24 Things You Didn't Know About IKEA

According toidsgn, theThe 2010 IKEA catalog was "the world’s third most printed publication, next to the Bible andHarry Potter"."

According toIKEA's 25th Anniversary Fact Sheet, oOne BILLY bookcase sells in the world every 10 seconds.

Design manager MarcusEngman and his team create about 2,000 new products yearly, saysFortune. That includes redesigns of existing products. The magazine states,Product development uses rapid prototyping in the pattern shop to show what items look like in plastic, or at least in real life."

The Telepgraph and a book about the company by Elisabeth Asbrink show that IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was a member of the Swedish Nazi party. However, a company spokesperson said, "Ingvar Kamprad gave a detailed account in 1994 about his 'youthful sins' and the 'biggest mistake of his life,' apologizing and asking for forgiveness from everyone involved. The IKEA he built uses democratic ideas and accepts a multicultural society."

According toThe Wall Street Journal, IKEA serves about 150 million meatballsin its store cafeterias each year.

According toBustle, IKEA broke family norms in 1994. The company ran the first major commercial showing a gay couple.They did not just feature a same-sex pair. The campaign also showed other groups often ignored or stigmatized by ads: adoptive parents, divorced mothers, single people, and more.

As reported byDaily Mail, "The Swedish group needs about 1% of the world’s wood supply to make the furniture sold in its about 300 global stores."

According toThe Wall Street Journal, IKEA started putting cafeterias in stores becauseIngvar Kamprad feared "too many shoppers were looking at shelves on empty stomachs." Customers should not run to the nearest McDonald's before buying something.

From 1987 to 2012, UK IKEA stores sold 128.5 million candles. That's a lot of light!IKEA 25th Anniversary Fact Sheet.

How many IKEA pencils do you have? According toMetro, Customers steal those pencils IKEA gives out to fill out order forms. In fact,millions of them get stolen yearly. A company spokesman said: ""We give pencils to help customers place orders and we are happy to keep this service," but an IKEA employee in Glasgow said, "Some people walk out with handfuls in their pockets.

In 2008The Simsannounced players can decorate their Sims' homes with IKEA furniture, including "The game featured a plush EKTORP sofa, an EXPEDIT TV unit, a LEKSVIK coffee table, and chic décor, like the VANNA mirror.

As part of the IKEAGood Cause Campaign, children submit drawings. The IKEA website states the chosen drawings "IKEA launched a special limited soft toy collection in stores globally. This came from the new IKEA Good Cause Campaign, which focuses on children’s rights to play and develop.In 2016, IKEA promised to donate $1 to children's causes for every toy sold.

What do the letters "I" "K" "E" "A" stand for? The IKEA website says IKEA is an acronym forIngvar Kamprad, the IKEA founder, along with Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the names of his farm and village.

Forbes reported that ForbesThe privately held company is worth over $24 billion. About $3 billion of that comes from U.S. revenue.

IKEA broke ground in September 2105 on the largest store in the U.S. It sits in Burbank, California. According toCurbed, the future store will be a "456,000-square-foothome furnishing and Swedish meatball spot on a 22-acre lot." This huge store will sit less than a mile from the current Burbank store, which will open to give better "parking and access." The store opens in 2017.

As explained byFortune, "The company conducts home visits. It uses research mixed with reality TV, sending an anthropologist to live with volunteers. In 2015, IKEA took this further andput cameras in homes in Stockholm, Milan, New York, and Shenzhen, China, aiming to better understand customer habits.

Do you know the blue and yellow? The company's logo has barely changed since it started in 1951.

In 2008comedian/filmmaker Mark Malkoff moved into an IKEA for a week because his apartment needed fumigation. He filmed his experience in a series ofYouTube videos.

Struggle to say IKEA product names? Don't worry, no one can. But there is a method for the names. As explained byThe Huffington Post, "IKEA names products after various Scandinavian people, places, and things. A special system decides which titles products get.

As seen in this video from theWoodland Trust, in 2015, IKEA helped a colony of rare dormice by planting trees in Wales.

In 2013, inspectors found horse meat in frozen meatballs made for IKEA. This was not just an IKEA issue; it was part of a large food scandal across Europe. IKEA quickly pulled Swedish meatballs from stores and cafeterias everywhere in Europe, according toThe New York Times.

As thewebsite explains, the IKEA logo is blue and yellow by no accident. Those colors are the Swedish flag's colors!

IKEA's first U.S. store opened in a shopping mall outside Philadelphia in 1985.In 1985, Curbed reports the first U.S. store ran out of merchandise.The crowdswere so big they had to close the doors while restocking. They posted a sign: "IKEA is full. Please come back next week."

IKEA announced plans in 2012IKEA plans to build a full city district in Hamburg, Germany.The district will cover about five acres. It will look like a normal city neighborhood, featuring apartment buildings, offices, hotels, and shopping centers. IKEA is not only targeting Germany.The company also intends to construct 1,200 homes and apartments in London, housing up to 6,000 people.