I’ll take one of everything (Ikea)

Member Name: annette_tr9

Product:	Ikea
Date:	19/07/02 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very cheap, modern furniture

Disadvantages: makes you spend all of your money

Ikea is a good example of my ideal home. We unfortunately do not have one near us in Cornwall so a trip to Ikea is always a big deal. Usually have to rent a trailer because we always come back with something new.

The layout of Ikea is brilliant. First you walk around a showroom where all of the furniture is assembled and built into rooms. If you find anything you want it’s all labelled with locations. Write down the location and later on you will be able to find it in the warehouse. After you have walked through the showroom they have a section where all of the smaller items are for sale. These include bedding, kitchen items, gifts, lighting, rugs and garden. You will need a basket here because you are bound to pick up loads of bits you never knew you needed! After this there’s the warehouse. This is a HUGE room where all of the furniture is flatpacked. You need your locations here to get the furniture that you want.

So, good layout but is the furniture any good? Ikea is all very modern furniture and is all very cheap. Everything is very well made so, as long as you put it together properly, it will last a very long time. You can furnish your house for about half the price you would spend at any other furniture shop.

The store is set out to be very customer friendly. In the showroom part there are desks you can use to work out measurements. They also supply paper tape measures so you can measure the furniture. Staff are always pleased to help you and their product knowledge is amazing – they know everything about everything! Obviously they grabbed all of the good people to employ before anyone else got a chance! You also get leaflets for each different range of furniture which has all measurements on it so you can take it home and work out what you need.

Ikea do deliver but not to a very large area around the store. This means at the moment in Cornwall we have to make do with our trailer. Ob
viously if you are furnishing a whole room it’s not all going to fit in your car!

One part not to miss is the reduction area which is usually at the end of the store. This is all furniture that has been damaged in some way. There’s always a label on each piece of furniture to tell you what’s wrong with it so you won’t get it home and find half of it missing. They usually assemble the damaged furniture so that you can see it, if you want to take it home they will supply you with tools to dismantle it so that you don’t have to hire a bus to take it home.

After you have paid there’s a packing section. This is a large table with big thick paper to wrap breakables in and brown paper to wrap parcels in. This is a great idea, I think all shops should have it!! They have never been short of packing when I have been there either! One thing they are short of though is catalogues, you can never get hold of one!! Need more people in the printing department I think!

The restaurant is a must before you leave. After a hard days shopping you have to try the Swedish Meatballs. There’s free refills on your drinks as well, how many places in England have that!! You can also buy some meatballs to take home in the small food section at the end of the store.

After leaving the store you can bring your car around to the loading area. They put bollards up so that you can’t take the trolleys out to the car park. This means you won’t find loads of trolley strewn (Cornish word there) around the car park ready to bang into your car. The loading spaces are huge so you will have plenty of room to squeeze everything into your car.

A good time to visit Ikea is when they have a sale because they always reduce things by big amounts! Get in there quick though or it will all be gone!

Ikea is a great place to visit if you are planning to redecorate. It’s always very busy in t
he mornings so it’s best to wait until midday for your visit. You will have to queue for a parking space then though! Remember to drive home slowly with granny sitting on the bookshelves in the boot and the kids underneath the fold down bed in the back. And don’t wobble the wife too much in the passenger seat or she’ll drop those six plants you found it necessary to buy!!!!

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