In 55 days, 13,400 shoppers are expected to walk through the front doors of  the massive new IKEA store  in the Pinecrest Mall for the Dec. 7 grand opening.

I was among a small group from the Citizen to get a sneak peek inside the gigantic yellow and blue behemoth during a guided tour of the construction zone today and I have to tell you: the place is unbelievably huge.

On paper, it’s nearly 400,000 square feet (triple the size of the existing store), but you don’t really get a sense of how big that  is until you start walking through the sprawling two floors of display space.

Get this: if you follow the arrows from the front entrance to the checkout without taking any shortcuts, you’ll have walked 1.5 kilometres. Talk about a mall walkers’ paradise!

The monstrous new store will include 55 decorated vignettes — staff call them inspiration rooms — and three complete houses, each designed with a specific buyer in mind.

The new restaurant with seating for 640 â€“ that’s about six times the size of the old dining room — will wrap around the second floor and features a soaring wall of windows with an incredible view of the western skyline.

And just wait until you see the size of the new ballroom. The enormous indoor playground will not only include a large area knee-deep in colourful plastic balls, but also play structures and artificial grass to cushion youngsters’ falls.

And if all that isn’t amazing enough, be prepared to be awestruck by the self-serve warehouse — it looks like it could double as an Air Canada hangar — and covered garage with more than 500 parking spots.

My advice to all those  shoppers who have been waiting since last July for the Swedish megastore to open: Start getting in shape now. There’s less than six weeks to go before the marathon shopping begins.

Internet site reference: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/10/13/inside-the-new-ikea