The burning question that has been plaguing me for months has finally been answered. The new IKEA in Emeryville, California is opening on APRIL 12! Soon I can stop threatening to rent a U-Haul to trundle down to southern CA for stylish, affordable furnishings. Now the SF Bay area can be on par with Beijing, Prague, and Barcelona — not to mention Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Burbank. The Emeryville store covers six acres and the commercials announcing its arrival will start soon. I hope the parking lot is big enough. Read more in the Mercury News article. In 1994 IKEA ran the first TV ad featuring a gay couple. IKEA pays attention to the environment, concentrating first on reducing, not just re-using (some companies forget that there’s a step before recycling! And it’s a step that can impact their bottom line!). Their business goal is “We shall offer a wide range of home-furnishing items of good design and function, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them.” If you want to know more about the history and business of IKEA, there’s the book Leading By Design:The IKEA Story.