SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea will finally open in just one week on the newly-built Parc Alfafar industrial estate in the town of the same name in the outskirts of Valencia.
Fans of the eclectic mixed bag of funky, cut-price flat-pack home goods have been waiting for this moment for many years - residents in the Comunidad Valenciana have always had to travel to Murcia or even Madrid to kit out their houses at the Scandinavian chain.
And 400 new members of staff had been taken on - just a fraction, however, out of more than 30,000 who jammed Ikea's server within hours of its advertising a recruitment drive.
A further 40 are waiting in the wings to cover Sunday opening if the store eventually decides to do so.
Ikea says it is ready to follow through with this if need be, because it 'needs to offer the best possible customer service' and adds that in the Madrid store, Sunday is the second-most profitable day of the week in terms of takings.
At present, Ikea is up against a refusal from Alfafar town council, which says Sunday opening would take business away from local family-run furniture stores that do not open on a Sunday anyway, and will have to make the most of the 10 local, national and regional bank holidays it has been allowed to trade on.
Part of the problem with opening on a Sunday is that it is still against the law to do so except in areas considered to be 'tourist interest zones', such as coastal areas or large cities that attract hundreds or thousands of visitors.
The second-largest Ikea store in Spain, the one just outside Valencia has four storeys, two of which are a car park, plus a new-style restaurant with different themed areas and a children's activity and seating part, plus a crèche for staff and customers.
Unlike in other parts of Spain and Europe, Ikea has made the garden and patio furniture and accessories section its unique selling point out of its 50 or so departments, given the mild climate and consequent outdoor lifestyle in the Valencia area, and has even decorated parts of the store with traditional fallera costumes worn at the March fiestas.
Several entrances to the complex have been built to avoid traffic jams on the V-31, known as the Pista de Silla, which also houses the massive and brightly-coloured MN4 shopping centre, opened in 2004.
The town transport network, Metrobús, will increase the frequency of its line 183 and Ikea itself plans to open a temporary bus service for the first few weeks connecting the train station with the store.
Managers predict a total of 2.8 million visitors in the shop's first year of opening.
The new branch of Ikea is reported to be due to open its doors to the public for the first time on Tuesday, June 17.
