I needed to get a few storage items for the kids rooms (I think their stuff breeds!) and decided to venture to IKEA. IKEA is not a shop it is a destination, you can't just drop in, pick up a few things and leave, you need to set aside a few hours and take along a picnic lunch (no need to bring cutlery - they have it).
It's just me and the boys and I try to convince the boys that it would be fun to play in the supervised kids playroom but they refused. With the boys this exercise took an extra 1/2 hour as a result of me trying to pry them off the furniture or urgently running up to them in the bathroom displays to explain that this is not a real toilet and we'll find the real one soon.
We go up the escalator and I immediately notice the arrows on the floor pointing us in the direction we need to go and a map that shows how we will weave around the store. It is at this moment that I realise that this isn't a store but someone's giant science experiment, and I am their human lab rat. The challenge is to see if the rat (ME) will follow the designated path to the destination (aka CHECKOUT) filling their shopping trolley with items that they didn't know they needed.
As we are wondering our way through the maze I catch glimpses of short cuts but dare not deviate from the arrows. All the while I have to keep reminding myself what I had come for. No I didn't need another ice tray in the shape of a heart or jigsaw piece, I just threw a whole heap of trays out. No I didn't need another smelling candle, I just threw out a few because they were a fire hazard due the the thick layer of dust on them.
We reached the checkout and I looked into my trolley and gave myself a little mental pat on the back, I hadn't done too badly. I conformed and stayed on the marked path but I managed to get the storage containers I needed and just one unnessecary play tent for the boys. Too some degree I had conquered the challenge.
As I was doing a little victory dance out of the store, they got me with 2 unnessecary hotdogs and an overpriced soft drink.....DOH!!!!!
2 comments:
see you didn't even need to bring food
I love IKEA! The first one in Ohio just opened here last week (about 20 mins from our house), but we've been to the one in Chicago several times. The crowds here are still huge, so we're waiting to go. I loved your story of the maze, it's true!
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