Monday, August 18, 2008

Ikea is the United Nations




We went to Ikea over the weekend, had to get a lamp to replace the one I broke in BabyGolightly's nursery Friday night. It was Sunday afternoon so I expected it would be crowded but holy crap was it CROWDED! Despite the crowds I love this place. I walked in the door and found these little plastic bowls that would be great for BabyGolightly's cereal for $0.99 each! Where else can you find a deal that good? So we went to checkout after picking up not 1 lamp to replace the broken one, but 3 lamps - MrGolightly and I still needed lamps for our bedside tables, some tealight candles, and a rug for the kitchen. Standing in line I saw in one of those big bins with stuff in them trying to entice you as you're camping out waiting your turn to get to the register. What was in those bins? Why a set of 6 plastic bowls for $1.99. So where can you find a deal better than a plastic bowl for $0.99 each - why in the same store, in the checkout line. So I discreetly threw my 2 $0.99 bowls in the bin and picked up the pack of 6. I was so happy with my little purchase.


On to why I call Ikea the United Nations. This is the only place I've been to where you can walk thru the aisles and hear 845 different languages and see people from ALL over the world. I'm hearing Spanish, French, German, Swedish (of course), Russian, Asian languages, African languages, tons of other European languages and I'm thinking to myself where did all of these people come from. Like seriously, what countries are they all from? (That kind of thing interests me. Where are they from and what brought them here and do they like it and so on) Anyway I know that people get bussed into Ikea (because there's a huge parking lot outside full of tour buses with out of state plates) and people come from out of town, state, and country just to go there (because there's like 4 hotels in the same parking lot). I always wonder to myself - if this person came here from say Bulgaria, how on earth are they going to get all this Ikea stuff back home? I would have never thought of doing all this shopping and still having to get all this stuff back home - in another country. It blows my mind!


Bottom line - I love Ikea! I could go there even if my house was fully decorated, furnished, and full to the brim and still walk around the showroom, the marketplace, and go up and down every aisle in the store just because it's that cool!

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