Shopping at IKEA!!!

Yes, I know - I am NOT a shopper! Everyone that knows me knows that I HATE SHOPPING! But I happened to be up in the Twin Cities last weekend and a couple friends wanted to go. They had just taken me to dinner and they were driving, so what choice did I have?

Sitting out in the parking lot was NOT an option, I think actual temp was below zero. So we drove past the Mall of America and I pictured some of the women at work drowling. Me, I can honestly leave it. I will admit to being curious however about IKEA as it happens to be one of the the scrapbook site I visit on a weekly basis.

We pull into the lot and KOcea tells us to "make sure you remember where we're parked." Right! Not my car, so I promptly forget. They take off like a shot to the entrance, I'm pretty sure it's because it's so cold outside and NOT because they are VERY excited about shopping. We enter the store, 2 floors and 336,000 square feet. It's HUGE!!

Luckily it was later in the evening on a Saturday night, it's freezing cold and not too many other "idiots" are shopping. It's busy, but not as packed as I'm sure it can get.

IKEA reminds me a of Sam's store. Warehouse style bins with a LOT of different items. Some fairly nice quality and cheap. Others just plain CHEAP. All the items I happened to look at were "Made In China". What isn't anymore? Honestly, you have got to wonder what the Chinese think of us American's while they are kicking out "dog butts" where you use the tail as a hanger. CRAZY!!!!

We start in the cooking and eating area (MY FAVORITE!) on our way to "lamps". I did actually buy two things in the kitchen area - I know - you can stop clapping, it wasn't that exciting!! I purchased a "Lazy Tammy"...aka "Lazy Susan" and a 6-pk of 22 ounce drinking glasses. Yep, that's it!

So onto lamps, vases, fake flowers, frames, rugs, furniture, pet supplies (that's where the dog butts were) and we're toast!

We must have been there over 90 minutes and we never made it off this one floor. KOcea has what she needed, KElton has what she needed, so we were out of there. Self check out, yikes!! They are closing the store!! But we survived. Oh, one thing to note, take your own bags! Yep, they charge you 5 cents for those cheap things that you recycle later. Let me tell you, it's a great why to get people to conserve bags!!

Now comes the tricky part. Where did we park. Don't look at me Ladies, I'm a foreigner! We enter one elevator and go to the ground floor. This does not look right? I can't remember which side we were on, north or south. I do remember that it was the WRONG SIDE!! Burr!! So we run around the other side and spot our little red ride! YIPPEE!!!

IKEA was fun, probably because of the people I was with. I can't say I'd go there again. It's kind of like Sam's. You think it's a good deal so you buy it, but honestly you probably could have lived without it.

You can do a virtual tour at http://info.ikea-usa.com/IKEAVirtualTour/?store=twincities