Big Crowd Gathers For Opening Of America's Biggest IKEA

BURBANK (CBSLA.com/AP) — The opening of a giant new IKEA store in Southern California has drawn a large crowd despite damp weather.

People gathered in misty early morning darkness Wednesday as the retailer offered free sofas to the first 26 people through the doors and armchairs and other items to other shoppers attending the debut of the massive Burbank store.

The 456,000-square-foot store with 1,700 parking spaces and a 600-seat restaurant sprawls across 22 acres less than a mile from the store it replaces.

The old store opened in 1990 with 242,000 square feet on 6.4 acres and was the Swedish company's first IKEA in California.

There were some problems early on when people lining up began to get rowdy over who were the first 100 people in line. IKEA resolved the issue by doing a raffle for the grand prize of a new couch, rather than giving them to the first 26 people in line.

(TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)