Ikea says it will be moving into the empty Debenhams unit in Churchill Square “soon”.
The retail giant, whose parent company Ingka Centres bought the shopping centre last year, has just applied to build a new click and collect area in its car park.
It also wants to replace a rooftop plant.
A planning statement wwritten by consultancy Quod, part of Ikea’s application to Brighton and Hove City Council, says: “The proposed click and collect facility will be accommodated in a 425sqm extension to the former Debenham’s store, which is soon to be reoccupied by Ikea.”
It says internet retail sales now represent almost 30% of the company’s total sales in the UK, leading to it rolling out more click and collect hubs to support this.
And it says having one in Brighton means customers living here will no longer have to travel to existing pick up points in Burgess Hill and Shoreham, which are only accessible by car.
The application’s design and access statement, written by SRA Architects, says: “The click and collect service provides customers with a more convenient option for collecting their goods, aimed at those customers who are not looking for the full IKEA shopping experience but wish to simply collect their goods and go.
“The facility includes a back of house order preparation and storage area, which is connected to a small customer-facing reception with a short dwelling time.
“As the model is based on the advance purchase of goods online, no transactions will take place within the facility.
“Instead, customers can place an order at home or on the go and then collect from the dedicated C&C facility the next day; the option to choose a preferred location and next day collection slot is provided at checkout online.
“Once the order is ready, an email is received with instructions on how to make the collection. The customer can then visit their agreed collection location and method, at a time to suit them.
“The click and collect facility is a new, distinct facility integrated into the well established components of the IKEA store model. As a result, new jobs are created, with the opportunity to benefit from the excellent career opportunities offered by IKEA.”
The click and collect extension, which includes 23 parking bays, will replace 66 existing parking spaces.
The application also says that as the plans will be in the middle of the multi-storey car park and on the roof, they will have little visual impact.
Brighton and Hove News asked Ikea if there was a more specific estimate of when the new store might open, but has not yet received a response.
The only issue with this is that it is removing 40 parking bays from the town centre and encouraging traffic also into the city centre which around IKEA Croydon is a nightmare and may be substantial.
The Croydon store isn’t in the centre of Croydon and is a huge full service store so yes lots of cars.
The Brighton store won’t be a full service store and most people will shop there will do so as part of a normal trip into town and most of the items on sale will be of a size you can carry them home yourself so likely not going to be a huge number of additional trips just to use the click and connect
Having an Ikea branch in Brighton, and with local stock, is actually better than having to drive to Croydon or to Southampton.
The idea that car park spaces are lost – in a generally-underused shopping centre – is surely not the discussion here ?
My own modest purchases, on those rare occasions, will be made by bus.
I’ve actually never parked in Brighton’s Churchill Sq car park– but then I live here.
I can’t afford to park there !
IKEA won’t offer delivery for some small items so they have to be collected from Holmbush, which can be a long bus ride for some. A more central point for collections would help those people.
But yes, anything that encourages even more journeys by car into the city centre should be turned down.
Argos offer a delivery service with edge of town collection points. Rather than causing huge traffic congestion along a road that is already often congested with traffic they should be offering this. If they are proposing 23 parking bays for their collection point they are expecting 1380 extra cars per hour assuming each customer takes 1 minute to be handed their package and leave by the collection staff. 690 if it takes two minutes and 345 per car if it takes 4 mins. As a guide a macdonalds server in a drive through can handle 50 to 120 customers a min. In high season and during rush hour this is going to cause gridlock.
Collection points around Brighton aren’t a bad shout actually, but then you’d be thinking, why don’t I just do this online?