An IKEA shopper confessed that they visited the Swedish retailer, renowned for selling self-assembly boxes of furniture, simply to buy the brand’s mustard because they love it so much.
TikTok user Monae Hendrickson (@more.monaee) posted in a trending clip that she has no regrets visiting the gargantuan store for the “sole purpose” of buying the mustard, accruing more than 5,000 views in the process and a slew of comments from folks who thought that the offering’s packaging looked strange. Others conceded that they, too, have a soft spot for the furniture giant’s food stuffs.
@more.monaee Do not pass up the mustard on your next trip to IKEA #ikeafoodhack #ikeafinds #thebestmustard #ikeamustard #ikeatok ♬ original sound – Monae Hendrickson
Hendrickson explains what makes the mustard from IKEA so darned good in a monologue praising its flavorful attributes. “If you take a trip to IKEA for the sole purpose of buying this bottle of mustard,” she says, holding up the bottle she’s speaking of to the camera, which looks akin to, as many commenters point out, a container of children’s paint. “It was time well spent I promise you,” she avows.
The TikToker continues: “I don’t know how the Swedes do it. They combine the best parts of yellow mustard, dijon mustard, and honey mustard and somehow put it together into this one delectable, beautiful, unassuming bottle, honestly. I always suspected there was something fancy in that Scandinavian water and this mustard is proving that point,” she says at the end of her clip.
She captions her clip with a final exhortation with her followers to get the mustard: “Do not pass up the mustard on your next trip to IKEA.”
A number of commenters were shocked that Hendrickson enjoyed the mustard so much.
“That looks like a toy bottle of mustard,” one user noted.
“That looks like a paint bottle & I love it,” wrote another user.
One viewer said they’ve wondered in the past who would buy food from IKEA. They wrote, “Omg this is hilarious because every time I go to ikea I always see if and say ‘who comes to ikea to buy mustard!?’ I guess I will be… lol.”
However, there were some commenters who seemed to understand her enthusiasm, and remarked that they, too, travel to IKEA just to get the food served up at the furniture chain. “Their meatballs. It’s 3 hours away and my kids ask for them weekly,” a user wrote.
“Don’t forgot about that fancy lingonberry soda, I will always go just for a few bottles of that syrup to have some berry soda,” someone wrote.
Another user offered an alternative brand. “if you want the best mustard we Swedes have to offer its ‘sötstark’ from the brand Johnnys,” they wrote.
“And in Sweden we call that the most basic of basic mustard,” a user wrote.
While IKEA is mostly known for its furniture and home decor options, the Swedish brand has expanded its business model to both prepared food for customers to enjoy in-store (our to carry out and enjoy at home)—and it rakes in a pretty sizable amount of cash for the retailer annually.
According to Buildd.co, IKEA’s food sales clock in at about $2.5 billion annually, and the outlet states that the love folks have for these relatively low-cost food items seem to have a positive correlation with the sales of its products. This isn’t difficult to imagine: if you’re in a retailer that’s serving up cheap food you enjoy eating, you’ll probably spend more time in that store. And the more time you’re spending in store, means that IKEA has a greater chance of you seeing their products which presumably, leads to more prospective sales.
School of Marketing echoed these sentiments, and even accrued data that shows IKEA sells over 1 billion meatballs each and every year. It also sharing a little known fact about the sheer vastness of the franchise’s food operation: “IKEA is the top 20 largest global food retailers! They make well over $2 billion a year in food sales alone.”
The Daily Dot reached out to IKEA and Hendrickson via email for further comment.