Clark Howard: IKEA a perfect fit for Jacksonville

A week after the dust settled on IKEA's big reveal in Jacksonville, WOKV Consumer Warrior Clark Howard predicts the store will be a huge success.  

"I'm surprised they waited so long to come here because we are a young market, probably the youngest in Florida", said Clark.

He says IKEA has a 'sweet spot' for us.

"A lot of military personnel, they can't afford to spend a great deal of money to set up their first apartment or first home, they don't mind building furniture in order to save money", said Howard.

He says the key to shopping at IKEA is to do so early in the week and early in the day, to avoid the huge crowds. 

As WOKV first reported October 7th, IKEA announced it will build NE Florida's first store off the East Beltway (I-295) and Gate Parkway.  

SEE THE IKEA STORE PLAN HERE

At a news conference IKEA officials said approximately 250 workers could join its family when new store opens.

Pending approvals construction could start next summer with the store opening in the fall of 2017.  The proposed store would be 294,000 sq. ft. 

Clark Howard says the big trend in retailing is attracting the big box stores. 

"Who I would like to see come in to Jacksonville would be Micro Center, Fry's Electronics.  That's something where we lack for competition here is in high volume, low cost electronics", said Howard.

Clark says the Internet actually is often not as cheap as the high volume electronic centers that do not currently exist in NE Florida.