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Fancy being an IKEA meatball taster? No, really!

Ever dreamt of spending an entire day in an IKEA Småland ball pit? Or wished you could spend hours eating yourself silly as IKEA’s Meatball taster? Well these fantasies could soon become a reality, as for the first time ever, IKEA invites fans to come together and test its new store in Western Sydney.

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The IKEA Ball Pit Testers

To ensure it gets the thumbs up before it opens to the general public on 28 May, a series of uniquely IKEA roles are up for grabs. From today, locals of all ages are invited to apply to test out the new Marsden Park store before it opens, creating what will be the world’s first customer built IKEA store.

The roles on offer include:

The IKEA Meatball Tasters: Responsible for ensuring the iconic IKEA Meatballs are ready for serving, IKEA is calling on food connoisseurs to grab a FÖRNUFT fork and tuck in. Even vegetarians can enter as IKEA launches its new GRÖNSAKSBULLAR veggie balls.

The IKEA Meatball Taster
The IKEA Meatball Taster

The IKEA Ball Pit Testers: Perhaps the most important job of all, the IKEA Ball Pit Testers will play their socks off until the Magical Forest of Småland is deemed fun enough for Australia’s youngsters. Other responsibilities include ensuring the IKEA soft toy range is of optimum cuddliness and that the MÅLA paints span every colour of the rainbow. 

The Ultimate IKEA Assemblers: For those who find building a BILLY bookcase a piece of cake or can put together a POÄNG chair with their eyes shut, it’s Allen keys at the ready as the Ultimate IKEA Assemblers build the final flat packs inside the big blue box.

The IKEA Comfort Coordinators: Those who know their MALFORS from their MORGEDAL and their KIVIK from their EKTORP, need look no further — a day spent testing every bed, mattress, pillow, sofa and chair awaits.

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The IKEA Comfort Coordinator

The IKEA Junior Interior Designers: For youngsters with rooms better designed than their parents, IKEA is looking for Junior Interior Designers whose STUVA drawers perfectly match their SNÖIG lamp, or are experts at building the ultimate bedroom den.

The IKEA Junior Sustainability Managers: Youngsters who care about our planet, can now lead the way to a more sustainable life at home, as IKEA searches for forward thinkers to share its vision of sustainability.

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The IKEA Junior Sustainability Manager

To thank the customers that lend a hand to finish the store, IKEA will give back to the community through a series of volunteer projects in the local area. To enter go to the dedicated Customer Built Store tab on Facebook.

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Interiors Addict

IKEA announces third Sydney store

IKEA today announced it will build a third store in Marsden Park in Sydney’s north-west. Located 50km from the city in Sydney Business Park, the Marsden Park news comes hot on the heels of the Tempe store opening earlier this month.

Managing Director David Hood said the new Marsden Park development had been months in the planning. At 36,000 square metres, it will be of a similar size to Tempe.

IKEA Marsden Park will be built on a 73,550 square metre site – equivalent to nine football fields. Work on the site will commence in late 2012/early 2013 and it is expected to open in 2014/15.

The launch of this new store is an important step in IKEA making its range available to as many people in Australia as possible. “The north-west corridor has massive potential for IKEA,” said Hood. “As it continues to offer new tranches of land and home releases, we will see an increasing number of families moving in, and this store will make it easy for all of those people to furnish their homes affordably.”

Marsden Park will be the eighth IKEA store in Australia and a cornerstone of the IKEA longer term national expansion plans. It will follow the opening of IKEA Cambellfield in Melbourne’s North, which is scheduled to open in 2014. IKEA Australia (East) has opened two new stores in as many months: Springvale in Melbourne’s south-east and Tempe in Sydney’s south-west.

Customers around the world have embraced the IKEA concept since it launched in 1954. IKEA is the world’s largest home furnishings retailer: at the end of the 2011 financial year there were 325 stores worldwide which welcomed 734 million visitors across 38 countries and employed more than 150,000 people. The turnover for all IKEA stores in the 2011 financial year was almost AU$35 billion.