Across the Atlantic by dog… and other surprising IKEA hot dog facts

An ocean of plant dogs

Got a weakness for hot dogs but want to eat less meat? At IKEA, you’ve got options. Take our plant dogs, for example – they’ve got just the right snap, a nice texture, and a mild smoky flavour. Or our veggie hot dogs, made from vegetables with visible pieces of kale, lentils, quinoa, onion, and carrot. You wouldn’t be the first to choose plant-based. In fact, if you lined up all the buns holding all the plant and veggie dogs we sold last fiscal year, you’d make a 2,410 km-long “mega meatless dog”. Distance-wise, that’s almost the same as crossing the Atlantic Ocean – or running 57 marathons!

Icy origins 

IKEA hasn’t always been synonymous with hot dogs. In fact, once upon a time, rounding off a trip to IKEA with a sausage wasn’t even a thing. At least not until 1983, when a customer at the ice cream bar in our Linköping store (Sweden) asked co-worker Chatarina Berglund, “Do you only sell ice cream? No hot dogs or anything?”. The suggestion got Chatarina thinking. She decided to pitch the idea to her restaurant manager and before long, sausages, buns, ketchup and mustard were added to the bar. It proved an instant success – and our hot dogs have been selling like hotcakes ever since. 

A super rational hot dog, please 

Are you one of the many IKEA customers who enjoy our hot dog experience? From efficient ordering and speedy service to low price and great taste, this apparently simple concept is the result of intense studies and consideration of the tiniest of details. Did you know for example, that just like our furniture, IKEA hot dogs are designed according to the five dimensions of Democratic Design: form, function, quality, sustainability, and low price? Or that the ordering and pick-up process is streamlined to limit the need for unnecessary questions and put food in hand as quickly as possible? Simplicity and rationality never tasted so good. 

Enhancing the sausage

It’s a fair bet that you and your taste buds are familiar with the classic IKEA hot dog. But deep in the Swedish forest, in our spiritual home of Älmhult, the IKEA Grillen restaurant is openly challenging it. Their dedicated “korvbaren” – hot dog bar – is pushing the boundaries of what a hot dog can be, applying local ingredients and innovative thinking to create new and exotic versions. In their world, an elk kabanos isn’t your Wurst nightmare – they’re just two options the menu. Can’t get to Älmhult any time soon? Don’t worry. We continue to explore new types of hot dog for the many IKEA customers – we’ll let you know when they’re ready to be served.

When is a hot dog not a hot dog?

Anyone working at IKEA should know the answer: when it’s a product with an impossibly low price. It all started with the introduction of IKEA hot dogs (the actual ones) in the 1980s, when customers were amazed at how little they had to pay for a good quality sausage. Since then, the term “hot dog” has become a symbol of innovative thinking at IKEA, ensuring that people pay less than they expect for products they buy often and usually know the price of. From FÄRGRIK coffee mugs to TVÄRS table lamps, that’s what it means to “speak hot dog” at IKEA.

Anything else you’d like to know?

At IKEA, we have so many stories to tell. But many of them stay right here, within IKEA. That’s where our “Who knew?” series comes in. Is there anything you’ve always wondered about IKEA but never had the chance to ask? Contact us at [email protected] and we’ll get digging.