The Ikea Experience

Advantages: it's cheap - dare I say, it's fun?
Disadvantages: the crowds and therefore the queues.

..., lighting, home organization. Most of the areas have room sets, to illustrate how the furniture, etc, could look. Ikea are happy for you to sit on all the chairs and bounce on all the beds, should you wish too! Dotted around the store are blue information points where you can find staff if you need to ask a question. Here you can take advantage of their kitchen and office planning service (if you haven't already done it on line), or arrange for your kitchen to be installed (at extra cost). When we bought fitted wardrobes, they showed us a plan of each piece on the computer and made suggestions as to which shelves, baskets etc we might want inside. They also made sure we got all the pieces we needed, as the wardrobes didn't come as a complete unit, you had to order the sides and the doors as separate items. SHOPPING If the item you...

Madge11 08.10.2006 · Read review
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Love it or Hate it, Ikea has the Globe by Storm

Advantages: reasonable prices, with varying ranges, ethical in principles and application
Disadvantages: the textiles are very Nordic centric, and store set up puts off many

..., who absolutely loathes shopping at the best of times. On the other side of the coin you have people like me. I LOVE the Ikea shopping experience. I am the sort of person who if she goes to a shopping centre, will spend literally all day browsing the various shops, comparing prices, window shopping, having lunch, and then going back to the first 5 shops and purchasing 1-2 items from each of them. At the end of it, I feel exhilarated. I will have seen everything there was to see, and then served myself by getting the best bargain, and had a day out to boot! I know lots of women like me who are like this, and even a few blokes. Strangely enough, they too are big Ikea fans, and so it usually with one or the other that I flit off for the "Ikea run". The appeal to such shoppers as myself is that it is like a large department store and you...

Shroud 30.04.2008 · Read review
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IKEA PAX wardrobe shopping trip

Advantages: Cheap and very practical!
Disadvantages: Not very good finish; takes a lot of time!

...We went to the IKEA near Wembley to buy a PAX wardrobe. We already knew what we wanted since you can look through the catalogue confortably at home. Arrived to the store on Sunday around 14:00. Directions provided by telephone from the IKEA customer service were good and easy to follow. The store was packed of people so maybe going early in the morning would have been a better choice! We parked in the 2nd floor of the car park and found our way into the store easily through a path nearby some current works. I found the layout of the shop a bit complicated, even though you can pick up a "map/order" form. The way is marked with arrows on the floor, but we found that if you follow them you go through areas that you might not be interested in and you can expend a lot of time going round and round. We tried to take a shortcut...

rebeca.g 06.02.2006 (07.02.2006) · Read review
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Christmas is coming, I'll shop in Ikea

Advantages: Good prices, good variety and some childcare
Disadvantages: Takes ages to get round and too far from home

...With Christmas fast approaching it seemed that it was time to get the presents I had bought and work out what else I needed to buy. I looked at what I had bought and wrapped and felt quite smug as most of my presents are bought and wrapped. On closer inspection there were a few gifts still to be bought. This morning with a fairly empty day ahead of me I decided to take a trip to what used to be my favourite shop. It must be about a year since I was last there so I got into my car and drove the 20-minute drive to Ikea. I arrived at Ikea at ten minutes to ten. The store opens at ten ‘o’ clock so if you arrive early they send you into the cafe for a free cup of tea or coffee. I can not resist a free drink! I sat down with my coffee and watched my little girl play with the toys available. By the time my coffee was...

mjbarkley 27.11.2001 · Read review
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Ikea - Dream Shopping or Personal Hell

Advantages: Cheap, good quality products using interesting designs
Disadvantages: Misleading Customer Services Telephone line, a misleading website and a store with no concept of Customer Services.

