IKEA pencil

Old IKEA pencils
Modern IKEA pencils

IKEA pencils are small pencils provided for free[1] in IKEA stores worldwide. They are found in small boxes attached to poles, together with maps, measuring tapes and shopping forms. The IKEA pencil has been known for the wide variety of designs. Through the years the color changed from blue, to yellow to the natural color of wood. Despite the different colors, its dimensions have always been 7×87mm.[2] Their common in-store application is for notetaking, with customers making note of selected items from product tags onto their notepads and visiting the self-service furniture warehouse to collect their showroom products in flat pack form, using their notes to locate their products.

It is said that the IKEA pencil was introduced to rival the Argos pen, which was also given for free at Argos stores in the United Kingdom.[3] During this time, the competitor only provided six pens for each catalogue stand while IKEA offered them in large dispensers.[3] IKEA orders 5.2 million pencils yearly for its Canadian stores alone,[4] and the company does not disapprove of customers that put them to other uses such as craft projects or works of art. The Dutch artist Judith Delleman constructed a chair out of hundreds of them.[4] When an IKEA store first opened in South Korea, two years' worth of free pencils were consumed in the span of two months.[5]

Being disposable, the pencils are also used by surgeons to mark osteotomy cuts in craniofacial and maxillofacial surgery.[6][7][8] Another application of pencils is to draw electronic circuits, and IKEA pencils have been used in the fabrication of free chlorine sensors for drinking water.[9]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IKEA pencils.
  1. ^ Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 1999 - 2016. "Shop any way you like". Ikea.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Mini potlood (IKEA maat)". benito.nl. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06.
  3. ^ a b Ward, James (2014). Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case. London: Profile Books Ltd. ISBN 9781847658715. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  4. ^ a b Cross, Allison (22 December 2010). "A penchant for pencils". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Two years' worth of free pencils swiped from Korea's first ever IKEA in just two months". SoraNews24. 2015-02-17. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  6. ^ Eley, Karen A.; Watt-Smith, Stephen R (December 2010). "The IKEA pencil: a surprising find in the NHS". BMJ. 341:c6595: c6595. doi:10.1136/bmj.c6595. PMID 21148219. S2CID 37631701. Archived from the original on 2015-02-09. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
  7. ^ "A new surgical tool -- the IKEA pencil". www.sciencedaily.com. 27 December 2010. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  8. ^ Melnick, Meredith (December 10, 2010). "IKEA Pencils: The Latest in Surgical Technology". Time. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  9. ^ Hoque, E.; Hsu, L. H. H.; Aryasomayajula, A.; Selvaganapathy, P. R.; Kruse, P. (August 2017). "Pencil-Drawn Chemiresistive Sensor for Free Chlorine in Water". IEEE Sensors Letters. 1 (4): 4500504. doi:10.1109/LSENS.2017.2722958. S2CID 25236285. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
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