Beloved home goods store Ikea is offering some major food discounts to customers.
The Swedish retailer told CNBC on Wednesday that it plans to cut prices in its restaurants globally by 50 percent on weekdays. In addition, Ikea will be offering free meals for children.
According to the company, the major price cuts are only a temporary measure to help customers “stretch their budgets” at a time when the cost of living is so high and there’s a lot of economic uncertainty.
“Consumer confidence has decreased. People are holding on to the money that they have in their pockets or in savings,” Tolga Öncü, Chief Operating Officer at Ikea Retail, told CNBC.
However, Ikea wouldn’t specify when the price cuts and free kids’ meals would come into effect. It’s also unclear how long the food deals will be in place for.
The company also plans to introduce new items to its menus, including Asian cuisine and flavors.
“We will soon launch our very first falafel, adding this popular food to our restaurants, and later, to our Swedish food markets,” Lorena Lourido Gomez, global food manager at Ingka Group, the worldwide franchiser for Ikea, said in a statement.
Ikea is known for selling affordable food at its restaurants, from the brand’s iconic Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and jam to salmon fillet with rice and red pepper relish.
According to Öncü, the efforts to enhance affordability at Ikea cost the company 2.1 billion euros last year. Still, the company plans to open 58 new stores globally during the fiscal year 2025, which ends in August. This includes the first store in Seoul, their fifth in South Korea, which opened in April.
Öncü also told CNBC that Ikea is not “immune” to high tariffs, after President Donald Trump implemented an across-the-board tax on all imported goods purchased by Americans and additional taxes on imports from certain countries. Öncü said that while tariffs are expected to field inflation and impact customers’ confidence in Ikea, the brand has “somewhat absorbed the impact and not passed on the total impact to customers in the U.S.”
In November, Ikea issued a warning about the international tariffs, including on three of America’s biggest trading partners: Canada, Mexico, and China. Around 30 percent of Ikea’s goods are produced in Asia, mostly in China, with the remaining 70 percent manufactured in Europe.
Jesper Brodin, chief executive of Ingka Group, said at the time: “In general, we don’t believe tariffs will support international companies and international trade. At the end of the day, that risks ending up on the bills of customers.”
“Tariffs make it more difficult for us to maintain the low prices and be affordable for many people, which in the end is our goal. We have never experienced a period of benefit when we had high tariffs.”
However, Brodin conceded that any imposed tariffs were “beyond our control.” “We will need to understand and adapt,” he said.
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