"You don't know anything about customer service!"

[PaRaGaS]

Everyone was saying that someone should have been videotaping the whole thing.

http://www.arbiter.pl/galeria/mediamarkt2003
http://www.arbiter.pl/galeria/MediaMarkt

Local Media Markts had some apparently killer sales a few times.
Almost every ended with total trashing of the stores and bloodshed among customers.

[myswtghst]

IKEA restaurants even serve Swedish food, from what I could tell.

I don't know about other restaurants at other locations, but ours blows.[...]On paper it sounds good, but in reality it's worse than cheap, garbage pub food from the cheapest, garbage-iest pub in town.

It is somewhat Swedish - my Dutch mother loves the Swedish meatballs. Myself, I get the kids grilled cheese with french fries. And the desserts are pretty good.

As I said up-thread, most of the furniture in my apartment is from there. However, it was mostly bought with the express purpose of being cheap furniture to last me through college and my first job. It makes the apartment livable, and things are surprisingly versatile (my daybed from college is now my couch, with the addition of a lot of pillows).

My kitchen table, however, is a beautiful oak table, purchased used at a local markdown-type store. That will last a while.

[rerant]

When the Canadian dollar was low and the US dollar was high, I suppose someone might have driven from Jersey to take advantage of the exchange.

Rerant probably doesn't see a whole lot of that now that the dollars are on par.

Some woman came through my lane with four carts of furniture totaling a little over $4,000 and she paid in all US cash.
She said she drove hours to get to our store and went through hell at the border. Yet strangely she arranged for delivery within my city.

We still get a LOT of American tourists in our store. Why just today I had five girls from Buffalo buying a bunch of stuff.
They didn't say they were from Buffalo, but as soon as they started to speak I knew.

[PhotoChick]

i want an ikea in albuquerque, there's one by my parents so I bought a bed and various other little things before i moved. But I still need some living room furniture and I don't really want to drive to utah.

[Primer]

Ikea opened up in Round Rock, Texas not too long ago. I have yet to darken their doors.
1. I live about 90 minutes away.
1.a. the last 20 minutes would be from less than 1 block away from the store. Traffic in RR is worse than the pits.
2. wait, there is no 2.

Some day, if I'm in the area anyway, and have nothing better to do, I may go in just to have a look, but there is no compelling reason for me to go sit in traffic. I don't even like driving in to the local Wally World or HEB (grocery) unless I have to.

[crazylegs]

Primer,

Be very, very careful when visiting an Ikea store. They are incredibly clever at store design. The main run takes you though all the areas. The cut thoughs to get you out quicker are always behind you.

[Pagan]

PhotoChick:

Have you tried Cost Plus World Market? They have some really nice stuff. That's where my nice, comfy papasan chair came from. And they have reasonable prices. Which is really dangerous now that the new one is less than a mile away from me.

It's all Swedish design, which to me looks minimalist, for lack of a better term.

Which probably explains why we don't have one. We're still mostly Spanish Colonial/Pueblo Revival architecture with interiors to match. The closest IKEA is in Tempe, AZ....300 miles away.

BTW, that has got to be the butt-ugliest table and chair set I've ever seen.

[Peppergirl]

There's one opening up in Cincinnati next month.

I've marked the grand opening on my calendar only so that I can AVOID the general vicinity of the store.

I like some of their accessories, but not the furniture itself. And I'm so afraid I'd turn into a raging ASS-BEAST if I went there, because the place seems to attract them.

[Boozy]

Be very, very careful when visiting an Ikea store. They are incredibly clever at store design.

You aren't kidding. The last time I was at an Ikea (I'm pretty sure it was rerant's store) I got trapped. I was circling and circling and circling trying to find an exit.

I finally had to ask someone how to get the hell out.

[edible_hat]

You aren't kidding. The last time I was at an Ikea (I'm pretty sure it was rerant's store) I got trapped. I was circling and circling and circling trying to find an exit.

I finally had to ask someone how to get the hell out.

and they answered "I don't know, I live here now."

[Banthor the Unruly]

Now this is a lession I had to learn myself as a register monkey to avoid SC situations. Some times you need to lie to the customer or at least tell them no more than they absolutely need to know. Don't tell them you are in the middle of another customer, tell them you are still waiting for the manager or simply that you will be with them shortly.

For my fellow northern mid-westerners I would also point out there is also a Ikea in Minneapolis. It is one of the smaller two-story mazes instead of the three story circular mazes, but it is pretty nice.

And yes for some reason Ikea seems to attract the worst of the middle class. The last time I went to the one in Schaumburg I was nearly driven off the road by a crazy bitch who was tiring to merge in to us AFTER DRIVING 15 MILES ON THE SHOULDER!!

[PhotoChick]

PhotoChick:

Have you tried Cost Plus World Market? They have some really nice stuff. That's where my nice, comfy papasan chair came from. And they have reasonable prices. Which is really dangerous now that the new one is less than a mile away from me.

I love World Market! I didn't know there was one in Albuquerque. *Goes off to plan a trip to ABQ to buy cheap furniture*

[Pagan]

I love World Market! I didn't know there was one in Albuquerque. *Goes off to plan a trip to ABQ to buy cheap furniture*

Yeah, there's 2 as a matter of fact. The older one is over on Menaul just west of Carlisle*. The other one is over on the West Side near the Coors & Alameda intersection (it's on the Cost Plus website, don't use MapQuest to find it, it's wrong). It's next to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and near a Lowe's, you can't really miss it. There's also one in Santa Fe at 550 Montezuma.

*There's also a really neat Celtic store called "Bally Dun Celtic Treasures" a little farther up Menaul, east of Carlisle. http://www.ballydun.com/info.html