IKEA sells 150 million meatballs a year

Notes from IKEA’s Best-Selling Product Is Not a Piece of Furniture by Geraint Clarke on Medium.

• IKEA sells 150 million meatballs per year, dwarfing the sales of its top furniture product, the “Billy” bookcase.
• “Billy,” as it’s come to be known, is claimed to be the most commercially successful piece of modern furniture with more than 110 million Ikea Billy bookcases sold since its inception 40 years ago.
• With over one billion meatballs sold, the meatballs sell at a rate that’s almost 22 times greater than the Billy each year. 150 million units, compared to Billy’s measly 7 million units.
• IKEA’s founder, >Ingvar Kamprad, held the hypothesis that hungry customers were distracted customers, but if they were sufficiently satiated, they’d be likely to shop for longer — thus buying more.
• IKEA uses food sales as a loss-leader.

• In late April, deep into the COVID-19 lockdown, IKEA released a recipe for their famous Swedish meatballs, for everyone to cook at home and it drove people wild.

• Geraint starts this article by saying: “Dave Chappelle has a moment in his Netflix special, Equanimity, where he gives the punchline to a joke at the very beginning — and still guarantees a laugh when you finally hear the joke.” I must check it out, this Equanimity.