...Ikea: purveyors of Swedish chic or the kind of hell that you can only imagine in your worst nightmares. That'll be the second option for me then! A small number of you may know that about nine months ago I moved in to a small and sparsely furnished flat. Although a mattress was provided there was one small and very essential - when you're a part-time insomniac - item missing. A bed. Deciding that I didn't want to have to sell the newly acquired item of furniture at the end of the year, I decide to opt for a flat-pack bed-frame, that I should be able to dismantle and pack away. Finally, after trawling the internet and flicking through many catalogues I came across Ikea's Dalselv bed. It's the cheapest, and seemed to be pretty stylish. So, what is Ikea's homepage like? At first glance it looks pretty good, but clicking on certain...

ickkate 11.06.2003 · Read review
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IKEA

Advantages: Cheap and stylish
Disadvantages: Stressful when store is busy

...the idea of collecting your main goods at the end is very novel and saves lugging items around. You can carry large yellow bags to place the smaller handy items. Scattered around the store are tape measures, pencils and paper so any large items you select you can write it down. The best section has to be the market place - here glassess, kitchenware, candles etc are so cheap with huge choice. Parking is always good, but at Bristol it is the only shop i know where you queue for 30mins before it opens - and that is a Sunday. The restaurant is always a nice treat - nice swedish style food with very cheap prices, you can also refill you cup as well for free. There are a few downsides - when it is busy it is very difficult to move around so if you can leave the pushchair at home do so. It is also very hot in IKEA because of all the lights, so...

otherapy 23.10.2005 · Read review
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IKEA

Advantages: Stylish products at great prices
Disadvantages: No home delivery as such

...IKEA (a Swedish flat-pack furniture & home furnishings store) has now become a household name here in the UK. There aren't many stores dotted across the UK, but most of us are within driving distance of one, & they are huge stores which also include a restaurant & childrens play area, so are worthy of a day trip - there's plenty to keep the whole family occupied. If you are taking little ones, they will generally be quite happy with the trip round the store - everything is so beautifully laid out & the kids section is such a fun & vibrant area that they won't feel like they're actually being dragged round the shops. It does get busy, & even though there is a large car park, parking spaces can be difficult to find. I always try to avoid weekends & school holiday periods. The goods themselves are on the whole contemporary in style...

sambam000 08.06.2009 · Read review
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IKEA - shoppers paradise...

Advantages: Price, and contemporary style
Disadvantages: Shop locations, & delivery

...Us Northern Irish people are at a disadvantage - should we fancy a day out at Ikea we cannot simply jump into the car and head off, no sir - it all takes planning. Book the boat, book accomodation and clear the old credit card! Ive been to 2 IKEA stores Newcastle and Warrington and come April l will have enjoyed the Edinburgh Shopping Experience also. Personally l love IKEA - l love the impluse buys, the fact that furniture is soo cheap, for those starting out in their first homes IKEA is a god send. What l hate is the way we in Northern Ireland are disadvantaged - for example should l wish to purchase a suite of furniture or anything requiring deliverly, l would have to make my own delivery arrangements. There is a lucrative market in Northern Ireland, loads of available income and an up and coming market (simply look...

purdy 16.02.2001 · Read review
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I have an Ikea

Advantages: Well priced, wide range of products
Disadvantages: Not for lovers of chintz

...successfully for 30 years before they decided to expand their business outside of their homeland, with Switzerland and Germany getting the Ikea experience from the mid 1970's onwards. Not ones to try and take over the world, they waited another 10 years before looking past Europe and opening their flagship store in America, and then after that they decided to descend upon the UK, and they have never looked back, and have actually continued expanding whilst opening new stores in China and Russia. You all boarded today in a large industrial estate outside of a huge blue building with large yellow writing on the outside. I agree it is not the most picturesque of starting points, but the view will improve, I will promise you that! You will all have found spaces for your vehicles as the car parks are big enough to accomodate the largest of shopping...

nicanddarrell 04.02.2003 · Read review
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The Ikea Sunday Nightmare

Advantages: free (paper) tape measures and free pencils!
Disadvantages: the place is like feeding time at London zoo

...'t serve booze, there are no guest DJs - though on a Sunday afternoon visit the shopping experience can be likened to the squash and sweatiness of a packed-out nightclub, albeit with a very much dampened level of euphoria. I get the impression the world and his dog goes to Ikea on Sundays - surely they can't go twice a week - if your planning a visit and value your sanity, book a few hours off work and go during the week. Mistake number two: going to Ikea on Public Transport Pre-empting the possibility of parking problems, we went to Ikea by bus! Much as Mr. Prescott would approve, this was probably the biggest mistake we made. The bus service was infrequent (hourly) and the bus stop some distance from Ikea. Whilst the distance itself was not a problem, there are no pedestrian crossing points on the whole complex which is designed...

andyev 10.04.2001 (28.05.2001) · Read review
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