The thread about Random IKEA Experiences

Walking round Ikea is as close to soul destroying as you get. In the UK, the experience goes something like this:
- get caught up in Saturday traffic trying to get into the middle of nowhere in an industrial estate
- fight for a parking space
- great, I'm already in a bad mood and have yet to set foot inside
- be blinded by the blue and yellow signage, ugh.
- walk into the main entrance, battle with a thoroughly unsatisfactory trolley with wheels that have been set to go in opposite directions
- shout at the kids
- start the long mile walk along those poxy plastic walkways, following the people ahead of you like automotons, stopping every so often to pick up another kitchen object you really don't need or measuring something you only have in inches but everything else is continentally metric
- shout at the kids
- feel bad for shouting at the kids when you realise you've lost them, then double back against the flow of sheep to find them jumping up and down on a bed in some random room
- shout at the kids
- get to the end of eternity only to realise the item you wish to pick up from the warehouse is out of stock, despite being informed it wasn't
- you can see the item, tantalisingly close, but a few pallets up on the racks and are told they will get it down perhaps next week
- start climbing the damn racks like a monkey with your wife calling after you...at this point you just don't care anymore... must... get... that... item...
- feel smug for a nanosecond, then look with horror as you join a queue longer than at Wembley when England are playing
- your soul is nearly gone, only remains to pick up a plate of Swedish meatballs which tips you over the edge as you realised you've just overpaid for a load of bulls' testicles or whatever constitutes the meat in them
- Shout at the kids
- leave the family with the oversized items by the exit while you pick up the car and swing it round to load up, except there's a huge queue for that too.
- back at home, unpack the furniture and realise you are missing pieces, or some are chipped or damaged and you CANNOT face going back to that place :cry:
- shout at the kids
- eat, bath, go to bed, wife will not talk to me.

IKEA is truly the seventh level of Dante's hell. I hate it.

I only have two things from Ikea:

- two very old Billy shelves for the books that my former brought home with old books he sold.
- the food kitchen furniture (yes I have two kitchens, cause one is for soap alone) that I bought on eBay without knowing it came from Ikea originally.

Been there once but i did not like it.

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Originally Posted by majurey

- eat, bath, go to bed, wife will not talk to me.

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So it's not all bad. :roflmao :roflmao :roflmao

Saturday afternoon has to be -the- worst moment to visit ikea.
If we go, we leave the kids with their grandparents, and we come in early in the morning.

So far we haven't had damaged furniture yet.
The coffee at our ikea is great, and you get free refill.
The food is not bad and pretty cheap.

The only thing that is truly abysmal are the hotdogs. They are mushy and have less tasted than watery cardboard. And that is -with- the substance they insist is mustard on top.

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Originally Posted by joesixpack

Ikea seems to have two grades of furniture. Flimsy and pricy. The more expensive stuff seems to be pretty solid and I've been happy with it, but they lure you into the store with the very low prices on the flimsy stuff.

They seem to have invented a type of particle board that has a very high content of air. Seriously. I think they use some sort of foamy glue so the particle board is very much lighter than you'd expect, but it's also much weaker. Progress!

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we may have different ideas of "pricey" but when I blow nearly 300 bucks on a desk, I think it ought to be strong enough to hold my freaking monitor up without bending, no matter how clunky the monitor is. I pawned the desk on some other unsuspecting student and built the strongest desk ever made: from cinder blocks and a large, solid-core, oak door.

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Originally Posted by jockeys

we may have different ideas of "pricey" but when I blow nearly 300 bucks on a desk, I think it ought to be strong enough to hold my freaking monitor up without bending, no matter how clunky the monitor is. I pawned the desk on some other unsuspecting student and built the strongest desk ever made: from cinder blocks and a large, solid-core, oak door.

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And also quite likely the ugliest :D At least it had a ready made port for the cords to go through! As long as it works though, I guess that's what is important.

I'm in the Ikea sucks camp. That furniture looks like it belongs in the 2001 spaceship. Fortunately, I've only been twice, with two separate girlfriends. Both had fun. I was miserable. Now I'm really never going back.


"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

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Originally Posted by jockeys

we may have different ideas of "pricey" but when I blow nearly 300 bucks on a desk, I think it ought to be strong enough to hold my freaking monitor up without bending, no matter how clunky the monitor is. I pawned the desk on some other unsuspecting student and built the strongest desk ever made: from cinder blocks and a large, solid-core, oak door.

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Their stuff must have gotten flimsier or pricier, or both. I had a desk from there that was pretty sound. It was made of that light particle board, but I think it had some sort of steel beams in it to give some structural support. My first wife was a graphic designer, and she had a monitor bigger than my TV. That desk held that and a metric ass-load of other stuff. It was quite a marvel, really.

Cinderblock furniture is the very best, though. Milk crates make really good furniture as well. The best desk I ever threw together was made with a couple of salvaged metal two drawer file cabinets and a solid core door. Worked great, looked great, and the price was right. For some reason, my second wife thought it looked bad. I think she just wanted another excuse to go to Ikea, though. I should have seen the writing on the wall then.

I have a foam mattress that is pretty good, way cheaper than the others I've seen, and not the "mold to your body, trap you forever" space foam. that and just the springy wood base, I'm too cheap for a real bed, and for someone that moves frequently its a good thing. also didn't feel like spending much on a bed when i already know I'll be needing to buy a bigger one in the indeterminate future. I'm of the thought that no brand is a guarantee I'll like something, so I just decide what I want, and go buy it, where ever I find it.

I live about two miles from an IKEA...furniture is to small for someone 6'3", 235lbs, but the meatballs are good.
Only go there about once a year...

Mac

Ikea is everything that is wrong with the world today. People unwilling to do the work, buy overpriced garbage, because either they are too impatient to wait, save and buy real furniture or because they are too dumb to know they are buying particle board garbage. That being said, it does work great for short term buyers. Like college students.

But that being said, congrads to who ever started it. He recognized a market and exploded onto it.
and they do good job marketing, ever been on their stairs, then you see the floor, with a giant add on it saying 5 million people walk on this flooring every year, you can buy it for X a sq foot. That is brilliant!