STOUGHTON, MA-IKEA announced Wednesday it plans to expand the warehouse of its Boston-area store here. As a result, the 357,000-square-foot store will grow by about 58,575 square feet to approximately 415,575 square feet. In particular, the store's warehouse will increase from 111,442 square feet to 170,017 square feet. Construction activity will begin by this fall, with an expected completion by fall 2014. The store will remain open and operational during construction.

The project will include expanding the self-serve furniture area (where shoppers collect flat-packed furniture to take home on the same day), rearranging customer service functions to the newly built part of the store and enlarging the home delivery area. This extension will blend into the existing structure so the store can maintain its architectural design.

“As the IKEA Stoughton customer base and sales continue to grow, the size of the store's warehouse capacity now is less than ideal,” says Frank Briel, store manager. “Extending the store's self-serve furniture area so it can hold more products will allow us to improve the shopping experience and to enhance our ability to lower prices.” Increased goods availability and the opportunity for the store to inventory more stock will result in transport savings continually passed on to customers.