Nobody founded IKEA to sell meatballs. And yet, in 2026, those köttbullar are among the most recognizable brand assets IKEA has worldwide — to the point where some customers visit the store as much for the food as for the furniture.

That’s not an accident. It’s a strategy with more depth than it first appears.

Why food changes the nature of the visit

A standard IKEA store runs between 20,000 and 30,000 square meters. The recommended path through the showroom takes anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours. Putting a restaurant in the middle of that journey — or at the end of it — isn’t a nice-to-have amenity. It’s a dwell-time management tool.

A customer who eats at the IKEA restaurant stays longer. A customer who stays longer buys more. The correlation is direct, and IKEA understood it before most physical retailers did.

Food as a value ambassador

IKEA restaurant prices are deliberately low. The köttbullar, the hot dogs, the smoked salmon — all priced to send a clear signal about the brand: IKEA gives more than it takes. It’s the same logic as the $1.50 Costco hot dog.

These subsidized prices on food create an emotional trust that spills over into the rest of the shopping experience. If IKEA is honest about the price of a meal, they’re probably honest about the price of a bookshelf.

The cultural dimension of Nordic food

IKEA’s food products — also available in the Swedish Food Market near the exit — carry a cultural dimension that the furniture catalogue doesn’t always have. The lingonberry jam, the cinnamon biscuits, the Scandinavian-style coffee: these are lifestyle ambassadors, not just consumer products.

By exporting Nordic food culture through its global stores, IKEA does something fairly unique in retail: it sells a cultural identity as much as a product range. The food makes the brand feel less like a furniture store and more like a place with a point of view.

The evolution question

IKEA has been updating its food offer — vegetarian menus, local adaptations for specific markets, Asian-market tweaks. That’s a signal that the brand takes this food pillar seriously as an innovation space.

The real question is whether IKEA can transform this food capital into something more ambitious — a packaged grocery range, a standalone urban café format — without diluting what makes the in-store restaurant so effective: its coherence with the overall IKEA experience.

For now, the meatballs are where they do the most good: right in the middle of the store, where they make the most sense.