IKEA, ee-kia, ai-kia
If you’ve never been to one you’re not going to understand what it really is. It isn’t just a furniture, trinket, appliance (by Whirlpool), cutlery, food (some) store. It’s a way of life.
I’ll firstly have to admit that Ikea has enjoyed a chunk of our income.
Again, its elegant and not too costly, trinkets and furniture is very hard to resist. They average amount we plop down has always been over a hundred bucks.
Yesterday’s trip was quite a bit more. Its hard to follow the forced-path you have to take through the store without picking up that gotta-have item for $2 bucks. After all its only 2 bucks! They supply you with a special framed cart with a nylon hanging bag that just begs to be filled.
There are no Ikeas close to us. The nearest is in Canton, MI 1.75 hours away. The next closest is the huge one in Schaumburg, IL. We’ve actually stayed overnight in a hotel there to go shopping. Totalling over 8 hours roaming the store and over $700 (just for Ikea) for that occasion, I understood how much of a major company this was going to be in the US. There were 9 of them. That was a decade ago. There are now 34 of these polished, Euroistic centric living stores.
IKEA | home | IKEA, furniture, kitchens, beds, chairs, sofas, decorations