Swedish homeware giant Ikea is set to bin it's trademark maze-style shop layout.
Plans for new, smaller stores without the brand's well known love-it-or-hate-it set-up were announced yesterday.
Three new stores, featuring more room displays and online collections, are in the pipeline.
But a spokeswoman for the flat-pack colossus said the first one was “unlikely” to feature the famous blueprint.
Experts say the design is a clever weapon to get shoppers to part with their cash by making them pass as any products as possible
Even Ikea call it the “long way round”.
But critics say the zig-zag trail is confusing, leaving shoppers lost and not wanting to retrace their steps ‘against the tide’.
Short cuts exist but can be hard to spot.
The first new-style store, called an Order and Collection Point, is due to open in a former Currys building in Norwich this autumn
At 1,769 square metres, it’s less than 10 per cent of the size of a traditional Ikea store.
Asked if it would have the maze-like layout, a spokeswoman said: “I can’t say for sure but it is unlikely.”
Ikea has become a weekend ritual for millions of Britons since it opened its first UK store in Warrington in 1987.
The Swedish firm now has 18 big branches here - with another four large shops planned - and sales jumped 11.3 per cent to £1.4billion last year.