WEBVTT

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By the early 1970s, flower power
has spread across the Western World.

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The war in Vietnam is being protested
and liberation is in the air.

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The focus now is on being free,
simple and unpretentious.

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And this is more or less ideal
for a furniture company

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founded in a small village in rural Småland.

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There is a wide range of styles,

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so everyone can furnish their homes
to reflect their personality.

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On the 5th of September 1970,

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a fire breaks out at the store in Stockholm.

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A neon sign on the roof
has set fire to the whole building.

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The fire spreads rapidly,
and soon almost the whole store is ravaged.

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Surely a disaster for the store staff

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who won't have a workplace to go to.
Or is it?

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With the whole staff working together,
it takes

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just 194 days to rebuild the store.

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And from the ashes springs what is perhaps
the greatest hallmark of IKEA.

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The Kungens Kurva store becomes
the first store with the self-serve concept,

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and furniture is now presented
in a completely different way.

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IKEA builds actual rooms showing what
the furniture would look like in the home,

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genuinely inspiring people in home furnishing.

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Meanwhile, independent entrepreneurs
open IKEA franchise stores

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in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.

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The Seventies
is also the decade of the oil crisis.

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Oil prices rise uncontrollably,

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causing problems in a world
fully dependent on the black gold.

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In the IKEA catalogue,
products made of plastic

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feature on just three pages
rather than twenty.

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The focus turns to sustainable materials
like pine.

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This is also when IKEA
starts defining its vision,

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which is still recognisable today.

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And as is so often the case in IKEA,

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the focus is firmly on families and children.

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This is also the time when the ball room
first appear in the stores' play area.

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But by the end of the Seventies,
the oil crisis has put a strain

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on Sweden's and other countries' economies.

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It's a decade
with a lot of change in the world,

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but surprisingly successful for IKEA,
a time of great expansion.

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A distinctive business concept
suited to the times

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with price consciousness,
functionalism and products made to last.

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But how will that approach work
in the bright lights of the Eighties?