With the DMV behind us, we made the long drive even further from home, past the city limits out into the mysterious nether regions of the Chicagoland Suburbs. Our goal was to reach the blue and yellow Swedish mecca of inexpensive-yet-quality furnishings.
It had been about 3 years or so since our last trip to IKEA, that time in White Marsh, MD, and we had finally managed to forget how overwhelming it can be. We were ready.
The big blue box called to us as the Prius wound its way through the maze of highways. We were ready to be amazed by the Swedish technology and elegantly functional design. We gazed, stupifyed, at the escalators made FOR YOUR SHOPPING CART. Seriously, the Nordic peoples are far ahead of us in retail technology. We must overtake them or face destru -- hey, cool, it looks like a whole apartment in here!
What? Oh, it's crowded too. Those Swedes may make cool furniture and warm bedding, but they pack it all in so tight that no one can get around with a shopping cart. The circular design of the multilevel store had the look of a modern, cosmopolitan, Eurpoean version of the circles of Hell.
You need a plan when you go to IKEA. (Folks in the Charlotte area, keep this in mind when the new one opens.) If you don't know exactly what you want, you'll end up buying all sorts of things. We did well on that part. Not having much money also helps. What we didn't figure on was a plan of attack. We just wandered aimlessly amid the artful wall hangings, functional-yet-stylish kitchenware and other fine things while getting progressively more anxious until giving up to eat Swedish apple cake.
Thus refreshed, we bought an excellent new comforter that will defintely keep us warm this winter (It's really three in one, awesome!), a knife and collander and a really nice kitchen table. We then merely had to wait through a line at the register rivaled only by those at the DMV we;d just left before being able to cart our things to the car and make the long, long journey back home on overcroweded toll roads.
There are some other things we'd like to get at IKEA, and we just found an coupon we'd meant to bring with us. Maybe in a year we'll be up to the task. I do like that table, though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment