Five hours of retail therapy! (Ikea)

Member Name: michaird

Product:	Ikea
Date:	07/10/02 (917 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low prices for relative high quality, Brilliant storage Ideas, Claims to be ethical in its practices.

Disadvantages: Busy and crowded, No home shopping/delivery

It's Saturday afternoon, it's a dull day and our men have gone to the homebrew shop. With nothing to do and nowhere to go mum, my sister, little baby Mathew and me decided we might fancy a trip to Ikea. Little baby Mathew didn't really have any say in the matter but he wasn't allowed to go to the homebrew shop, as my dad say's its not suitable for six-month-old babies.

So we jump in my little car (I tell everyone off for jumping in my car and they should sit still) and trundle off down the M6 for a mooch round the shop.

Now, I've never been to Ikea before, it wasn't until a friend told me she had been there that I was even aware we had one near to us. I had always thought they were expensive and that the furniture was ugly and poor quality. I have no idea where I got this impression from but I am happy to admit publicly that I was wrong (savour that, it doesn't happen often)

Ikea is a huge company, with a turnover of 10.4 billion Euro in 2001. The UK accounts for 12% of this turnover making it their third largest market. They aim to provide high quality products at low prices by cutting as many costs, which do not add value to the product, as possible. This is why you have to pick, transport and assemble the goods yourself. They to use materials from sustainable sources (They employ full time foresters to ensure that no supplies come from established natural forests) and are quite proud that some of their furniture is made from offcuts. They claim to be active in the fight against child labour, specifically working with UNICEF in India.

Ikea has eleven stores in the UK, the opening times and direction can be found on the website www.ikea.co.uk. Each store has an automated info-line where you can order catalogues, enquire about opening times, get directions, get details on events or enquire about payment methods.

The website is a disappointment, it shows hardly any of the products on offer



and you cannot purchase from it. No doubt this is to keep costs low and Ikea make it quite clear that they do not do mail order in any way. You can arrange for you items to be home delivered at the store, but expect to pay a high premium for this.

We saw the store from the motorway slip road, not only was it enormous but it's painted in bright blue and yellow primary colours, you definitely can't miss it. Actually getting the car into it is a different matter all together, as with all Midlands roads they're confusing to say the least so print a map off the website they're very good.

The parking was more than ample and as it is all around the store we actually managed to find a space close to the entrance despite it being 1.30pm on a Saturday. I had hoped, as we had the baby with us, that we might get a parent and child space (oh, the joys of having a nephew) but there didn't appear to be any, maybe there were cars parked on top of the signs.

We took a walk towards the store noting the children's adventure playground on the way, no doubt for bored Dad's and the kids. We debated a little over whether or not to get a trolley, should we get a basic trolley, a trolley with a baby seat, a kiddie seat or one with looked like a trolley but which was actually just a pushchair (ugly, but very clever). In the end we decided against it as none of us planned on buying anything.

At the entrance there was an indoor adventure playground, with a massive ball pool. Lifts to the upper level and the toilets. I'm not sure if there were any other toilets throughout the rest of the store but I did note there were only 5 loo's at the entrance, not nearly enough for the thousands off people that I'm sure would pour through Ikea's doors on a Saturday. There was also a baby changing room that my sister tells me was quite nice.

Not wanting to wait for the lift we carried the pushchair u
p the
sta
irs t
o the showroom area. Now being Ikea virgins we had imagined that we would end up in a showroom, where you pick what you like and find an assistant to get someone to bring it to a counter for you. Not so.

The top floor is essentially an idea showcase, a kind of tour through the world of Ikea, instead of a sterile row of bookcases and a cluster of sofa's we are presented with a series of little rooms, with everything you could think of in them. From books, photos, vases and CD's each room invites you to open the drawers and sit on the sofa.

The whole experience is very tactile and each of the showrooms have a slight lived in look from the scores of people who have come in and moved, opened and got comfy on things. The vague dishevelled look is a real help when trying to visualise items in your home. The fact that each room is so complete also helps, when you open a bathroom cabinet you'll see soap, toothbrushes and combs, there are clothes in the wardrobes, knick-knacks in the kitchen cupboards and toys under the children's beds.

Each item is marked with a tag stating the price, the size, material that it's made of and where it is located in the warehouse. Throughout the store there are stands with tape measures, papers and pencils available to take so that you don't forget what you wanted and where it was when it comes to buying it.

After looking at a few prices, deciding it must be a veneer, looking at the label and finding it was actually solid, sitting on them, shaking them and wobbling bits of them saying "Blimey, that's good isn't it?" All three of us came out with a long mental shopping list of things we wanted to buy.

