and the cushions, all from IKEA!

my apartment is going to look great! i’m so excited to have a housewarming party. i’m inviting some friends from work and Dan’s promised to bring his fudgey chocolate brownies!

One way this is achieved is by dedicating about 5900m2 to displaying showrooms that simulate this home setting. The consumer is thus literally surrounded by images of cosiness and warmth, leading the consumer to believe that IKEA is not selling a product or a piece of furniture but a possible life, and the constant repetition of this visual further reinforces the effect.

IKEA displays itself not as a shop dedicated to consumerism but as a place where consumers can get ideas for decorating and styling their own, perfect home, masking it’s real purpose behind a façade of warmth and relaxation, presenting an illusion or a simulation of the real, and at the same time, by denying that element of falsity, becomes a third order simulation.
Although it is not immediately evident, IKEA’s environment is one that is highly constructed and carefully planned, with every piece of furniture chosen to create a certain effect. An excellent example is the children’s section at IKEA. Bright colours, cartoon motifs and toys to spark the imagination dominate the design in this part of the store, with occasional toys strewn on the floor to simulate a child’s room.

In addition to what the consumer sees in IKEA, close attention is also paid to what the consumer does not see: there is a distinct lack of signs that instruct the consumer not to sit or rest on the beds or sofas, further enhancing the illusion of IKEA as a replica of a perfect home. Every detail in the use of space within IKEA thus contributes to the general effect created, and this simulation is so convincing that IKEA thus functions as a third order simulacrum.

The presence of partitions in IKEA is another element that enhances the illusion created in IKEA. IKEA’s use of partitions to enclose the numerous showroom ‘sets’ is a key element that differentiates it from other furniture stores, which typically feature a more open concept, with different areas of a house—such as the living room, bedroom and so on—featured on raised platforms, without any partitions. In this way, the showrooms in IKEA have a sense of privacy that further adds to the sense of being in a real home, adding to the illusion created by IKEA that the store—a very public space dedicated to consumerism—is representative of a home—a very private domain.

Lighting is another aspect of IKEA’s interior that is carefully controlled and manipulated, not merely to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the products, but also to create a comfortable and cosy ambience. The lack of bright spotlights and the use, instead, of ceiling lights and lamps, are all deliberate choices, made for a specific reason: to simulate a home setting.

IKEA not only creates an image of a perfect, ideal home—a simulation—but is so successful in creating that illusion that many consumers do not realise that what they are experiencing in IKEA is an illusion, and it is thus that IKEA is not just a replica of reality, but a replica that denies it’s simulated-ness, and, more importantly, a replica that consumers do not recognise is a replica. In this way, IKEA is, undoubtedly, a third order simulacrum.

The idyll perfection of the world created within IKEA has no real reference in reality, especially in terms of what is connoted. Subtle ‘human touches’ scattered around the showroom displays imply a happy, ideal lifestyle that IKEA wants the consumer to believe is a possible reality if they buy IKEA furniture, but this reality is in fact, hyperreality.