I’ve always been a fan of Ikea. For the most part, I’ve always been OK with their ridiculous “layout.” Well, on black Friday they really grinded my gears. The only reason I ventured out on black Friday was for their special price on a bed frame. Being the lazy bastard I am, I slept in and didn’t make it there until about noonish. Nevertheless, a huge sign on their building proclaimed the frame I was looking for was there, for $199. Now I know I saw the deal for $99 in their ad; so confusion #1.
I walk in, and see a few signs for the frame on sale for today only at $99. OK, that’s the special I saw in the ad, so were good. As a somewhat regular ikea shopper, I head upstairs to find the bed frame for purchase. Upon reaching the second floor, the frame on sale greets us. In true ikea fashion, I write the location of the pieces and we head into the wearhouse to retrieve the sections of the frame. We get to the designated aisle, and no more frames remain. Damn, we thought. Sold out by noon. We ask a sales associate if they accept rain checks, and of course he says no, the price is only on in-stock items.
Nearly leaving, we head back to talk to a real customer rep, who tells us that there are plenty left in the loading area. Awesome! So we head over to the loading area, only to find out we need a coupon for which color of frame we want from the bedroom section.
Of course you have to walk through nearly the entire store to get somewhere, as we did finding the bedroom section. Going back through the maze is slightly more painful than each previous trip.
Finally, with coupon in hand, I received my bed frame after walking nearly a mile and going through the MOST ridiculous pain in the ass system I’ve ever encountered for an item that is still probably over priced.
To add insult to injury, we sat through a half hour traffic jam on the way home due to an accident on I-55.
Yeah, I won’t do that again next year. Not for any item.