In and about the furniture there are plenty of small baskets full of knick-knacks that you can pick up as you go around. I picked up a couple of CD racks for two pounds each, a pan lid holder also for two pounds and a canvas remo
te control
holder f
or three p
ounds. I picked up one of the big, bright yellow canvas bags that were available at various points throughout the shop to carry them. Then I realised that my sister had a pushchair and she should hang it off the back (that's what pushchairs are for).

What impressed me most about the showroom area was the children's section. The rooms are set up with little tunnels between a them for the kid's to run through, the toys are set out to be played with and there is even a slide. The layout positively encourages children to jump all over everything. Giving them a welcome break from a boring shopping trip and you peace of mind that the goods are sturdy enough to take a beating from the little monsters.

All through the children's section I saw children lying in the beds, hiding in the wardrobes and rooting through boxes for toys. Anything that might have been dangerous, bunk beds for example, were made safe and secure so that the children couldn't climb up high or get stuck in anything. Be warned this section is a mad place.

I took us from 1.30 until 3.30 to make our way through the showroom section. Considering I had yet to eat that day and the baby was getting a bit fidgety we decided to take a sojourn in the café for a bite to eat and a rest.

The café offers a limited, yet quality, menu at quite reasonable prices. Fizzy pop and hot drinks get free refills. We bought two fish and chips, fish fingers and chips, three Swedish style cakes (to see that they were like) one pop and two teas. This came to a total of about £13. As an afterthought my sister bought some baby food, only to be told it would have been free had we bought it at the same time as the meal. There was a small section with a microwave, kettle, bowls, spoons and bibs where baby things could be prepared.

Although I don't partake of the filthy habit my mum and sister do, so we sat in the smoking ar
ea. Which was u
nusually clean
and didn't
stink of smoke.

After a bit of a rest we headed downstairs to the market place and got ourselves a trolley. This is where you can buy all of the accessories, textiles and lighting you saw in the showrooms. As with a real market place it is vast, cluttered and has a hustle bustle atmosphere. Most things are easy to find, with the right bulbs for a lamp being displayed next to the lamp for example. You can even buy the material by the metre if you like the fabric but not the product.

I bought two heavy glass jars, a glass lamp (that looks like an ice cube), and five picture frames. I managed to be very restrained yet increased my mental wish list to a point where I can't remember half of what I want.

You pass through a small garden area (we bought some little cacti for my brother) and then you pass through into the warehouse.

It's a real warehouse too, none of the cosmetic trappings you might find in other places like lighting and accessories. This vast, draughty room is function personified. It reminded me of the huge warehouse facility my company has in Oxford and it really felt quite wrong without the fork lift trucks whizzing around everywhere.

This is where you pick out the furniture you decided you wanted when going through the showroom. Each aisle is marked and you wander around until you find what you want. You load it on the trolley and take to the cash desk.

There are at least twenty cash desks, express lanes for those with just a few knick-knacks and the rest of are for larger items also. The queues were quite long and there were a lot of people about but we waited only five minutes to be served, which really surprised us. All the things I bought cost me £35, which I think is really rather good. My mum and sister also bought themselves lots of useful, funky bargains. After the tills there's a little fast food area and a shop wh
ere you can buy Swed
ish food, sweets an
d wine although we w
ere too tried to have a look.

We got outside and decided we would go and have a look in the bargain basement area (where damaged or clearance stock is sold cheap) where my mum bought two roman blinds for £4. We found though that we couldn't take the trolley outside a boundary of metal railings set by the store. The gaps were wide enough for pushchairs but not trolleys' Disabled customers need to press a bell at a gate to be let out.

Instead of taking your trolley to the car you must bring your car to the trolley, and load up in the loading bay. At first I was annoyed but then I realised that you don't get the problem of lost trolleys, people walking in front of cars with them or people damaging their cars by bashing into them. If you are on your own there are metal cages that you can lock your trolley in for a refundable deposit of a pound, while you go and fetch you car.

So we loaded our car and drove away, our appetite for retail therapy satiated by five hours of shopping.
(I know, shocking isn't it?)

Yes, it is very busy. Yes it can be crowed but people tend to be polite and sitting next to someone on a sofa in a showroom can actually lead to some good conversations.

To finish off, and to give you an idea of prices, here is an extract from my wish list:

Solid pine coffee table £45
Solid pine dining table with four chairs £95
Two 140cm wide roman blinds £19 each
Two beech framed armchairs £79 each
Another ice cube lamp £14
Wooden Venetian blind £37

All in all I am rather impressed with Ikea. When the sale on my house completes I can see myself buying a large amount of my furniture here as it is such good quality for the price you pay. I am impressed by their understanding of how important it is to keep children happy when shopping and I really like the way you can visualise and test the
items in the showroom wit
hout some snotty sales a
ssistant glaring at you for lying on the beds.

Summary: