Danish IKEA Intros Fleet Of Trailer Bikes To Get Those Flatpacks Home
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 06.22.08
From personal experience I can attest that going to IKEA by bus is really no fun here in Europe, because you aren't allowed to bring your flatpacks home on it. So it was a smart move that after a survey found that 20 percent of its customers arrived by bike, the IKEA outside of Copenhagen has hooked up with the Danish Freetrailer service to offer (relatively free) Velorbis bikes with trailers to customers.
Bikes for getting to big box stores is a concept whose time is definitely ripe. Freetrailer started as a service for Danes to loan car trailers for free but has now included bike trailers at one IKEA in the Copenhagen region, with plans for more. Bike users must put down a deposit of about U.S. 100 and can then choose to pay for a seven dollar insurance policy for each loan or be liable for the larger amount in costs if the bike is damaged or stolen. A bike with trailer can be loaned for more than one day to give you time to return it. From the looks of the trailer it might possibly still be too small to move you new Ektorp sofa, but you could get quite a few flatpacks onto it. Via ::Copenhagenize
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no pictures of these things anywhere, eh?
saw the bikes on the website, but nothing with carts on them.
We can take the bus to IKEA, and usually do. But we have our flatpacks delivered. Considering the 20Km bike and 150m increase in elevation, we don't think that's such a bad thing.
for more pictures of the Velorbis / IKEA bicycles with trailers go to http://www.velorbis.dk/velorbis-erhverv/velorbis-referencer and click on the IKEA icon.
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Thanks Rex!
Are IKEAS in the US offering these?
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Not yet, but supposedly under consideration.
pfft. Aren't most US IKEAS many miles from their customer base? Bikes schmikes. In Seattle, the central urban core is more than 10 miles from Ikea. We don't want to drive there, let alone bike.