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Original poster

Have you been to Ikea on your own ...

72 replies

GoldenFlaps · 16/02/2019 16:42

... and if you bought stuff that you couldn't just carry to the car, who looked after your trolley while you went for your car? Or do you just leave it and hope for the best that no-one buggers off with your stuff?

OP posts:

33goingon64 · 16/02/2019 18:58

You can request someone to help you get stuff to your car. Ask at the till and they call someone. I love going to Ikea alone!!

Trills · 16/02/2019 19:01

I love to walk around all the tiny pretend flats on my own

EmpressAdultHumanFemale · 16/02/2019 19:01

I not only go to Ikea alone, I don’t drive & I loathe the warehouse with a passion. I visit, decide what I want, then go home & order online.

Kpo58 · 16/02/2019 19:03

I got to IKEA on my own and I don't even drive I take the tram there instead.

bookmum08 · 16/02/2019 19:09

I don't have a car so I took the tram there. Got some nice helpful members of staff to help me pile my bed, sofa, mattress and other bits onto the trolley. One then wheeled it to the till (as I could barely move the trolley) and then he wheeled the trolley to the home delivery section. All delivered the next day.

Asta19 · 16/02/2019 19:15

If you go to Ikea alone how do you ever find your way out? It’s always taken at least two of us to find the bloody exit
In fact that’s why I don’t go to Ikea any more. I don’t like the trapped feeling I get when I’m there!

thenewaveragebear1983 · 16/02/2019 19:24

I literally Can't imagine anything I'd like to do more than go to ikea on my own. Sounds blissful! Dh doesn't have a browsing gene and doesn't eat meatballs.

Invisimamma · 16/02/2019 19:28

Our IKEA has trolley lockers, so you can lock up your stuff while you collect your car.

ohcarriemathison · 16/02/2019 19:33

I've put my trolley in a little cage thing that I had to pay a £1 to lock. Then brought my car down then loaded up the boot.
Must admit when I first walked out and realised I was a bit stuck did think I hadn't thought it through very well.

Fooferella · 16/02/2019 19:33

I wouldn't take dh with me if you paid me. Healso doesn't have the browsing gene. I just leave the trolley by the door and hope for the best when I go get my car.

GummyGoddess · 16/02/2019 19:36

So if the car comes to the trolley could you ask a member of staff to stand next to the trolley while you get the car?

Although mine did allow trolley to go to car it was still a challenge getting an entire Pax double wardrobe with inserts into a tiny Citroen. I had to remove stuff from boxes to get it to fit as well as lift it alone. I would say it was less stressful than doing it with a partner though.

oldsewandsew · 16/02/2019 19:39

Ooh, I didn’t know you couldn’t take the trolley to your car in some of them! All the ones I’ve been to you have been able to. I love going on my own, and often buy big, heavy things. The only thing I hate is when other customers offer to help load my car, because I’m a grump, and prefer to do it on my own!

Iggi999 · 16/02/2019 19:42

Options:

trolley lockers
leave it next to someone working in the customer services bit - they are used to it.
get as far as the shop side of the till. Leave trolley and go out and move your car to the collection bit. Run back in and pay and go out.

I love these threads as no one who has a bollard-free ikea can understand what the problem is. What I want to know is, how did ikea decide which cities required bollard?

Newsername · 16/02/2019 19:46

I went to ikea for the first time after 15 years or so. Dh and me kept going opposite the arrows on the floor and kept bumping into swarms of people coming the other way. I think we were being given weird looks too for not going the right way, but what are you supposed to do if you forget something and need to go back?

We took our trolley to the car too in Wembley so I could go on my own, but whether I’ll need to go in the next 15 years is another story.

UselessTrees · 16/02/2019 19:49

Probably depends on the car park layout and whether it's safe to let the public go wheeling trolleys about. Croydon has underground and raised sections and you just know some idiot would try getting a heavily-laden trolley up or down the ramps and kill somebody.

BarbaraofSevillle · 16/02/2019 20:03

I got to IKEA on my own and I don't even drive I take the tram there instead

I live just about close enough to Ikea to walk there and I sometimes do, maybe just to go for lunch or dinner and have a look round. Obviously I can't buy anything heavy, but once I got a bit carried away, bought more than would fit in my rucksack and had to phone DP to come and pick me and all the bits and pieces I'd bought up.

BibbityBobbityEars · 16/02/2019 20:54

Ours has one member of staff outside who will keep an eye on your stuff while you get your car. The lockers have been taken out of action and you can’t take your trolley to the cars, only bring cars to the loading area.

IKEA is so much better on your own imo.

ShaggyRug · 16/02/2019 20:56

@Soontobe60 Warrington is my local Ikea and I always take my trolley to the car. Never been stopped. I was there this week and did it along with many others as it was rammed busy.

bookmum08 · 16/02/2019 21:32

I am always amused by someone attempting to drag a Billy Bookcase onto the tram at Croydon.
I got a bit lost in the Croydon one car park recently trying to find the pedestrian exit to the bus stop because I wanted to go round to Asda. I may have come in that way but could I ruddy find it again?

CottonSock · 16/02/2019 21:35

How odd. In Cardiff you take trolley to car. I feel like I'm not getting something about why this is not possible

Muddysnowdrop · 16/02/2019 21:45

Fucking big bollards, closer together than the width of a trolley is why.
I sense there are mumsnetters in free-access Ikea areas secretly judging the stupidity of other mumsnetters. WE HAVE NO CHOICE!

BarbaraofSevillle · 16/02/2019 21:57

Leeds IKEA bollards used to be narrow but they made them wider so you could take your trolley to the car.

I think they got fed up with people using the pick up area as a car park and disappearing into the shop for ages. There used to be lots of announcements instructing people to go move their cars.

UnleashTheBulsara · 16/02/2019 22:49

@Soontobe60 Warrington is my local Ikea and I always take my trolley to the car.

This is true, we've always taken our stuff straight to the car at Warrington. You must be thinking of a different store. You are lucky in having more than one near you.

I love going to IKEA, it's like a day out!

(It's not just the meatballs, it's that sauce that goes on them. It's sublime)

NashvilleQueen · 16/02/2019 22:55

I used to go to the Warrington one and that had bollards so you couldn’t take the trolley to the car park. It’s a really silly design. Happily the Manchester one isn’t like that and it’s closer anyway so am sorted. I had assumed they would have done away with the bollards by now.

NashvilleQueen · 16/02/2019 22:55

Ah. Maybe it has now at Warrington.

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