MANILA, Philippines (Updated Oct. 28, 2022, 11:07 a.m.) — Swedish lifestyle brand Ikea recently launched its Christmas Shop in its Philippine flagship store in Pasay City, and with it, the announcement that it will sell live Christmas trees soon.
From November to December, the Christmas trees will be imported from Sweden and will be available in the Philippine store, Karen Tan from Ikea Philippines’ sales team and head of its Christmas Shop told Philstar.com in an exclusive interview.
Although the brand is yet to decide on the sizes and prices of the trees and whether the trees would have to be reserved in advance or available for pickup or delivery, Tan said that the brand offered to welcome those who will return the trees after the holidays.
“Once you used it in the Christmas season and you don’t need it anymore, you can bring it back (to) our customer service,” she assured, adding that the practice is similarly done in other countries carrying the brand like Singapore.
The offer to recycle the trees is part of the brand’s sustainability efforts as many of the hundreds of items from the Christmas Shop are handmade and made of sustainable materials like bamboo, said Tan. The brand's Facebook page will keep customers updated on the availability of the live trees.
For now, the Christmas Shop, located in the store’s Activity 1 Area or its self-serve section for big furniture near the check-out stations, houses faux Christmas trees in four sizes – 210 cm (6'8"), 205 cm (6'7") , 170 cm (5'5"), and 150 cm (4'9").
“We offer low-priced Christmas trees as compared to others, and we also offer a wide variety of Christmas balls, and all battery-operated Christmas lights for less energy consumption. We also have rechargeable batteries,” Tan vouched.
She explained that the Christmas Shop offers mostly decorations such as glass and plastic balls in colorful finishes and motifs like gold, red and silver as they want Christmas to be livelier this time around, after the holidays in the past two years were spent mostly on lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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