IKEA grapples with stampede-like situation as massive crowd turns up on day one at Hyderabad store
Swedish furniture giant, IKEA grappled with a stampede-like situation on Thursday when it's first store in India opened doors for people in Hyderabad. The 13-acre facility witnessed a footfall of around 30,000 customers in one day.
There was traffic jam in front of the store located in the heart of HITEC City, the hub of information technology. The IKEA employees had to regulate the customers by allowing them in batches.
Visuals from IKEA store's opening show a stampede-like situation.
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The first India store was opened five years after it received the government approval to invest Rs 10,500 crore to open 25 stores in India by 2025. The company now revised the number of stores to 40 across all formats. Its officials on Wednesday said they plan to approach the government with revised investment figures.
IKEA's next store will open in Navi Mumbai in next summer, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi. In the next phase, IKEA would cover Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai and Kolkatta.
