When I lived in Edmonton, going to IKEA for their $1 breakfast was a Sunday tradition. Of course, I usually had two orders. There is at least one IKEA furniture store in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal (11 total). That's a lot of stores, considering the Canadian population is about one-tenth of the States'.

Believe it or not, if you lived in Fort McMurray, Alta. or Revelstoke, B.C. you probably live closer to an IKEA than a person in Raleigh or Charlotte does. For now, at least. In a couple of years, Charlotte will finally have their own, the first between the Washington, D.C. area and Atlanta. And people down here will actually drive all the way there to shop. Apparently, IKEA needs a regional population of at least two million before it's feasible to build a store in America, and so far they only have 29.