Ikea on the Horizon

Dallas Ikea cult gets closer crack at affordable home goods and Swedish meatballs

Home-furnishings retail chain Ikea has designs on Grand Prairie.

IKEA/Facebook

Home furnishings king Ikea has submitted a plan to the city of Grand Prairie to open its second store in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Pending approval, construction of Ikea Grand Prairie would begin in summer 2016, with an opening set for fall 2017.

This would be the fourth outlet in Texas, behind Frisco, Houston, and Round Rock.

"We are thrilled with the reception afforded us after entering North Texas more than 10 years ago, so we are excited to submit plans for Ikea Grand Prairie to extend our Dallas-area reach," says Ikea U.S. president Lars Petersson in a release. "This proposed store would complement our Metroplex presence established in Frisco and bring the unique family-friendly shopping experience closer to customers in other parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area."

You got that right, cookie. Driving to Frisco from Dallas is a 25-mile hike. As opposed to the new Grand Prairie location, approximately 14 miles west of downtown Dallas and 18 miles east of downtown Fort Worth. And with no toll road.

This will be a 293,000-square-foot store, with 1,250 parking spaces, built on 32 acres on the eastern side of State Highway 161 and Mayfield Road, north of I-20.

Store plans reflect the same unique architectural design for which Ikea stores are known worldwide. Ikea also will evaluate potential on-site power generation to complement its current U.S. renewable energy presence at nearly 90 percent of its U.S. locations.

IKEA Grand Prairie would feature nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, 50 inspirational room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area, and a 350-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates, as well as American dishes.

Other family-friendly features include a children’s Ikea area in the showroom, baby care rooms, play areas throughout the store, and preferred parking.

Drawing from its Swedish heritage and respect of nature, Ikea strives to minimize its operations’ carbon emissions because reducing its environmental impact makes good business sense. Ikea evaluates locations regularly for conservation opportunities, integrates innovative materials into product design, works to maintain sustainable resources, and flat-packs goods for efficient distribution.

Sustainable efforts include recycling waste material, energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems, recycled construction materials, warehouse skylights, and water-conserving restrooms.

Operationally, they're eliminating plastic bags from the check-out process, phasing out the sale of incandescent light bulbs, facilitating recycling compact fluorescent bulbs, and selling only LED bulbs.

Ikea U.S. has installed electric vehicle charging stations at 13 locations, has solar arrays at 90 percent of its locations, and owns two wind farms in the U.S.

Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, Ikea has offered home furnishings of good design and function at low prices so the majority of people can afford them. There are currently more than 370 Ikea stores in 47 countries, including 41 in the U.S.

shopping openings

2016 Food Trends

Whole Foods Market loves wine in a can and more hot food trends for 2016

Photo courtesy of James Kicinski-McCoy, Bleubird

Let us toast Whole Foods Market's forecast of hot food trends for 2016.

While we've barely begun to reflect on 2015, Whole Foods Market is already thinking about 2016. The grocery chain's product team has pinpointed 10 top food trends to watch in 2016, from fermented foods to wine in a can.

Here are the hot trends for 2016:

Uncommon meat and seafood. Offbeat and lesser-known meat and seafood options are moving from restaurants into the American kitchen. The trend results from a number of factors including concerns over waste and an increase in butchery. New cuts include sirloin top, pork T-bone chop, and Denver steaks. Unfamiliar seafoods include paiche and blue catfish.

Wine in a can. With wine drinkers getting younger and less hidebound, winemakers are offering wine in an aluminum can. One of the first to do it was Francis Ford Coppola's sparkling Sofia, joined more recently by Infinite Monkey Theorem and Presto Sparkling. Single-serve aluminum cans are not only convenient, they're more sustainable.

Plant-based everything. Plants are playing a meatier role in a surprising number of products, not just vegan and vegetarian items, from quinoa protein in hair care products to vitamin-rich veggies in frozen dessert pops.

Fermented foods and probiotics. Fermented foods are recommended for good intestinal health, be it kombucha, yogurt, kimchi, gochujang, and pickled things such as chiogga beet kraut.

Non-GMO. The non-GMO movement continues to grow, even extending to verifying that the food fed to animals (or what Whole Foods delicately calls the "animal protein category") is also non-GMO.

Grass-fed 2.0. Currently common in dairy items such as milk, eggs, yogurt, butter, and cheese, grass-fed is expanding into packaged meat snacks and even protein powders.

Dehydrated foods. Last year, it was kale chips. In 2016, it'll be dehydrated broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and parsnip chips, plus salmon, bison, and chicken jerkies.

Heirloom ingredients. Going beyond the commonly known heirloom tomato, heirloom ingredients are popping up in packaged goods such as popcorn, chocolate made with heirloom cocoa, and even candy such as Seely's Mint Patties made with heirloom peppermint.

Alternative flours. The wheat-haters and gluten-phobes have plenty to choose from with flours made from legumes, ancient grains, teff, amaranth, and nuts. Chickpea flour is a quick riser, while other legume flours are showing up in bean-based pastas and other packaged goods.

Old World flavors. In this case, Whole Foods describes Old World as flavors from Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia, as well as Middle Eastern ingredients.

Predictions came from Whole Foods Market's team that spots trends for the grocer's stores and sources items across the retailer’s cheese, grocery, meat, seafood, prepared foods, produce, and personal care departments.

lists sustainability trends