MERRIAM, Kan. — The City of Merriam is expecting about 8,000 people to visit the new IKEA store when it opens in a month.
To put that in perspective there are about 11,000 people who live in the four-square mile city. To avoid a traffic nightmare the city says it’s come up with a plan to keep traffic moving.
While the Swedish retailer says it’s 350,000 square foot store will be ready on September 10, the City of Merriam is trying to get ready for the traffic that’s expected to roll into the city on opening day.
“There is going to be a significant increase in traffic especially during the grand opening,” Merriam Police Chief Michael Daniels said.
Daniels said the goal is to keep traffic moving after motorist exit I-35 so the interstate doesn’t back up.
“The plan is to get them into a square which will include Shawnee Mission Parkway, Antioch, Johnson Drive and Merriam Drive, so no matter how you get off I-35 — either at Shawnee Mission Parkway or Johnson Drive — we are going to route them into the square and bring them back around to Johnson Drive,” Daniels said.
Then motorists can turn north on IKEA Way. Daniels says IKEA only has 1,200 parking spaces on the 18 acre site, so during the first couple of weeks, IKEA will offer satellite parking at the former KMart store on Shawnee Mission Parkway and provide shuttles to get shoppers to the store.
“We are going to have officers directing traffic,” Daniels said. “We are going to try to keep this traffic route going so that people are at least moving during their wait to get into IKEA.”
After the new store buzz fizzles down, City Administrator Phil Lammers says he doesn’t expect a lot of traffic to tie up because, according to him, IKEA shoppers spend a lot of time inside the store.
“The average customer trip to an IKEA store boils down to roughly two and a half hours, so if you took a Walmart Supercenter or a KMart, that type of retail, you may be looking at 45 minutes, you maybe looking at 15 minutes,” he said.
Lammers said traffic coming to and from other stores flow three or four times fast than people shopping at IKEA.
Lammers says if you’re planning to shop at IKEA during its grand opening, use the shuttle service and bring your patience.