IKEA

I was in Schaumburg Illinois yesterday to see a demonstration of a mass spectrometer that we are contemplating buying for the lab. I’m very impressed with the instrument, which has capabilities far in excess of our current machine. It turns out that the spectrometer company’s office is very near an IKEA store. I couldn’t resist. This was my first trip to an IKEA, and I had a great time. So much stuff! Lots of it quite inexpensive and generally less-crappy-looking than inexpensive furniture usually is. I’ve been looking for footstools and ended up buying two, the PÄLLBO (don’t they have any lower-case letters over there?) and the POÄNG with white cotton covered cushion. I imagine that that white cover won’t last too long, but I really want a rather more expensive leather one anyway, so when it gets trashed I’ll go back and spend the extra money on a leather-covered replacement cushion, assuming that I’m otherwise happy with the piece, which I suspect I will be.

The store is loads of fun to wander around in. This is the first example I’ve seen of special shopping cart conveyors next to the escalators to conveniently take carts up and down the three levels. They have a little restaurant with fairly decent and cheap food. I had the Manager’s Special meatballs. It is a Swedish company, after all.



(FARK ran a Photoshop contest with the theme Using IKEA-like instructions, draw plans for saving the world which IKEA customers ought to see.)