Buy a Bed, Sleep on The Floor

I used to love IKEA. Going there shopping used to be a nice way to fill a couple of hours. And I always bought something, even if I didn’t really need it. Now? Not so much. It became too noisy. Too crowded. It is summer, so if they have nowhere to go, nothing planned, the parents take their kids to IKEA. It is like a huge playground for them. The parents peruse at will, relaxed, while their kids run amok on the floors, screaming their heads off, stumbling on furniture and tripping everybody. It is a mad house.

And don’t get me started on the cafeteria The prices are good, so it is always super-packed. And dirty. And loud. And the workers there have the most bored, tired faces in the history of giving you the empty cups to make your own coffee.

We needed to buy a bed. But if you’re not young enough or fit enough you will have to look for somebody to help you lug the big pieces of furniture on your flatbed cart. Preferably an employee you will find after long minutes of walking though the labyrinth that is IKEA’s warehouse.

Then, you need to somehow push your trolley laden with the huge boxes towards the costumer’s service because you want them to be shipped to your home and assembled there. You have to wait for more than half an hour because, even if there are eight counters only two, at some point one, at some point no one is working them.

Finally, you are called at the counter where the employee is telling you that yes, we will deliver your bed in a couple of days but, the person that needs to assemble it will come in the middle on September. At first, you think you didn’t hear it right, but no, here it is. Middle of September. I mean, SERIOUSLY?

You don’t have enough staff? By God, hire some. I think you, as a big company can afford that.

What is supposed to do somebody who bought a bed until the aforementioned piece of furniture arrives? Sleep on the floor? Go to a hotel? Go to relatives? Better still, go on a vacation? Look for somebody else to put together the bed? You know how it goes with IKEA’s furniture. It is like Lego, so you need skills and imagination.

I think the long “contract” they made me sign when I bought their services should include some suggestions regarding what a client should do while waiting for the assembling of the blasted furniture.

What can I say? If one tries to buy furniture from some other shops, it is a bad experience. The furniture is ugly, expensive and not practical. So, IKEA is still the best choice. But it doesn’t mean it should be the worst scenario.