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I was up in the Portland IKEA store, and an employee said they are planning to put in a Medford store. Have you heard about that? — Ben, via email   We hope you're sitting down on your Poäng chair, Ben, because we've got to break some bad news. You'll have to go to Portland to stock up on discount Swedish-designed housewares and meatball plates for the foreseeable future, according to Joseph Roth, involved in the Swedish discount warehouse store's expansion in the United States. If you convince some 1.8 million people to move here, you might be able to change their minds. Roth said the company typically needs a population base of roughly two million people to support a single store. "Medford's definitely not that large," Roth said. If we admitted to pressing Roth further, readers may accuse us of liberal bias. For readers who've never owned a Volvo, IKEA of Sweden is known for its some-assembly-required minimalist furniture, very European product names and those loss-leader cafeterias with lingonberry juice on tap. Roth said he's not sure whether a Portland staff member was misinformed or possibly confusing our fair city with another Medford. There are about a dozen other Medfords out there, after all. Whatever the explanation, Roth's conclusion is the same. "Portland's it for Oregon for the foreseeable future, that's for sure," Roth said. — Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.