There are not too many times that I am thoroughly impressed by a department store. I spent several years of my life working retail while serving in the army national guard. Today, I walked through, or should I say was walked through a fantastic store. The reason I say walked through, is the fact that I had no choice. The store made me do it.
It was the Ikea store that made me want to buy a house again. It made me want to furnish, and modify and buy, buy, buy!
Now, what kind of s store would want to make me spend like that? One that is laid out in such a way that I am forced to see the entire store.
With a warehouse atmosphere like a Walmart and the style of interior design like a home depot expo, I traveled the path. What I really dislike but love the principal behind it is that you have to follow the path. There is no running in and running out. With the design of this store, you just gotta go with the flow. I dislike it from a run in, run out perspective, but I love it from a retail point of view. You have to travel the entire store.
The store had a ton of great kitchen, bedroom and closet ideas that made me want a house and, oh yeah, about 25k worth of spending cash. At this point, I am not 100% positive about the overall quality of the goods, but it did look damn good at a pretty reasonable price. if you have had experience with Ikea, let me know.
I happen to have spent my entire adult life working for the company ... it is nightmare retail genius, always looking for the balance between customer inconvenience and shopping thrill payoff. And people go crazy for it. It's like the allen wrenches have been dusted with cocaine.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason the Canadians joke "IKEA is Swedish for out-of-stock". The supply chain is infamously unreliable, especially for esoteric bits, so ask about availability, in person, AT THE STORE, if you're getting a lot of things at once. Sometimes the delay is just a matter of days. Sometimes many weeks. Sometimes the next time the moose sings with the swallow in the dark moonlight.
The products themselves are pretty decent. As a general rule avoid the lowest-price stuff. We once tried selling something that looked suspiciously like a shipping pallet as a "bed". But it only cost like $20! Once you take that first step up, the quality jumps to a level that actually maintains some resale value. The fewer screws, the better. BILLY, LACK, EXPEDIT, POANG, FAKTUM/AKURUM, PAX, etc ... the big families are excellent value-for-money, and usually easy to spot in the store.
Have fun!