This is an opinion column

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On August 12, IKEA announced its first Alabama store— in Huntsville , opening in early 2026.

That means one of the worlds most respected and disciplined retailers evaluated Birmingham and Huntsville and chose Huntsville—even though Birmingham’s metro population is roughly twice as large.

The day the IKEA announcement broke, the Birmingham Business Journal ’s big business story was Right below that headline was “ .”

The juxtaposition felt like a punch in the gut.

What is IKEA telling us?

It wasn’t that long ago that Birmingham was the largest city in Alabama and fretted Huntsville might one day pass us by.

Then in 2021 .

We were #2.

The next year .

Suddenly we were #3.

Today, Huntsv

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