When IKEA set-up shop in Boston a few years ago, one of the concerns was that city dwellers (who are often car-less) might have a hard time getting to the store in Stoughton - a town on the fringes of the metro area, with no convenient public transportation.

They solved this problem through a unique arrangement with Zipcar, the web-based rental car company. A mini-fleet of Zipcars served as rolling billboards for IKEA's grand opening. More importantly, IKEA subsized the hourly rental rates for those vehicles, to encourage Zipcar members to make the trip out to Stoughton.

Nice idea, and now IKEA in Denmark took it a step further. This summer, their Copenhagen stores started offering trailer bikes as a means of getting their shopping home. IKEA's research showed that 20% of their Danish customers were already (attempting) to pedal-home their purchases.

Hopefully this idea will make its way back to Boston.

Posted in Labels: bicycle rental, bikes around the world, cargobikes, trailers Posted by Sherwood at 7:46 PM