Who's been to Ikea recently?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I have a question for those very in tune with their senses.

I work there so get the full deal everytime I have the misfortune of wandering through Showrooms.

Yes there are ambient smells and noises in the roomsets (or there should be - I haven't been to all the stores so if some random store isn't then that's their look-out!) Newer stores will absolutely have it. Markethall just smells like desperation and frustration until you get to candles in Home Dec.

No smells in ours but fake birds chirping and fireplace crackling.

I am very sensitive to whether my ikea smells as I used to go there a lot when I had morning sickness as we moved house wgen I was 4 months pregnant.

The shower set up smelled amaaazing.

Yes!
Glasgow have had them for months. They smell disgusting and fake 😝

My last Ikea visit put me off completely - horrendous queues for the cafe, and it took so long to find our way out of the showrooms that our toddler had a full on meltdown and we couldn't actually buy the things we needed. Which meant we then had to pay for parking.

Ooh we are going to the Ashton under Lyne one on Sunday, so I will keep my nose peeled!

Was in Croydon one on Monday, yeah I know, mad! All I could smell was stress! And I have sensory issues so am sure I would have noticed.

They definitely do this...this is the room with the fake wood fire smell, it was vile. This is the new Sheffield store by the way. (Only have a photo because dd has decided it's her favourite place in the entire world and insisted on posing in every fake room!)

@Clarabel41 your daughter has good taste! That’s my favourite room too but dh is not convinced ,yet, of the dark paint.
Going to have to go to Sheffield soon to see what the smells are like.

@playinthedarkness Hope you convince him, it is a lovely room (weird smell aside), very cosy

Yes yes yes! I was at the Sheffield store yesterday and remarked to the hubby about this!

Is that what it is?! There was a god awful smell of artificial coffee and cinnamon in the Cardiff one recently. It was dreadful and we couldn’t work out where it had come from!

Yes they definitely started doing this recently in ours. Noticed it last time we visited.

I like the idea in theory. I've been to museums where they used a similar thing to help you feel like you were really there. Jorvik centre in York smells like bacon and woodsmoke when you go through the settlement set. Also went to the Palladium to see the Wizard of Oz and during the poppy sleep scene you could smell a kind of floral scent. It works really well when done subtly.

In practice though, I'm very sensitive to smells and on top of the bright lighting, noise, lots of walking etc, it would make me ill. Suppose ikea is already not very sensory processing friendly anyway. Huge, brightly lit, noisy, busy etc. But smells are extra difficult to deal with for a lot of people. Not that deep, I know, but it will bother a lot of people.

Clara I like that room too. You have to sit in them and pretend they're your own little bijou flat. It's the rules.

Jeez that was a bit long. 😬🙄 Basically I like the idea but it'd give me a cracking migraine.

I'm meant to be going imminently with DD2 and a mahoosive List for university. I can't cope with squirty air fresheners, is this the same sort of stuff?

I was there late Bank Holiday Monday so the only thing I could smell was desperation, despair and depression

Just back from IKEA and came on here to ask the exact same question.