February the 14th, 2022 - IKEA Zagreb was a huge hit when it first arrived in the Croatian capital, more precisely on the outskirts of it in Rugvica. It seems however that for the past few months, many customers have been noticing a lack of items on the shelves and an increase in the prices. Just what's going on there?

As Novac/Jutarnji/Ana Franic/SD writes, the Swedish brand IKEA arrived in Croatia back in 2014, taking up home on the outskirts of the capital, and since then it has delighted most people with its proximity, ease of purchase, decent prices and delivery.

Those of us who live in Croatia had fallen in love with this gigantic Swedish store's extensive and fairly prices offer much earlier, but it was necessary to cross the border before it arrived in Zagreb. Simple but modern furniture at relatively low prices and all sorts of little things for the house are an assortment that is both necessary and irresistible.

When IKEA Zagreb opened its doors, many Dalmatians made a ''pilgrimage'' of sorts to this huge department store and regularly received a list of products from family and friends with which to return home from shopping, writes Slobodna Dalmacija.

People outside of Zagreb eagerly waited for their purchases to arrive and in those years, suppliers who transported IKEA Zagreb goods to destinations throughout the resr of Croatia also made some very good money. Dalmatians were even more relieved back in 2017 when a delivery centre was opened in Split. In just a few clicks, fans of the Swedish brand could get their hands on their favourite things, and to add to that - delivery was made entirely free.

However, over more recent months, loyal IKEA Zagreb customers have noticed an increase in prices, but also the fact that a lot of products are not in stock at the Zagreb department store at all anymore.

''My apartment is like from the IKEA catalog. Everything I need for the house, whether it is furniture, utensils or decorations, I find and purchase with them. Everything is reasonably priced, but the quality is far from lacking. As I'm a big fan of IKEA, lately I've noticed that some of their products have become more expensive, but also that a lot of what they sold is not available,'' one woman from Split said, adding that she's not sure if those issues are due to coronavirus or something else.

''For example, I recently looked for an extra bed, but none of those that caught my eye were available. At first it meant nothing to me, until I continued to search for the products I needed. Baskets were also not available, nor were their scented candles, nor were part of their range of kitchen utensils,'' she went on to explain.

She's not the only one, either. After all, it's enough to look at the offer on the IKEA Zagreb website and notice that a lot of products are in the "red", that is, that they aren't in stock. Private renters are most affected by this, hoping that before the tourist season stocks will be restored and that they will be able to equip their rental apartments on time.

What exactly is happening with the IKEA Zagreb product offer and whether there has been an increase in prices?

''We'd like to point out that we continue to invest a lot of effort to keep our prices as low and stable as possible. However, the current situation with international trade and restrictions on raw materials affects all industries around the world, and IKEA is no exception. Procurement and transport costs are rising after the disruption in logistics, and the growth of raw material prices is at such a level that we couldn't avoid the increase in retail prices for many of our products,'' they explained from IKEA.

They added that some of their prices in their portfolio have been increased to reflect the current rising raw material and supply chain prices, adding that the prices of many of their products have remained the same, and some have even been reduced.

''The increase in prices of individual products ranged from a few percentage points to a low double-digit percentage, while the average price increase in Croatia was 9 percent,'' they explained. When it comes to the supply and availability of their products, they said that since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an increase in demand for their products because, as they say, people want to improve their lives at home as they were spending much more time within their four walls pre-vaccine.

''But during the last year of the pandemic, the global situation with the capacity of ocean traffic has created challenges for all companies dependent on it, including the business of IKEA. Continuous disturbances, port congestion and historically high demand have created an imbalance in the overall ocean freight market, resulting in limitations in our business. IKEA is closely monitoring the development of this situation across all fields so that it can adequately respond to all challenges. We prioritise our range to ensure that IKEA products, which our customers love and need the most, are available online and in our department stores. We want to thank our customers for understanding that not all products may be available at this time, and we'll certainly continue to take further action to increase product availability and provide customers with an even better IKEA experience,'' they concluded from IKEA Zagreb.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

IKEA Zagreb, which is never lacking in its popularity, has announced that it will re-open its doors tomorrow, but certain areas of the store are going to remain closed for the time being...

As the Croatian Government and the National Civil Protection Headquarters slowly begin to loosen some of the stringent anti-epidemic measures the country has had in place for more than one month now, many people are eagerly awaiting a return to semi-normalcy, which will be reinstated slowly, and in three separate phases.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of April, 2020, a statement from IKEA on their official website reads that these are challenging times for all of us, but rest assured, as the health and safety of our employees, our customers and the community are our top priorities.

The IKEA Zagreb department store, as stated, is set to finally re-open its doors on April the 27th, 2020. The huge store's working hours will be Monday to Saturday from 11:00 to 19:00, remaining closed on Sundays.

For safety reasons, the large IKEA Zagreb store have done the following:

Set up the possibility of safe distance communication throughout the IKEA department store,
Increased their focus on the cleaning and disinfection of the IKEA department store's space,
Employees will all wear protective equipment,
For now, the popular IKEA restaurant, bistro and cafe will remain temporarily closed,
The have temporarily closed the Kakvo je, takvo je (That's how it is) department,
They have temporarily closed the Småland children's playroom,

For online shopping, IKEA.hr is available at any time of the day.

For live updates, the transmission of official information and more on coronavirus in Croatia, follow our dedicated section.

The wildly popular IKEA Croatia continues to operate well.

A new date for the grand opening has been announced.

IKEA has donated all the furniture from the store.

In addition to regular pension contributions, the company will pay more than 3,000 kuna in voluntary contributions to each employee.

The department store IKEA, a multinational group of companies that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances and home accessories, and is also the world’s largest furniture retailer, is coming to Split for 2017.