Out of interest, what is everyones perception of IKEA. Is that your first brand name thought when needing furtniture?
They have been building a new store in Coventry for about a year now. The last time I saw it was as a steel frame which was saunting enough. I just saw the near finished product today which was erm well.....
I knew IKEA stores were large blue boxes but I could not believe it when I saw it.
(http://coventrystore.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/elevation.jpg)
(http://coventrystore.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/cov-pic-nov.jpg)
Bit of an eye sore?
It has its uses but I wouldnt furnish my home from top to tail with it. :)
I quite like the architecture, its brand is instantly recognisable weither you can read the sign or not.
Quote from: EagleIt has its uses but I wouldnt furnish my home from top to tail with it. :)
Indeed. Some of the furniture is alright as its cheap and plainly styled, but actually going around the place itself is like a visit to the dentist, full of dread and pain. It destroys lives, souls, bank balances and relationships in one fell swoop.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeQuote from: EagleIt has its uses but I wouldnt furnish my home from top to tail with it. :)
Indeed. Some of the furniture is alright as its cheap and plainly styled, but actually going around the place itself is like a visit to the dentist, full of dread and pain. It destroys lives, souls, bank balances and relationships in one fell swoop.
I couldnt agree with that sentiment more, I can flick through the catalogue and think some of the stuff is okay and admittedly some is quite nice, and if youre after things like cheap drinking glasses for a party you cant do better than Ikea. But visiting the place is completely soul destroying, I dont know if its the way you are herded around or the fact that people seem quite willing to be herded around picking up bits and bobs that they clearly havent got a use for "but its so cheap!" As they go by. The next logical step would be for them to plonk customers on a one way conveyor belt from the entrance to the exit.
They do sell some scrummy food though.
Ikea makes me laugh, theres the lovely show rooms where you can see things in enviroments where they are supposed to be. Then you are turfed out at the tills. Magic ends.
Your in a warehouse, there are tills to the right and flat pack boxes to the left. What do you want to do>_
Its the ideal application of industrial design. art for the masses. it isnt meant to fellate you as you walk down pickup glasses ffs.
I have so far as I can see its all sh*t. None of this design this contempory architecture that bollocks, its broken before you get it home, and if your lucky enough to get it unbroken, you find youve got a sofa with 2 left arms and the next 2 replacements you get are also left.
(http://www.sniffpetrol.com/wp-content/uploads/spadikea.jpg)
Lovely sweeping generalisation.
IKEAs great for all the day to day stuff. I wouldnt personally buy beds or sofas there but for crap like tables and chairs its good enough when you move house all the time.
I have never set foot inside Ikea.
That will change though as I like the price of a Kitchen I need
The shops should be done up under the human rights act or something for false imprisonment. The actual products are generally ok in my experience - better than say MFI for a comparatively cheap and crappy brand.
Quote from: SteveFIKEAs great for all the day to day stuff. I wouldnt personally buy beds or sofas there but for crap like tables and chairs its good enough when you move house all the time.
Wish someone had said something earlier as I bought a Sofa bed around April time and its allready slumping down on one side... The frame was pretty cheap tho, it was just the mattress that cost the main amount of money..
They sell overpriced crap. Ive just bought a bed, dressor and table cos I had no choice :)
IKEA has cheap low quality furniture.
LoL,
Quote from: Wikipedia# When an IKEA opened in April 2000 in Emeryville, California, the traffic was so severe that traffic lights had no effect. Emeryville police were forced to manually direct traffic daily for three months.
# When an IKEA opened in Tempe, Arizona in November 2004, the traffic jams on Interstate 10 were so thorough that the Arizona Department of Public Safety had to close the nearest off-ramp to the store just to spread out the traffic among other nearby off-ramps. More than a dozen people also attempted to park their vehicles on the Interstate and hop the fence leading to the store, but were forced to return to their cars by police threatening to have them towed.
# A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors owing to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (because of the large number of customers there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February 2005 with no additional incident.
Quote from: SamThey sell overpriced crap. Ive just bought a bed, dressor and table cos I had no choice :)
I take it you walked past an Ikea on the way to work? :lol:
Quote from: Chris HQuote from: SamThey sell overpriced crap. Ive just bought a bed, dressor and table cos I had no choice :)
I take it you walked past an Ikea on the way to work? :lol:
Quality :D
More stuff :D
Quote# In Saudi Arabia three people were crushed to death in September 2004 when IKEA offered a limited number of free $150 vouchers.
