Ikea - A Cross to bear (Ikea)

Member Name: Katz1

Product:	Ikea
Date:	13/07/01 (274 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Value for money, close to where I live

Disadvantages: Poor customer service, large queues

You may wonder why I’ve given five stars, when the title suggests that I am not their greatest fan. The reason for this is that I cannot seriously give one star to a company when my entire flat looks like a page from an Ikea catalogue. I like what they sell, in spite of myself. OK, so some of their items may look like they’ve been created by an artistic three year old (Ikea artwork for example) but in general their products are incredibly good value for money.

Since moving to Germany I now live five minutes walk away from one of their vast stores. To say it has become the bane of my life would be a slight exaggeration, but only slight. I can not stand the Ikea experience, or in other words, the queuing around for three hours, fighting your way through the massing hordes only to find that the ‘Ribba’ frame you’ve set your heart on has just gone out of stock (or is at the top of some towering shelving monstrosity that only an experienced mountain climber would even contemplate attempting).

And if you want to return any goods, make sure you’re wearing comfy shoes. It’s not that their returns policy is bad, in fact quite the opposite, it’s too good – so good in fact that loads of people have no qualms about returning entire kitchen units that weren’t quite the right colour, or a bed that wasn’t comfortable enough, so the poor person trying to return a single cutlery drawer that was the wrong size, is left standing around for an hour just to get it refunded. Customer service here in general also leaves a lot to be desired – however I think if I was a seventeen year old school drop out, being forced to work in what is effectively an air hanger with boxes, I don’t imagine I’d be too friendly either.

The trouble is I keep forgetting how much I hate it, this McDonalds of interior furnishings – perhaps it’s a disease, Ikeamnesia or something, but every ti
me I need something new for the flat, I actually get excited about going, about the casual wandering through the store, seeing how my home could look – it’s always a complete letdown when you actually get there and have to fight your way past the thousands of screaming kids and their harassed looking parents. I know Ikea sometimes provide crèches and restaurants to make your shopping trip that little bit more bearable but it’s never quite enough.

Take a deep breath, rant over – here’s a history of Ikea, for those of you who may be interested.

It was founded in 1943 by a 17 year old Swede called Ingvar Kamprad and the name IKEA was formed from his initials (I.K.) plus the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up. Ikea originally sold pens, wallets, picture frames, watches, jewellery, and nylon stockings.

It was 1947 when they first introduced furniture into their product range, 1951 when they published their first Ikea furniture catalogue and 1955 before they actually began designing their own furniture (due to the fact that furniture makers boycotted them – can’t think why that might have been).

By 1959 they had 100 employees but then it all took off - they began opening stores all over the place; 1974 was Munich, Germany, 1975 Australia; 1976 Canada. It wasn’t until 1985 that the first IKEA store opened in the USA and 1987 for the UK. By 1993 they’d reached 114 stores in 25 countries and in 1999 they had 53,000 employees working in 150 stores across 29 countries on four continents.

Wow, impressive, isn’t it.

Mm, I think I need a new rug, maybe I’ll pop down tonight after work...

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