Ikea loyal customers can now win a candle that smells like its famous meatballs

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business

Ikea is famous for the Swedish meatballs served at its stores’ cafeterias. Now, it’s turning those meatballs customers love into … scented candles.

Ikea is offering meatball-scented candles as a prize in a sweepstakes event for “Ikea Family” loyalty club members to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the free loyalty program. Ikea hopes that dangling the candles may entice additional customers to sign up for a loyalty card, which gives members rewards and other perks.

Ikea says 1,925 lucky winners will get to claim one of the Huvudroll meatball candles and let the sweet smell of meatballs waft through their homes. The event will run through August 22.

Earlier in the pandemic, when stores were closed, the Swedish-based company shared its meatball recipe for customers to make at home (hint: it’s all about the cream sauce).

“Staying at home can be hard, but we want to help make everyone’s lives that little bit easier and more enjoyable. Bon appétit or, smaklig måltid, as we say in Sweden!” the company said.

In 2019, Ikea said it was working on a plant-based meatball that “looks and tastes like meat but is made from plant-based alternative proteins. Ikea said it wanted to sell the plant-based meatballs at all of its restaurants worldwide.

Ikea’s meatballs have been around since 1985, according to the company. It sells more than 1 billion every year.

“It’s difficult to do business with someone on an empty stomach,” Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who died in 2018, said of why the company decided to open up restaurants in stores.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.