STORE REVIEW : IKEA SHOPPING NIGHTMARE REMINDS US WHY WE BUY AMERICAN

Last weekend we went to our local IKEA store and got trapped in a mind-boggling multilevel showroom and warehouse painted a shocking marine blue - can't miss this eyesore. IKEA has designed the inside showroom so that you have to keep going around being exposed to product that is well displayed, a lot of design for your buck for sure, till you look and find out how little is actually made of wood. We wondered what would happen in this maze designed to make you buy if there was a fire or earthquake. The store was so full of consumers you wondered if there really was a Depression on!

IKEA actually does have employees (several times we had to go looking for them, and found two to four of them standing around computer terminals talking among themselves but not eager to actually help customers) but this is one of those deals where marketing claims that the reason the price is so low is that you take this stuff home yourself where you assemble it yourself, but first you have to go through the warehouse and find the boxes, load them into dollys or shopping carts, and go through the cash register; in other words you are doing the work of other people who should be employees somewhere so maybe those Sunday afternoon employees were just props.

We were with a friend who just got a new apartment and wanted to have it entirely furnished before he moved in. He had gone to the store alone a few days before and had his list ready - over $1500 in merchandise including a sofa, a love seat, a desk, a desk chair, a dining table, four chairs, and seven book cases - those alone came to $500.

Earlier in the week we had convinced him to buy AN AMERICAN MADE MATTRESS since the sizes are standard for AMERICAN MADE sheets as well.

On this trip we first we looked at the sofas which had comfortable looking fabric BUT WERE NOT SCOTCH GUARDED. IKEA is fond of light canvas-like materials, the kind of fabric that shows the first coffee spill or ink pen mark and so they sell other covers or tell you to wash (but put back on slightly damp).

We asked to see the WARRANTY on the sofa after finding out it was not made of scrap composite wood and it was full of the usual disclaimers such as that the consumer was responsible for TIGHTENING SCREWS often and that they would come out and make a determination if you wanted a repair or replacement. I asked if they had a store in Missouri and they didn't. So we canned the upholstered pieces.

Finally we got to the warehouse where a man said he could easily round up the merchandise for us. Problem: the desk was not in stock.
So I asked that they GET THE DESK FROM ANOTHER STORE FOR US.

Guess what? The self identified store manager told us that IKEA STORES DO NOT COMMUNICATE like that and he could not get us the desk. (We later learned we were five miles from another store.)

So I asked if the desk was on a ship from Sweden or due in a few days. He said in a week or so. So I asked if we could PAY IN TOTAL but not accrue a SECOND $50 shipping/delivery charge (the delivery would be about 2 miles away) and he said no.

I then suggested that he was going to loose the entire order because he wants to double bill us the $50 shipping when it is not our fault the product is not in stock. He said that was OK WITH IKEA!

Excuse us, but the cheapest shoe store in our area is willing to check other stores for a pair of shoes and IKEA does not mind loosing a sale on an entire apartment full of furniture because of STORE POLICY, a refusal to negotiate or bend a little.

At this point I told our friend I had checked EVERY TAG for every item on his list and where it said ORIGIN, IKEA had refused to state what state, country, or where the items were from, just claiming they use a variety of factories.

NOWHERE WAS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA flag flying on those tags. So we wonder how much is even made in SWEDEN... has IKEA gone to China for manufacturing too?

We are happy to report that our friend is going to consider HIRING AN UNEMPLOYED U.S. CITIZEN to construct the BOOKSHELVES for him rather than spend $500 of this money on IKEA bookshelves. He has since gone to a couple other stores looking for the upholstered pieces.