Can somebody explain this to me?

As I understand it, Ikea... sells... furnature.

So why is it that every time a new Ikea shop opens, there's mass 
hysteria? Why do road planners have to redesign road networks to cope 
with the increased traffic volume? And why is it that every single 
weekend, the entire place is more packed out than a sardine tin?

DFS sells furnature too. But usually DFS is half empty.

Land Of Sofas sells furnature too. But few people shop there.

Actually, John Lewis has a furnature department. It's usually the most 
empty part of the shop.

And anyway, how many items of furnature does the average person buy in 
their entire lifetime? Not damn many! So *why* the hell is Ikea always 
so busy? Why is it that seemingly every day there are muggings and 
stabbings over who gets to go inside first? Why does everybody become 
crazed psychos as soon as they go near Ikea?!

I'm confused...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

> And anyway, how many items of furnature does the average person buy in 
> their entire lifetime? Not damn many!

They also sell lots of other stuff apart from big furniture.

> So *why* the hell is Ikea always so busy?

It's pretty cheap, and usually not bad quality, and the best bit is you can 
usually take the stuff home with you right there rather than having to wait 
several days (or weeks) for delivery.

> Why is it that seemingly every day there are muggings and stabbings over 
> who gets to go inside first? Why does everybody become crazed psychos as 
> soon as they go near Ikea?!

When you get your own (empty) place you'll see why :-)

BTW we learned to go during the week in the evenings, not on a Saturday! 
Have you ever seen every single check-out having a queue of 20 or 30 people? 
We just left.

Post a reply to this message

47f49415$1@news.povray.org...
> Can somebody explain this to me?
> As I understand it, Ikea... sells... furnature.

What Scott says. I didn't understand Ikea either until we bought a flat and 
had to buy furn***i***ture. Then we spent several week-ends there.
It has a high quality/prix ratio, their designs aren't tacky (unlike other 
cheap furniture shops) and lots of their stuff is modular so you can 
configure it according to your needs. They also sell lots of other (cheap, 
good) items for the house. The main issue I have with Ikea is that for a 
single type of furniture the choice can be more limited than in other shops.

G.


-- 
*****************************
http://www.oyonale.com
*****************************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray, Cinema 4D and Poser computer images
- Posters

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> They also sell lots of other stuff apart from big furniture.

True. Here at work, we have an Ikea knife.

I like it. It has a red handle, and it looks very "violent". I like 
violent things...

> It's pretty cheap, and usually not bad quality, and the best bit is you 
> can usually take the stuff home with you right there rather than having 
> to wait several days (or weeks) for delivery.

Fair enough...

> When you get your own (empty) place you'll see why :-)

Yes. And how many times does this happen in an entire person's life? 
Half a dozen, maybe? In the course of 50 years or so? Pretty rare event 
then, no?

> BTW we learned to go during the week in the evenings, not on a Saturday! 
> Have you ever seen every single check-out having a queue of 20 or 30 
> people? We just left.

I've only been round the new one in MK once. It's like some kind of 
fairground ride. It's like... there's this scripted path round the 
vastness of the showroom, and a whole set of infrastructure for allowing 
people to efficiently obtain the parts they want...

...the very fact that all of this complexity is even necessary in the 
first place tells you just how much footfall the store gets through in a 
day! o_O

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

> True. Here at work, we have an Ikea knife.

We got 5 mirrors from Ikea (2 huge for the hall and bedroom, 2 medium for 
the bathroom, and 1 small one for the toilet), also lots of plates and 
glasses, bins, rugs, bed sheets, cushions etc.

> Yes. And how many times does this happen in an entire person's life? Half 
> a dozen, maybe? In the course of 50 years or so? Pretty rare event then, 
> no?

There are 60e6 people livign in the UK, and 20 or so Ikeas, do the math!

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> There are 60e6 people livign in the UK.

You do you know that?

> and 20 or so Ikeas, do the math!

Woah... So, basically Ikea shops are busy because they're *rare*?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

>> and 20 or so Ikeas, do the math!
>
> Woah... So, basically Ikea shops are busy because they're *rare*?

Well I guess they knew people don't go and buy a new wardrobe every week so 
they didn't build an Ikea next to every Tescos.

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> As I understand it, Ikea... sells... furnature.

  That depends on your definition of "furnature".

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> As I understand it, Ikea... sells... furnature.
> 
>   That depends on your definition of "furnature".

...and suddenly I have visions of tree ferns. Hmm. Something is wrong 
with my brain. :-S

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>> As I understand it, Ikea... sells... furnature.
>>
>>   That depends on your definition of "furnature".
> 
> ....and suddenly I have visions of tree ferns. Hmm. Something is wrong 
> with my brain. :-S
> 

they probably sell those too

Post a reply to this message