Meatballtastic! (Ikea)

Member Name: wendz86

Product:	Ikea
Date:	02/02/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great variety of items, fun shopping experience, great value

Disadvantages: Can get busy

I had never visited an Ikea until recently, mainly because I have never lived near one. I now live just up the road from the one on Wembley and so decided to take a visit. Ikea is a Swedish store that basically sells everything for the home from furniture to decoration. It is a huge store and is really obvious from the moment you see it due to its blue and yellow colouring on the building, which of course is copying the Swedish flag.

Ikea is meant to be an easy one-stop shop to get all your furniture and items for the home in one go at a good price. People travel from all over the country to visit these stores especially as they are few and far between. At the moment there are 17 locations in Great Britain with two new ones being built at the moment in Southampton and Dublin.

The one I visited in Wembley was easy to get to from the A40. I have also travelled there on a bus before which was also not too bad. It is obvious where it is as soon as you see it because of how bright the building is. There is a multi story car park and a normal car park outside. It is free to park which is good and we didn't have any trouble finding a spot. There is also a shuttle bus running from the tube if you arrive that way and it is free.

The shop is open from 10am to midnight Monday to Friday, which is fantastic if you want to go after work. It is quieter in the evenings but gets busy at the tills when it is closing down time. On a Saturday it is open 9am to 10pm and on a Sunday 11am to 5pm.

Once inside the building you go up escalators to the top floor. This floor basically shows you all the types of furniture that they sell and how you can decorate your home. At the beginning there are little slips and pencils that you can use to write down any of the items that you want. In a way it is a big like Argos in that sense as you choose and then pay but you do have to pick up the items from the Warehouse yourself!

Also on the top floor are the café and toilet facilities. The café is really big and does a variety of meals and drinks for very cheap prices. If you have an Ikea family card you can get free tea and coffee, which is great. The café consists of lots of tables with chairs that are all chairs that are sold in the store so you can even have a look at the chairs whilst in the café. The most famous meal at Ikea is the very Swedish meatballs. You can get these for a really cheap price of 3.25. They also sell other hot meals, puddings and snacks so something for everyone. All of it is very cheaply priced and some of the drink choices etc are quite interesting! They have good facilities for children with highchairs available. They also have a play area.

The main upstairs area as I previously mentioned is basically like a showroom where you can view all of the products as they would actually look. It is split into lots of different sections and there are arrows on the floor so you follow through in the right order. The sections tend to be split into rooms such as bedroom, lounge, office etc. They have little rooms set up so you can see exactly how everything looks. I love the way they do this as it makes it easy to see the items. It is easy to see and touch the items to check that they are how you would like them to be. This makes it a lot better than Argos as you don't see their items till you get home. In the kitchen area there are people on hand to help you design your own kitchen. They are really good for storage problem solving as they have so many ideas on how to store pretty much everything. If you see something you like all you have to do is write down the number and then you can go and collect it downstairs. A lot of the items come in different colours so you need to make sure you have the right one written down.

Once through this area all you have to do is go down the escalator to the bottom floor. Straight away there are trolleys here for you to put your items in. First you go through an area called the market where it has all the little items for your home from kitchen accessories to bedding and pictures. Everything is really reasonably priced although that does mean I end up buying loads of bits and pieces. We have had some really nice lampshades, candles and throws from this section. When I was at uni everyone had Ikea plates so we had a whole collection in different colours. I would say Ikea is ideal for students as it is so cheaply prices but has bright, colourful and interesting items for sale.

After the market section is the warehouse. This has all the items such as furniture. When you write down the item you want you also write an aisle and number so it is easy to find what you are looking for. There are also lots of staff on hand to help you.

Then come the tills. There always seems to be quite a long queue at the tills but this has never caused me many problems. They have special tills for cash only/card only etc so you can choose one that suits your payment method. You put all the small items on the checkout and the cashier scans the larger items. They do have bags but these cost 15p to purchase so I tend to just put it all in the trolley till I am at the car.

After the tills they have a smaller café type thing where you can buy very cheap ice creams and hotdogs and other snack food.

Overall I would say that visiting Ikea is a very pleasant experience. I have never been on a Saturday though and can imagine this would be a lot busier. The flat pack furniture is easy to put together once you get home. The items are not the highest quality but they are good value and do the job well. You can also buy the items online and Ikea send out catalogues too.

Also posted on Ciao.

Summary: A great value home furnishing store