To hate the ikea shopping "experience?"

[toptramp]

Went to Ikea today to get the trofast storage system as have decided it's probably the best storage system for me.

Havn't been for years and I can see why; horrid aircraft hanger -like store and hellish carpark. Piles of tacky shite piled high. I mean- how mant tea light holders does one need? Hardly any staff to help. I know it's self serve but I would like to be attended to. Staff were helpful when asked and when found. Then the awful self serve bit downstairs where one has to grab piles of flat pack shite oneself.

I hate most of the furniture. I like some of it but most of it is a bit tacky. I'm more of a Laura Ashley girl myself (althought tbh it's far too expensive and I like a bit of modern mixed with my shabby shite chic)

I like what I bought; trofast very useful storage, wine glasses and ultra cheap salad bowl but god I don't ever want to go back unless I'm desperate. I just wish they'd do more home delivery. It's so cheap as customer service is minimal.

Give me my local trading post (lovely second hand style curiosity shop) anyway.

Arf@ViviPrudolf . I have my Pokal glass resting on the Lack side table. TV is rotten. Shall I pick a DVD from the Benno or something to read from the Billy?

redpanda based on the evidence you present, I will be very shocked if there is not a Not somewhere in your home, if not now, then once upon a time. DP and I are keeping ours from student days as a design icon. I estimate that 67% of UK homes have one. If not more.

FYI my Billys are limited edition charcoal grey and house the CDs.

I must confess that I did have one of them back in my student flat days. I got it after the paper shade lamp got slashed by the cats. In those days we had to hire a van and drive to Edinburgh for an Ikea fix.

I love ikea, we had one of the first Ikeas in the UK near us, bliss. It was a brill way of testing out blokes, in the old days they didn't have the escape routes that they have now, where you can cut through to miss bits out, they made you walk round the whole thing even the elctrical, and rug bit. A good lovely, kind patient man would just about get round before falling to his knees and begging to escape at the market place , a nasty potential wide beater of a man would go mad and sarcastic at kitchenware on the 1 st floor. Many a man was discarded due to failing the ikea test. How the women of today to sort the wheat from the chaff now i do not know???

I have been to IKEA once and will never go again.
Although the hotdog and coffee was nice on the way out :)

My biggest tip - is to make an online list of everything you want and then when you print it out you have to select your local store. It then comes up with a list of all your items and the stock location for them. Print off list and head straight for the self service area. Also, get to know all the shortcuts.

Never been to Ikea - never want to either. Dh went once, and managed to get himself lost

Makes mental note to use methdrinker's test!

I live 10 minutes from an Ikea outside the UK. It has free soft play for my kids while I wander round buying more candles, is rarely busy, offers great meatballs for all of us for lunch and for a small cost, they will deliver and assemble items - what's not to like?

I like the cheap and functional nature of Ikea furniture, and also quite enjoy putting it together, but I absolutely hate shopping there. The only way to do it is to arrive first thing having already identified what you want and get in and get out as quickly as possible. I have never understood how anyone could consider it a good venue for a day out. But this may be because my first experience of Ikea was when my best friend from university asked us to help him move to his first home but neglected to say that we would be going via Ikea. It was a bank holiday and he bought a lot of furniture which we then had to battle through the hordes to get out of the shop. Much bruised shins later an dh vowed he would never go there again!

Kladdkaka - Ikea in Sweden used to deliver, don't know if it does now? I bought a load of furniture online, didn't have to pay for it as no Swedish credit card, so they sent me an invoice to pay over the counter at the post office, very nice.

easterbunnies is right - the website will nearly always tell you which aisle location to go to for your bigger item, so no need to suffer round the whole shop, just go straight to where you need to be.

I know it's self serve but I would like to be attended to.

But it's self-serve. That means you don't get attended to.

My husband works at IKEA, he knows the location of everything and we get a discount. It's also obviously very close to home, Tuesday 9am visit is best!

You know how some people go on holiday and only eat "English food" or McDonald's? We met an American man in our dutch IKEA last year who travels the ikeas of the world. For fun.

YANBU- I have got lost in IKEA twice, the second time was late in the evening and I thought I would never get out- I actually started having a panic attack at the thought of the rest of my life trapped in a large yellow warehouse. I have vowed Never, Never again. I would rather pay the extra and get stuff elsewhere. However, I love the new IKEA advert, 'in the kitchen at parties' I swear that Jonah Lewie has a cameo in it.

Where else can you eat meatballs for lunch then an hour later have a hot dog, ice cream and a coke all for about a pound then eat mini dime bars all the way home

I like ikea minus taking my own kids

Though wish someone else would come assemble stuff us to tricky now if big items

IKEA is great! My dc love it. A play in the creche thing, cheap lunch, great loos, look at kids section, quick shop, play outside. Fantastic!

Ikea is best done as a solo trip.

That was almost impossible when you couldn't take trolleys into the main car park but had to leave your trolley unattended whilst you drove the car round to the loading area.

Now i go midweek, drink coffee, eat pastries, and yes! scoff mini daim bars all the way home. Sometimes I don't even buy anything for the house.

I LOVE Ikea. we went on the first day of the sales (I'm hardcore, me). the prices are terrific, with 100 tealight candles for £2(!) I love assembling flatpack furniture and the food in the canteen is great. We had lunch with DD enthusiastically eating meatballs rather than announcing "I no like it" and wanting to run off and play. Bliss.

And we are now sorted for all our herring needs for some time.

You might have to pick your store though. Lakeside is great. I've found Croydon and Wembly to be a bit of a trial.

There may not be many staff in IKEA but the ones they do have are fab. DS (3) fell and bumped his head in the cafe (his own fault!) and a lovely lady rushed over to ask if we needed help. I said no thanks, but when she saw he'd bumped himself she ran off and got one of their organic squeezy drinks that had been in an extra cold chiller for him to put on his head. DS was very impressed too - when he got to drink the squeezy drink.

We live 10 mins from one so do go as a rainy day outing - we don't go round the whole place via the arrows though (as that does freak me out) just take the 'magic stairs' up to the kids bit, DS plays and tests the beds, we eat lunch and leave via the 'magic slope' - its DS' idea of heaven! If we want to buy anything we go through the tills the wrong way, pick up whatever we want from the warehouse and queue again. :)

I heart IKEA.
Go when it is opening in the morning. Park in the parent and child. Stick big child in creche. Take baby in buggy. Browse and buy bits and pieces.
Top day out.

Arf @ the idea of Ikea as a platform for bloke-testing, methsdrinker. How about this then - after I endued the pre-Xmas annual in-law enduro-visit, on the way back north as my bloodpressure was starting to resumed its normal rate, DP said he would treat me to a trip to Ikea. I bought a Flokati.

AlpinePony Which IKEA does your DH work at? Just curious because I'm at the Croydon one.

I love Ikea. All sorts of random crap that you never knew you needed till you saw it. A child friendly cafe with food you would never normally eat. A little play area in the middle of said cafe. And space for DS to be indulged in his love of going 'really, really fast' in a trolley.

I love Ikea.
It is best to go in the evening when it's quiet. And probably best without your DH/DP to avoid public domestics so you can by yet more soft furnishings, kitchenalia and all the other little bits that you didn't know you really needed.

I don't hate it; i hate the experience of shopping there. I do like a bit of minimalism.