Emotions ran high last Friday when well-loved expat and Ikea Philippines Country Manager Georg Platzer welcomed Lifestyle media to the Swedish icon's first store in the Philippines. After all, it's been over six years since the global home furnishing brand announced they had broken ground to build the biggest Ikea store in the world at the SM Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. And as the years went by, hurdle, after hurdle led to repeated postponements of its hugely anticipated opening, from construction delays to the pandemic and the excruciating process of completing gargantuan stock shipments amid the global crisis.

According to Platzer, such is Ikea's commitment to the Filipino market that they were determined to open the too familiar yet inaccessible shopping wonderland in Pasay only when they had the complete range of 9,000-plus products ready in-store. Indeed, Ikea at its best is what the Filipino consumer deserves, given the tremendous welcome and frenzied excitement this country has so generously given and sustained for the brand from day one.