What's so special about Ikea?

So this is my 200th blog post. Kind of exciting lol.

Any who I wanted to talk to you about our Saturday excursion. Let me first start by saying I have never been in an Ikea in my life. I know, I know, how so very unAmerican of me lol. We got an Ikea in Portland a year before I left, but I never got around to visiting it.

So I asked Hubby if he was up to driving down to Ludwigsburg to check out Ikea. This is a sub city of Stuttgart. So we set out to Ikea. Now upon arrival we had a hard enough time figuring out the parking lot lol, that should have been red flag number one. Red flag number two is that Germans in terms of shopping and bargains are mass chaos. Hubby describes it as a Nato camp when the food shipments come in, rather un PC I know, but not a bad description in and of itself.

So we get into Ikea, and can't figure out where the hell to go in. We figured out we were in the wrong when the arrows were pointing towards us rather then guiding us. And walking against the arrows in Ikea, is like driving the wrong way on a one way street. People are not too accommodating. So we ended up starting in the warehouse section. I was totally confused and overwhelmed by the mass crowds. Mind you Germans are very pushy, they ram you with there carts, mutter rude things at you, and stop smack in the middle and just stay there so you have no way to pass them. And you thought Americans in walmart were bad, ha.

So we just wanted to check it out and see the price ranges and quality of things. We did pick up a few odds and ends: a apple cutter, a egg cutter, a toilet brush and holder, two plastic bins for my spice packs, and a small spatula set for 12 euro.

Now in terms of their furniture It was not bad, but the prices were not all they are cut out to be. Some items like beds, baby furniture, and kitchen furniture were really well priced. But there couches seemed really low end and over priced. I mean for less then 100 euro more you could get a full sized sectional couch from neckarmann or otto. And there stuff was really like a cheap futon quality. Not impressed.

I also did not like the layout, it was very user unfriendly. Things were not well grouped together. Many were not even priced. It was so packed together that it was near impossible to get into any isles with your cart.

But it was still a fun experience. And thank god by the time we made it to the second floor we were going with rather then against the flow of traffic.

So my final verdict, they have good prices for odds and ends and small furniture. But I would surely compare with other companies before assuming ikea is the cheapest. They also don't deliver, you have to rent a truck from them and do it yourself.

So after checking out Ikea we headed over to the Brueninger shopping center. It was huge about 130 stores. It did remind me of American malls. We did not stay too long we just checked out the bookstore and electronic store. Maybe some other time we can go back and look around more. I really hope to also head down to the outlet center.

We then concluded our day with a healthy lunch at Burger King :)

And I have to say I was rather amused by the parking lots. Not only did they have handicap spots, but also family, and women only spots. Ha. Never seen that before.

Till next time