Today is a big celebration at IKEA Szczecin:

It's been five years since the store opened in Szczecin on May 31, 2021.

This happened thirty-one years after the first store opened in Poland!

It's just that Szczecin always has to wait a while, as there are more important cities in the country!

So we traveled to Berlin (about 160 km) or Poznań (about 260 km), and finally, we finally got this store, about 4 km from the city center.

Now the city can "breathe" normally, because IKEA is here!

The anniversary celebrations are a huge success, and IKEA has prepared many attractions for the whole family: contests with prizes and special price reductions.

Frenzy!

IKEA is the only large-scale store with its own restaurant, where you can enjoy typical Scandinavian dishes at an affordable price, including the iconic meatballs. In Poland they're called "klopiski," and in Sweden, "köttbullar"* (see below for the pronunciation of this last word).

I've heard that some customers only come there for breakfast!

And our bigos? Can't it have national colours? Or pierogi?

Now there will be an even more Polish dish:

The online television station wSzczecinie.pl is participating in the celebrations, conducting on-site conversations with invited guests about the IKEA phenomenon in Szczecin.

I was invited to talk about the Swedish language and its presence on the store shelves.

Below is a video of this conversation. In Polish, though, but about Swedish.

Before you click to watch this conversation, read a few sentences about the role of Swedish in strengthening the brand of this huge company.

IKEA names its products in Scandinavian. The names can be phonetically difficult, perhaps strange, or funny, but most importantly, they're meant to attract attention.

This is practical, consistent with the brand identity, systematic, and globally recognizable.

IKEA doesn't choose names randomly—each product category has its own naming scheme. Examples:

• sofas, chairs, tables → names of Swedish towns
• shelving → men's Names or professions
• carpets → Danish place names
• textiles → names of flowers and plants
• children's products → animals and natural elements

This way, we learn a little more about Scandinavia.

I like this patriotic approach!

You've probably seen words on labels that contain letters like these:

                                            Å, Ä, Ö.

And how do you pronounce them?

Although I'm tempted, I won't lecture on phonetics here. I'll give you a few classic examples:

ÅSKA (lightning) – LAMP                       Pronounced: [uoska]

MÄSTARE (host) - SUPER POTS    Pronounced: [meastare]

ÖGLA (loop) - CULT CHAIR                Pronounced: [oeggla]

And the most difficult one:

*KÖTTBULLAR (meatballs) -        Pronounced: [shziotbullar]

Have fun with Swedish words at IKEA stores!

In case of emergency, I invite you to my private lessons.

Filmik z wywiadem