IKEA

IKEA stands for: Ingvar Kamprad, the founder, Elmtaryd, the farm he grew up from, and Agunnaryd, the town he came from. He started his business when he was 17, selling small furniture objects (picture frames, etc.).

IKEAS founder's grandmother was once a supporter of Hitler. This naturally influenced the founder who then also supported Nazis for a time. Since then he has admitted his mistakes and even sent a handwritten letter to employees, hoping they would forgive him.

You probobally have already noticed how IKEA has an interesting naming method for furniture. For example, beds are named after Norwegian locations and sofas are named after Swedish towns. This was due to Kamprad's dyslexia (a reading disorder), where numbering the products would have made them harder to read.

The catalogue uses 70% of their annual marketing budget. One year, 62 different versions of the catalogue were created for 43 countries and over 200 million copies printed.

IKEA planned to build a town in east London [may or may not be completed, no news past 2012 when it was announced].

IKEA already portrayed gays in its advertisements back in 1994. Although it may be considered "normal" today, but back them it caused quite a commotion.

You can buy a DIY home from IKEA. Just makes sure to double check all the parts and keep everything sorted. Imagine realizing your missing a small piece that's crucial to the stability of your new home and searching for hours through your yard.

IKEA is considered the tenth largest food retailer in the world. Their swedish meatballs contributed a substantial portion of that with over 1 billion sales yearly.