"There will be no revolution or devastating impact on the market," Giedrius Romeika, the head of the Kaunas regional small and medium-sized business association, told the paper.
He believes that the market will settle down after an initial influx of people curious to see the new shop.
Sigitas Besagirskas, the director of the Economics and Finance Department at the Lithuanian Industrialists' Confederation, says that Lithuanians tend to overestimate the importance of the arrival of a new major player, even though no newcomer has ever turned the market upside-down.
"I don't think Ikea will adversely affect other market players. Simply competition will increase and someone will naturally pull out of the market. But this will not be a very noticeable process with furniture producers or sellers slipping into bankruptcy one after another," he said.
Besagirskas believes that Ikea's arrival in Lithuania will primarily affect producers and sellers of cheaper furniture, with no clear specialization.