# The IKEA store in Jeddah used to be a popular place for flirting for unmarried couples, a practice strictly forbidden by Saudi rigorous religious law. The religious police would then frequently raid the IKEA store to lecture patrons or chastise them on what is considered indecent or inappropriate behaviour.
QuoteIKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was, as a teen, directly involved in the pro-Nazi New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) until at least 1945, causing tensions when IKEA began opening stores in Israel.[27] Kamprad devotes two chapters to his time in Nysvenska Rörelsen in his book, Leading By Design: The IKEA Story and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of his life."[28]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA#Community_impact
Quote from: bear# A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors owing to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (because of the large number of customers there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February 2005 with no additional incident.
[/quote]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfZNvJnUaaQ
Quote from: Chris HQuote from: SamThey sell overpriced crap. Ive just bought a bed, dressor and table cos I had no choice :)
I take it you walked past an Ikea on the way to work? :lol:
Haha. No I was just desperate for furniture and its about the only place I can find.
Usually the stuff looks OK but in reality its all obviously recycled crap once you get to look at it properly. For what their stuff is its overpriced too.
I have never bought anything from them.
1st place i lived in when I moved to London was an ikea house. Every thing in the house was from ikea and it showed, draws and cupboards were weak and flimsy... so much broke in the time I was there (not my fault, honest) and the land lady was expecting it and just replaced in a day with no charge (must happen alot I guess?!)
Some things are alright from Ikea but definatly not good for whole house :/
Ive passed down by the Coventry store a few times and it still dont look finished, its supposed to open on the 16th. Overpriced pap that looked out of place even in the 70s.
lol - new house mate just moved in... were off to Ikea in a sec lol :D
Spoke too soon
Quote from: soopahfly(Image removed from quote.)
Where Concubines go to have an argument!
Quote from: FaT LeoNWhere Concubines go to have an argument!
People who go to Ikea dont have enough money for concubines :P
Quote from: SeriousQuote from: FaT LeoNWhere Concubines go to have an argument!
People who go to Ikea dont have enough money for concubines :P
No concubines but
Quote# The IKEA store in Jeddah used to be a popular place for flirting for unmarried couples, a practice strictly forbidden by Saudi rigorous religious law. The religious police would then frequently raid the IKEA store to lecture patrons or chastise them on what is considered indecent or inappropriate behaviour.
Quote# A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors owing to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (because of the large number of customers there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February 2005 with no additional incident.
I remember that, mate of mine got a broken arm lol
Jaimz :rock:
Quote from: SteveFlol - new house mate just moved in... were off to Ikea in a sec lol :D
Spoke too soon
and Im still f**king here!
Quote from: SteveFQuote from: SteveFlol - new house mate just moved in... were off to Ikea in a sec lol :D
Spoke too soon
and Im still f**king here!
Then nuke the place and ask for a medal from Gordon Brown :twisted:
Funnily enough I just went to ikea and bought a bed. Its missing a piece suprise. And what pisses me off is the bed was $150 but by the time youve finished buying the screws, slats, metal, holes, its $400.
Last night was unbelievable tbh - we normaly go to Milton Keynes but as Wembley is a million miles closer (and open till midnight) we went there. The place is fine but the service is crap.
queued for 20 mins in a queue to speak to a guy so he could print off a form so we could pick up a bed. Wanted a standard double bed and matress. Get to the front and the double bed out of stock but matress in. So asked for the kingsize bed which they had but they didnt have a kingsize matress. So we said ok we will swap the matress for something similar. But without a name we couldnt order it and he wouldnt let us leave the queue to look at the matress names without rejoining the line. 30 seconds later we had a different matress name and rejoined another 15 min queue.
Went to do the same thing in the sofa section but no staff on duty and about 10 people stood doing nothing. After literally 30 mins of noone turning up I lstarted playing with their computers to see if I could just do it myself and someone from another section came over. He couldnt help as was not trained up in furniture so put out a call for the member of staff who should be on duty to call back and then wandered off. The phone rang with noone to answer so nothing happened. After 45 mins (others had been their longer) noone had turned up so we started ringing customer services number in the catalogue to ask for someone to come to the desk. Eventually one of the bosses came down to try and do it and we more or less showed him how to find stuff on his system. Then he printed it out a couple of sections away and didnt know where hed sent it. Eventually someone walked the printouts to us after PA announcements.
was shocking.
