IKEA Comes to Japan
So it's been awhile since I last posted- gomen. I've got some interesting content to share but somehow hadn't gotten around to it. Enough about that though, on to the content.
IKEA has returned to Japan after a two decades of time off. Minako and I went to their massive store a couple of weeks ago after we gave the crowds some time to drop off in numbers. We left a bit late and the store is rather far from the West side of Tokyo, so we arrived an hour before their closing time of 8pm. (We ended up staying until an hour after they closed anyway) A quick browse through the long-awaited shop revealed lots of fairly stylish (although cheaper looking than I remembered), quite inexpensive items in the showrooms on the second floor. Unfortunately the actual stock on the ground floor was rather less impressive.
I can't remember ever being to a retail outlet with so much empty shelf space, not one that was still in business, at any rate. It appeared that the hordes of shoppers that had preceeded us had cleaned IKEA out of much of the good stuff, leaving only floor models to show what we were missing. An inquiry with one of the staff revealed that more furniture stock was due to arrive-- in three months time. And no, we couldn't get on a waiting list.
I did get a pair of nice dish towels ("LENDA," Y590/ea.), a pair of "84 hour" gray textured candles ("ELEGANS," Y590/ea.) and the requisite jar of lingonberry jam ("HAFI," Y350/400g) so it wasn't a complete loss. Minako bought a red desk chair ("LOVE," Y4900) and a number of smaller items. Still, we'll have to return sometime in about half a year, when they've had a chance to restock.
Did they ever build that IKEA near the Krispy Kreme in Medford? Near the K Mart?
IKEA has returned to Japan after a two decades of time off. Minako and I went to their massive store a couple of weeks ago after we gave the crowds some time to drop off in numbers. We left a bit late and the store is rather far from the West side of Tokyo, so we arrived an hour before their closing time of 8pm. (We ended up staying until an hour after they closed anyway) A quick browse through the long-awaited shop revealed lots of fairly stylish (although cheaper looking than I remembered), quite inexpensive items in the showrooms on the second floor. Unfortunately the actual stock on the ground floor was rather less impressive.
I can't remember ever being to a retail outlet with so much empty shelf space, not one that was still in business, at any rate. It appeared that the hordes of shoppers that had preceeded us had cleaned IKEA out of much of the good stuff, leaving only floor models to show what we were missing. An inquiry with one of the staff revealed that more furniture stock was due to arrive-- in three months time. And no, we couldn't get on a waiting list.
I did get a pair of nice dish towels ("LENDA," Y590/ea.), a pair of "84 hour" gray textured candles ("ELEGANS," Y590/ea.) and the requisite jar of lingonberry jam ("HAFI," Y350/400g) so it wasn't a complete loss. Minako bought a red desk chair ("LOVE," Y4900) and a number of smaller items. Still, we'll have to return sometime in about half a year, when they've had a chance to restock.
Did they ever build that IKEA near the Krispy Kreme in Medford? Near the K Mart?
posted by jarsyl at
23:13
4 Comments:
From what I heard, yes, they did manage to open an IKEA in Boston, after years of anticipation.
There is an IKEA in the suburb of Chicago with large impressive yellow-blue IKEA icon that you can spot from a mile away. The only caveat is, the roads around it are all dead ends and there is only one circuitous way for you to reach the final destination. Getting to Chicago IKEA is like walking through a maze with the target in plain sight. Not a good place to go if you don't have patience. It's pure hair-raising torture and frustration. :)
That sounds like a completely ridiculous place to build a store. Glad they finally got clearance to put one in Boston, hopefully in a reasonable place. I'll have to look it up next time I'm in MA. Purely for comparison purposes of course.
It's not too ridiculous, because it is in a big shopping mall type area. I bet they put it there because the land is cheap, being so hard to reach and all. But so be it; if you are persistent enough to actually get there, you have earned the reward of low prices.
BTW, your "crowds" link is broken.
Scratch that - crowds link is probably not broken.
Post a Comment
<< Home