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Sweden: Ikea’s Mega mall opening in Moscow ends in
fiasco – terms it ''''sabotage'''' |
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2004-12-16
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The setting was great as Swedish furniture giant Ikea opened its doors to new 230,000-square-metre "Mega" shopping mall - the biggest retail store anywhere in Eastern Europe, in Moscow. With about 250 invitees and guests, topping the list was the Swedish ambassador, to inaugurate the US$300-million (euro225 million) mall last Friday.
Then came a bolt out of the blue with the sad intervention of a Moscow region bureaucrat who said a nearby gas pipeline was a safety hazard, forcing the mall doors to be firmly shut even as guests were moved to a nearby restaurant.
Commenting on the situation, Lennart Dahlgren, the head of Ikea''''s Russian operations said, "I don''''t understand what''''s happening, and I consider the current situation to be sabotage against Russia."
Compared to this one, the first store opening day in March 2000 with 40,000 Russian shoppers made it as a “talk of the town.”
The pipe, the company says, has never been a problem for its first store - around which the mall has been built - or, indeed, the nearby Moscow-St Petersburg rail line. Ikea says suggestions for further securing the pipe have been ignored.
Ikea has invested almost US$1 billion in Russia with stores in St Petersburg, Kazan and this second one in Moscow expanded into its first "Mega" mall to the south of Moscow. Reports say about 4 million customers have visited the complex this year. |
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