Ikea celebrates one year in Canberra

How many Ikea meatballs can Canberrans eat in a year?

The answer, in the 365 days since the Swedish flat-pack furniture retailer opened its first store in the nation's capital, is just over one million of them.

The Majura Park store has had just under 1.5 million people walk through its doors since opening day — the equivalent of the population of Canberra visiting the store 3.7 times each.

While the initial crowds have died down, store manager Charmaine Hick said customers were still just as excited to have an Ikea store closer to home.

"Opening the doors and just seeing how crazy excited customers were that Ikea had finally come to Canberra, and that hasn't really stopped. So I think that first year's just had that energy through the whole first 12 months that we've been open," she said.

"The first four to six months we were still really at that crazy peak that we experienced. Now it's probably what we would call a normal trade — so we have busy weekends and it's a little quieter during the week, which gives us a chance to get the store back in order."

There was one particular item that caught the eye of locals, and Ikea Canberra struggled to keep up stock of the Hemnes day bed, which was their most-sold item. Locals also polished off over 77,000 hot dogs and bought 85,000 of the iconic blue Frakta carry bags.

The store will celebrate one year in the nation's capital with a series of celebrations this weekend, including a nod to the Swedish tradition of breakfast in bed.