Slouching Towards IKEA Aug 27 '04    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line IKEA offers a lot of interesting furniture at a good prices. Shopping there may even be fun. Here's an account if my experience. 2-1/2 stars out of 5. With tremendous fanfare and media attention the IKEA Twin Cities store opened in July 2004. If you need inexpensive furniture or household supplies, IKEA is supposed to be the right place to shop. But actually getting into the store and enduring the crowds may be more than you bargained for. Getting There The store in the Twin Cities is located in a great location across from the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. The hulking blue and yellow edifice is over 330,000 square feet in size and is easily seen from the highway. And in theory it should be easy to get to. But when we visited in August 2004 there was an incredible crush of traffic entering both the mall and IKEA. It took about 15 minutes to move the last mile or so near the store. Fortunately there is a 2-story parking ramp on the premises and a dilapidated parking lot next door – where the old Met Center hockey rink once stood. We found a parking spot fairly close to the building and quickly entered the doors on the ground level. Here, stairs and escalators were awaiting our arrival and it was just a few more steps to the front doors. Entrance When we entered the building there was a children’s care center called Smĺland to the immediate right. Here, children from 27” to 54” in height can be watched while you shop provided that they are housebroken – or is it called potty trained? I don’t know what the cost was but the check-in was mobbed and the visible playroom was filled with kids. Also in this area was also a small stand with paper yardsticks, a map of the building and pencils. The back of the map is called a shopping list where you can write done notes about items that you want to purchase. At IKEA, most furniture is plucked out a self-serve warehouse near the checkout counters. When you find an item you like there is a Product Name, Aisle No., and Bin No. to record on the shopping list. The furniture is either self-assembled or you can get someone from the store to help for an additional charge. Otherwise, you will never find the item in the warehouse. There are over 10,000 items in stock (supposedly). So far I was impressed with the little ideas that might make shopping easier. My friend and I both took a shopping list and pencil, and then headed up an escalator to the Showroom on the 2nd Floor. Off to the left was a Mini Cooper with furniture stacked on its roof about 20’ high. A cute touch. Showrooms The showroom has very wide aisles and winds around like a maze through fifty “make-believe” rooms. Each room is completed outfitted with IKEA furniture, décor, home furnishing, textiles, and accessories. This gave us an idea about what the furniture would actually look like when in our homes. On each item is a tag indicating the item’s name, price, its warehouse location, and often a brief description and dimensions of the item. For instance, in a bathroom showroom was a cabinet called RAKEN that was priced at $39.99. To top it off, there were signs attached to each individual showroom that indicated how much every item in that room would costs altogether. It was usually around $1,200. Another great idea! Unfortunately, each room was often so crowded that we had a hard time seeing them very well. This was disappointing because a lot of the furniture was interesting looking and appeared to be of good quality. I’m guessing this was the “back to school crowd” since about half of the customers were about 20 years old and often had mom and dad in tow – looking for furniture for the fall semester. In the aisles and scattered around in all the showrooms were bins full of miscellaneous items such as candles, pillows, throw rugs, and knick-knacks. These seemed to be very popular since most of the bins were either half-full or empty. I had no interest in any of this stuff though. I eventually found an item that I like called Leksvik side table. I jotted down the warehouse location and we were off fighting the mobs again. My friend had decided she wasn’t going to buy anything because it was too crowded – she doesn’t like to be pushed around when shopping. For some reason crowds don’t bother me at all. Throughout the showroom we navigated through Living Rooms, Storage, Kitchens, Work Areas, Bedrooms, Bathrooms and finally the Children’s department. After about 1 hour we were half way through the store. Restaurant There’s a 300-seat eating area called IKEA Restaurant & Café. I needed a cup of coffee but the lines were so long that we moved on. I don’t know if the food is good or not but if the size of a crowd means anything, probably yes. I just hoped that my caffeine- deprived head didn’t start to throb. We both used the restrooms (clean) and were ready to see more. Marketplace From the restaurant there are both wide stairs and two huge elevators down to the lower level. We took the stairs and I noticed that they had various types of floorings on the stairs landings with prices emblazoned into the flooring. What a great way to see how well it wears! I’m not sure where you could order it though. The Marketplace was like a giant bazaar. There are shelves, racks, and bins full of merchandise. Everything here can be picked off the shelf. Smartly, they had carts and shopping totes to pick up here. The area starts with textiles, and then winds through cooking supplies, bathroom supplies, home organizers, lighting, home décor, and finally plants and baskets. I found the following items that I like in here: Espressivo lamp for $6.99 and the Burken glass pasta holder for $3.99. I’m using the lamp at this very moment! A lot of the merchandise was nice looking and of decent quality. I especially liked all the storage containers, but the area was so crowded we kept moving. Warehouse Upon exiting the Marketplace I went to get a cart just inside the warehouse area, which turned out to be a cool experience. All you do is stand in front of this rack full of carts and when you approach closely enough the next cart in the rack releases into your hands. The warehouse was clean and well lit, a nice change from the warehouses I worked in during my college years. There are rows and rows of merchandise on well-marked aisles, which is where you pick up your furniture choices. Looking for my Leksvik shelf I noticed there were assembled pieces of many, but not all, of the items that were located in each row of the warehouse. I found the bin number I was looking for but something was wrong. The item in the bin where my table was supposed to be was DOUBLE the size that I had wanted. I looked up and down the row but could not find it. In about a 10-minute time span two other people came into this area looking for their Leksvik too. Damn! We conferred with the other customers and briefly thought of going to the “help desk”. There were twelve people in line at the “help desk”, and only one worker that we could see. A lot of the people looked annoyed, even angry. Yikes! Looks like a lot of things were not going quite right in the warehouse today. Check-Out There were about 20 check-out lines and all were 6-8 people deep. Many had carts loaded with merchandise. I’ve never seen anything like this! Luckily, my friend noticed there were two express lanes (6 items or fewer) on the far right side. The checker was quick and we were out of there in 10 minutes. Near the exit doors was a small Swedish Food Market, a snack bar, and a large area where people can pull-up their cars to get their wares. These areas were all crowded so we only looked briefly. Not surprisingly (to me at least) there were people trying to stuff too much merchandise into their compact cars. I wonder how they got it all home. On a people mover near the exit area a cart loaded down with merchandise got hung-up at the end of the belt. People started to pile-up briefly but they got it unstuck – averting disaster. I later called the store and told them what I saw. Looks like an accident in the making. Impressions I liked a lot of the merchandise and the store design at IKEA. The prices seem fair and the quality at least average or above average. Much of it is very affordable for middle class consumers. They have a lot of great ideas to help customers make good decisions when buying household items – especially all the showrooms. However, the store was so crowded and the fact that the product I wanted was not in the correct warehouse location was disappointing. I plan to visit IKEA again some time –perhaps in the winter when no one is buying furniture and the store is not so crowded. Perhaps my Leksvik table will be in the correct bin by then. IKEA Twin Cities 1900 Lindau Lane Bloomington, MN 55425 (952) 858-8088 Open Daily: 10AM – 9PM Items Purchased: Espressivo Lamp $6.99 Burken Jar $3.99 Item that I could not find: Leksvik Wide Table $39.99

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