Why is IKEA so popular?

[azgal81]

Ikea is awesome!

 

[Robinrs]

My sister asked the same question to her daughter when she visited her in San Francisco... until she was dragged there.

She said she sat in traffic for 2 hours to get to a store that they spent THE DAY IN. She called it the Disneyworld of stores!

When it came to Atlanta we went the first day. It was an experience. LOVE that juice and the $1.00 breakfast... yum!!

We have quite a few things from there but PREFER buying Ikea stuff off of Craigslist. Why? Because it's already PUT TOGETHER!!!

 

[Kathi OD]

We've bought several things from IKEA. Most were little things like a lamp and dish towels - good buys for sure. But we also spent quite a bit for a PAX/KOMPLEMENT custom wardrobe. It was EXPENSIVE as can be and fell apart within 2 years! Never again.

 

[aprilgail2]

I often go just to buy European food, and bypass the furniture entirely

That would be the only reason to go- the furniture is dorm room quality at its best. The other things like towels, and kitchen gadgets are ok but the furniture

 

[Dismom+two]

I do not have an Ikea right around me...there is one about an hour or more away. I have never been...I'm just hoping they open one up closer to me! **

**note...we need a praying smilie...

 

[dodukes]

OP yeah you must be in sunrise. I am in miami and my friend has been waiting for this stor to open for the longest time!..lol. I almost wanted to go line up, suposedly they are going to give a chair to teh first 100 people and a gift certificate to the fiirst 2500, or so i thought i read online. Anyway we are not, for obvisou reasons, well like the people camped out since MONDAY!!>.lol theres is no way im camping for a chair, a flat screen maybe..lol.

We too are excited about it and cant wait to go cehck it out.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The store has many inexpensive things..MUCH better than walmart could ever be.

You can put your kids in a play area to be babysat by IKEA staff to go shopping (though only for an hour at the Ikea's I have gone too).

They have play spots throughout the store for kids...a fun toy/kid furniture dept.

A snackbar with tasty inexpensive snacks and meals (though as with any "fast food"...probably not too healthy).

It is a mecca of fun!

Also--with locations far and far a part...when folks finally get one in their area...they go crazy.

I on the other hand will wit for the hoopla to die down before I go. Camping out is INSANE!

Is this Orlando, by chance?

 

[mickeyfan2]

They have some very interesting styles that are very sleek and hip. The quality is crap.

 

[mickeysgal]

It's the meatballs.

I had to laugh here. The swedish meatballs are the only thing I like about Ikea.

I'm know I'm in the minority, but I couldn't stand the place. Its just not my style. The furniture quality isn't good by any stretch. The scale of the furniture was on the small side. It reminded me of dorm/furnished apartment quality. Give me Thomasville furniture any day.

But the meatballs were great. I loved those!

 

[DMickey28]

I've never been to an IKEA because they don't have a store where I live. I knew it was popular, but never paid much attention.

Tommorrow there's an IKEA opening not far from where I live and there are news reports, and people camping out for the opening! I've never seen such thing for a furniture store.....or any store that I can remember.

Why the hoopla?

Ours is opening today as well. Who knows when I'll get over there. We have one piece of furniture from there that we love. It's a solid wood tall dresser. We have been waiting for this one to open so that we can get some of the matching pieces. Well I went online not long ago and it appears that they no longer make the piece in the natural wood color that we have, only white and black now!! Great!

I haven't been there in a while but I really like them for cheap kitchen items, rugs, pictures, frames and things like that.

ETA: Yup I am in Coral Springs and it's the one in Sunrise. I still haven't figured out where it is!!! I was down at Sawgrass the last few days and saw the electronic signs saying it opens today. Good thing I went there yesterday, but I do have to go back to return something tomorrow. Hopefully the traffic won't be too awful in the general area. I might go some weekday in a month or so. I don't NEED anything though, so it's just an excuse to spend money.

 

[Laura]

They're building one a couple of hours away from us. I've visited the website and know exactly where I'll get all my kid's furniture! You know, when I actually get around to having a kid. They have cribs for something like $80! And I love the fact that lots of the furniture is modern--totally my style.

We have a really nice Amish furniture store just about 15 minutes away so that's where I want to get most of the stuff we'll get in the future. That stuff's built to last and it's cheap! We got an oak dining table and 4 chairs for less than $1800, and we could have it practially custom-made, choosing the edge of the table and the finish, etc.

But I'm sure we'll be buying lots of things from IKEA when the new one opens; the Amish furniture store has lots of traditional styles, which I'm not fond of. Plus IKEA has tons of other household items that I would buy.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We have a really nice Amish furniture store just about 15 minutes away so that's where I want to get most of the stuff we'll get in the future. That stuff's built to last and it's cheap! We got an oak dining table and 4 chairs for less than $1800, and we could have it practially custom-made, choosing the edge of the table and the finish, etc.

...the Amish furniture store has lots of traditional styles, which I'm not fond of. Plus IKEA has tons of other household items that I would buy.

We have almost all Amish furniture in our home. We have had them build from photos from magazines that we saw, altered the floor design to our liking and custom built (via drawings the man made) to our description. I am not a traditional furniture person. Ours is more modern and clean lines. The DR table top that we liked had the claw foot bottom. I don't like that so I described how I wanted the base made and it arrived exactly as I wanted.

Maybe your store won't do this for you, but the ones around here do and I also go right to the craftsman's (and many are women) shop and work with them in person.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

I have never seen one...is it like a super target??

 

[luvmyboys]

I have never seen one...is it like a super target??

No... there's no clothing, no cleaning supplies, pet food. Furniture, housewares, lots of storage & home organization stuff. Linens, plants, rugs...

Really, the style and atmosphere can't be compared to anything else here. I was actually there yesterday, got a cinnamon roll and wandered around looking at all the display "rooms."

We get a lot of storage furniture there-- have the Billy bookcases and the children's toy storage units. They really have held up well.

 

[TnTsParty]

We were just talking here at work about how crazy it is that people have been sitting outside the store for so long waiting for it to open. I think it will be much better to wait awhile and then go check it out - let the crowd and excitement die down.

Good to know about the Daim bars. I had one for the first time last week. My company is a Swedish company so we have many people here that are Swedish as our boss is and she just came back from Sweden and brought my co-worker a whole bunch of them and she shared with me - she didn't think I would like it but I loved it (I love toffee!!)

I noticed that you can get them at Epcot.

 

[Mono~rail]

We go to the one in Houston, and we think it is great. We love to spend half the day just looking around, and the chicken marsala in the cafeteria is awesome! We've never bought any of the furniture though.

DD14 wants one of the metal double size loft beds. They are only about $200. Dh keeps worrying about the quality of the furniture so we haven't bought one yet.

 

[Laura]

We have almost all Amish furniture in our home. We have had them build from photos from magazines that we saw, altered the floor design to our liking and custom built (via drawings the man made) to our description. I am not a traditional furniture person. Ours is more modern and clean lines. The DR table top that we liked had the claw foot bottom. I don't like that so I described how I wanted the base made and it arrived exactly as I wanted.

Maybe your store won't do this for you, but the ones around here do and I also go right to the craftsman's (and many are women) shop and work with them in person.

We've tried making requests and they never get back to us about them. But lots of what they have ready to order is a style I like, such as Mission or Craftsman or just simple modern stuff. It's kind of half-and-half.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

We were just talking here at work about how crazy it is that people have been sitting outside the store for so long waiting for it to open. I think it will be much better to wait awhile and then go check it out - let the crowd and excitement die down.

*cough, cough*
Don't you feel sick?? Wanna carpool to the Ikea Hospital???