Gonch recently posted about how much he doesn't care for Ikea, and I think I understand his opinion to be that he doesn't care for the merchandise. I suppose that's a matter of taste, and that's cool. I think they have the same shit that Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn has, only for a fraction of the price, and made of cheaper materials (which is generally adequate anyway). I love my new desk and bookshelves from there. The cheap ass coffee table will be adequate as well when we get around to buying it.
Where I give credit to Ikea is not so much the look and feel of their merchandise, but rather the experience of shopping there. Think about it... you've got these giant warehouses with mass amounts of people and it looks like holiday shopping at all times. It should be the shittiest experience ever. But generally (at least for me), it's not.
There are several reasons for that. They start you off by offering cheap food (or you defer it to the mid-point in the store). Let's face it, eating makes everything better. Non-hungry, you're more likely to be content. Then they show you where to go, one aisle at a time, but never completely overwhelm you because the path prevents you from seeing too much at once. People aren't browsing and knocking into you because the big furniture boxes come at the end. The general housewares are all there being demonstrated, so you know what that light looks like when it's on, and how those curtains appear when hanging. And when you're all done, you can get some treats to go. If you hate what you got, they'll take it back, and if parts are missing, they probably have those.
They take what could be a miserable experience (i.e., going to Costco) and make it reasonable. I wouldn't consider it a tourist attraction the way some people do (and admittedly, my first experience was just that when Kara took us to the Minneapolis location), but as far as potential cluster-fuck retail goes, it's not horrible.
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