Sweden’s IKEA is already the world’s largest furniture retailer, with $31 billion in sales in zoo7. But it’s still in growth mode this side of Stockholm, with 35 U.S. Outposts and four more planned in the next two years. It doesn’t matter how lofty your tastes: If you live near an IKEA, the store’s low-price and high-style wares will draw you in eventually, for your kid’s dorm, a basement or a second home. Once there, expect to be the target of marketing more psychologically complex than the complete works of Ingmar Bergman. Here’s how to emerge without having spent a single krona more than planned.