The journey home/car packing was awesome tho lol. Mattresses strapped to the boot, mondeo estate filled to the brim, setee arms in the footwells and one out the window. Couldnt go above 45 on the M1/M25 because of wind resistance trying to pull things off the roof rack hehe.
The police just went past laughing :)
Still he got a bed for a couple of hundred quid whereas mine from a normal shop was over a grand. Sure itll fall to pieces after a year or two and squeak like mad under general use but you cant knock those prices!
haha, they were probably political science/language students manning that desk.
btw doing ikea drunk in belgium is hilarious.
Quote from: SteveFLast night was unbelievable tbh - we normaly go to Milton Keynes but as Wembley is a million miles closer (and open till midnight) we went there. The place is fine but the service is crap.
queued for 20 mins in a queue to speak to a guy so he could print off a form so we could pick up a bed. Wanted a standard double bed and matress. Get to the front and the double bed out of stock but matress in. So asked for the kingsize bed which they had but they didnt have a kingsize matress. So we said ok we will swap the matress for something similar. But without a name we couldnt order it and he wouldnt let us leave the queue to look at the matress names without rejoining the line. 30 seconds later we had a different matress name and rejoined another 15 min queue.
Went to do the same thing in the sofa section but no staff on duty and about 10 people stood doing nothing. After literally 30 mins of noone turning up I lstarted playing with their computers to see if I could just do it myself and someone from another section came over. He couldnt help as was not trained up in furniture so put out a call for the member of staff who should be on duty to call back and then wandered off. The phone rang with noone to answer so nothing happened. After 45 mins (others had been their longer) noone had turned up so we started ringing customer services number in the catalogue to ask for someone to come to the desk. Eventually one of the bosses came down to try and do it and we more or less showed him how to find stuff on his system. Then he printed it out a couple of sections away and didnt know where hed sent it. Eventually someone walked the printouts to us after PA announcements.
was shocking.
The journey home/car packing was awesome tho lol. Mattresses strapped to the boot, mondeo estate filled to the brim, setee arms in the footwells and one out the window. Couldnt go above 45 on the M1/M25 because of wind resistance trying to pull things off the roof rack hehe.
The police just went past laughing :)
Still he got a bed for a couple of hundred quid whereas mine from a normal shop was over a grand. Sure itll fall to pieces after a year or two and squeak like mad under general use but you cant knock those prices!
I would have walked out after 20mins.
I bought my bed for £200 (frame only), drove 100miles to collect it & was home in less time that all that took by the sounds of it.
Also, Ikea Beds & Mattresses aint standard size. so you cant buy one without buying the other.
Yeah mate who was buying the stuff was well pissed off. I just took off my shoes, sat on a bed nearby and watched a 45 min episode of house on my phone lol :D
It was shocking tho. Never going to the Wembley IKEA again.
Quote from: SteveFNever going to the Wembley IKEA again.
Maybe you should have gone to the one in Edmonton.
The first Ikea over here opens on Thursday. Originally it was supposed to be down south but their zoning laws didnt allow for a big enough building to be constructed, so instead we get it in the North just outside Belfast.
Need to try and avoid the area that day and probably through the weekend.
Quote from: BigSoyThe shops should be done up under the human rights act or something for false imprisonment.
LOL so true. Weve had another furniture place open, right next to Ikea in Gateshead called ILVA which does the same. Keeps you wandering around for ages to get out.
Quote from: SteveFStill he got a bed for a couple of hundred quid whereas mine from a normal shop was over a grand. Sure itll fall to pieces after a year or two and squeak like mad under general use but you cant knock those prices!
Ive got a hand made bed frame from a shop in Byker. Then got a pocketed spring mattress to fit. Total cost was about £400 ten years ago. The bed frame still looks nearly new and is extremely solidly built. Mattress is just about up for renewal though. If can be used flat like a standard bed or the head can be adjusted up by eight inches into the position I normally sleep in. I just went into the shop and asked, two weeks later it arrived at the door - delivered by the man who made it.
Dont know if hes still working there now but the frame will outlast me by a good bit if I give it adequate TLC.