IKEA: classic or dud?

b-but $135 Eames hang-it-alls!

Ikea makes some stuff that you buy for short-term functionality and discard, but it also makes other stuff that's worth keeping. Am I ready to graduate to DWR? Tempting.

Also: where are all the small sofas? I have a 27" doorway into my living room which prevents me from putting any real furniture inside. We've tried two sofas now and they won't fit. I need something that isn't very high that I can turn on it's side when I move it in. And don't say "get a futon". And don't say "move!" If someone can point out some modular furniture that doesn't look uncomfortable and like shit (ie: not West Elm) please do!!!

No furniture is worth that! I keep thinking about Fight Club...

revive!

how did people in the Edmonton chaos get heat exhaustion? was it because IKEA's never seem to have air-con?

(xpost)

Anyway, it turns out the stabbing was incidental and not connected to Scandinavian cheapness at all, but that didn't stop the newsreader on the radio this morning sounding gleefully shocked by it.

the route through ikea always reminded me of the Peano Space Filling Curves that were used on the front of the maths textbook we used in university:

http://www.seanet.com/~garyteachout/fill.html

(ha, search for exact book turns up this: http://www.bookhead.co.uk/books-by/Bez.aspx)

That is all.

(annoyingly, they have a big distribution depot which is much nearer)

Ikea store shut after bargain-hunters cause chaos
By Jenny Booth, Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1478154_3,00.html

At least 22 would-be bargain-hunters suffered crush injuries and heat exhaustion as a 6,000-strong crowd forced a new Ikea superstore to close on its opening night.

Cars were abandoned on London's busy North Circular road and customers were crushed in the chaos which ensued after the furniture store opened its doors at midnight.

The new outlet in Edmonton, the biggest Ikea in England, was due to trade for a full 24 hours, with a programme of special offers and entertainment. But the store was forced to shut up shop within 45 minutes due to an "unforeseen volume of customers".

Emergency services were called and six people were taken to hospital, including in the vicinity of the store and a man suffering chest pains.

An Ikea spokeswoman said that it was decided to close for the safety of customers and staff, and the store would remain shut until further notice. She denied that the stabbing victim had been injured in the store, and said it was a separate incident.

She added: "Ikea are deeply shocked, upset and concerned at what occurred. Ikea take the safety and security of its customers and employees very seriously at all times."

Assistant Divisional Officer William Bird of the London Fire Brigade, who was called to the scene, said that he had never seen anything like the chaos.

"It was extraordinary and to an extent unexpected, I have never attended anything like that before," he said.

"Fire crews arrived at the Ikea store in Meridien Way to find severe traffic congestion and many thousands of people trying to get in to the new store."

Cars had been abandoned on the North Circular road, as people rushed to the shop on foot in order to arrive in time to snap up the bargains - such as a leather sofa for £45 - which had been advertised in strictly defined time slots.

The fire crews were hampered in arriving at the scene of the trouble by the sheer number of cars blocking the road.

"People were really trying to get into the store and surrounding car parks, and that caused an enormous problem with access to the premises," continued ADO Bird.

"People were injured, and we assisted the ambulance service in administering first aid. There were crush injuries and people in shock as a result of the pushing and shoving there.

"The ambulance service were the first on the scene because of the reports of injuries. We went along accompanied by the police about 1am, after the opening, and once the extent of the problems had been realised. There were a fair few emergency services there."

...

Sol Sheikh, who lives in Edmonton, told GMTV that the whole event was unnerving. "At around 10pm the staff disappeared and slowly but steadily madness descended on the crowd," he said.

"A lot of people turned up just before midnight. They pushed their way into the crowd and started queuing at different parts. The staff just could not handle it."

Lisa Keepence, 36, who queued from midday yesterday for a cut-price leather sofa, claimed she was pushed down the stairs by a security guard when the store closed. She said her 60-year-old mother had been pushed to the ground and trodden on by the crowds as they rushed forward.

Nicola Bird, 41, from Enfield, north London, said: "There were no police and hardly any security guards. The security man I was next to looked frightened to death. He was white as a ghost, he didn’t know what to do.

"There was another security man in a fluorescent jacket who was lying on the floor with people trampling on him and there were children there as well."

Miss Bird managed to buy a sofa but has not yet been able to pick it up.

The more I live with IKEA furniture, the more I like it. They are a model of how mass-market design should be done. It's cheap to buy, easy to assemble, relatively long-lasting (not near as long as those bookcases my grandfather built by hand, but what do you want for 60 bucks?), relatively attractive (a master furtinure maker could come up with something better, sure, but you couldn't put it together yourself), readily available, and their business and labor practices are exemplary.

IKEA is a great company that makes great products. That's why the obsession, I'm guessing.

However, Target was having a clearance sale on nifty imported furniture and I ended up spending a fortune. I got an African table, and Indian chest, three pillows and three rugs.

however, i have it on good authority that starbucks is genetically engineering aggressive coffee beans. while docile beans normally live in harmony with the cordillera, angry coffee beans trees make the other plants sad.

Do you have to build your own sofas or do they come pre-assembled?