IKEA opens for happy campers

They screamed and clapped their hands, took laughing photos with cell phones and digi-cams, posing with fists pumping high above their heads in victory and celebration. In a steady stream they made their way up the long escalator, cheered like rock stars, cheering like fans.

This was not your typical furniture store opening.

After months — years, for some — of anticipation, IKEA Draper opened its doors Wednesday before a waiting crowd of thousands, a number of whom had camped for days in the parking lot to experience the event.

The 310,000-square-foot store, located off I-15 and Bangerter Highway, is the Swedish home furnishing retailer's 30th in the United States and its first in the Intermountain West.

"I've gone without a couch in my house for nine years," said Amy Hunter of Bountiful. "For the whole nine years of my married life, I've only had chairs in my living room. We wanted to wait until IKEA came (to Utah)."

That day came Wednesday, and none too soon. Hunter, with her sister-in-law Shelley Stoddard, had been camped at IKEA since Sunday, making them the first customers on site. They ended up fifth in line because they fell asleep in their car.

"It's OK," Hunter said, hugging her 7-year-old daughter, Helen. "I'm OK with not being first. We're here."

Helen, the first child in line, was quite anxious — shy, but nodding vigorously when asked if she was excited about the day. She joined the expedition Monday night.

"She said to her dad, 'The IKEA opening will only happen once. I can go to school any other day,"' Hunter said. "My kids, they know that Santa shops at IKEA."

Adam Korb, fourth in line, said he "hated" IKEA the first time he visited, years ago in Seattle. That animosity lasted until he reached the exit, whereupon he turned and wanted to go shop some more. Korb said he's been possessed by a mysterious affinity for the store ever since.

"I don't know what makes it so wonderful," Korb said. "But it is."

Korb, like many of Wednesday's assembled, called IKEA "not a store, but an event."

"It's not just a store," said Matt Juillerat of Salt Lake City, who stood proudly at the head of the line. "It's like a grown-up maze of all sorts of fun stuff. At IKEA, you think you've seen the coolest thing in the world, and then you turn the corner and there's another thing, the next coolest thing."