Unlike many people, I’m a fan of IKEA. I like many of their products and particularly enjoy our traditional annual trek to get a Christmas tree. The trees are all about the right size, they only cost $25 and you can get that money back after Christmas if you spend over $100. Not a bad deal.
Mind you, managing a store during a pandemic may, however, not be IKEA’s best example of common sense
Their ads used to say that IKEA was Swedish for common sense. And in many cases that is true. Mind you, managing a store during a pandemic may, however, not be IKEA’s best example of common sense. It may also go some way to explaining why Sweden is a world leader in COVID-19 cases.
Although I’m not a marketing expert by a long chalk, I do understand the IKEA tactic of having a maze-like exit route. Certainly they post emergency routes to emergency exits, but to just get to a point where you can pay for your DVALA sheets or whatever you have selected involves weaving through several departments. Impulse buyers beware!
I have often said to just about anyone who will listen to me, and not a few who didn’t want to, that come Christmas tree season, IKEA should have, especially on weekends, dedicated check-outs for those folks – me – who only want a tree. There was a time when you could ask a cashier in between customers to process a Christmas tree sale. No waiting in line behind people with carts full of hundreds of dollars of goods just to buy a tree. But not any longer. Now when you approach a cashier, they tell you to get in line.
IKEA, during this pandemic please put dedicated Christmas tree cashes outside where the trees are located to reduce the potential spread of the novel coronavirus. Tack!
Okay, that’s not the end of the world, you simply go into the store, squeeze through a cash in the wrong direction, and join the end of a line. But today we found that, under the auspices of COVID-19 precautions, we were herded through a maze of kitchen goods, picture frames, candles, napkins, and dried flowers to arrive at the point where we could buy our tree.
Is this wise?
Perhaps from a marketing point of view it makes sense. But during a pandemic, when social distancing is required, forcing people to make their way through several hundred other shoppers, when they were only there to buy one item – an item that is actually outside – is irresponsible at best and ignorant at worst.
IKEA, during this pandemic please put dedicated Christmas tree cashes outside where the trees are located to reduce the potential spread of the novel coronavirus. Tack!
DCMontreal 
You know, I’ve never been to Ikea? They don’t have a shop in this county. in fact, they only exist in downtown Boston and we live adjacent to a tree 🎄 farm. I’m past dealing with live trees. I have a nice tabletop tree and I’m glad I don’t have to go up in the attic to haul down the decorations….but wait! First, I’d have to find a place to put it. Remove the TV? Or the sofa? How about the fireplace? Owen was offered a free tree and he thought about getting into the attic, getting out, decorating after rearranging two rooms of furniture, the back up to get the decoration down to put them away, back up to replace them. Then he said “No, thank you :-D”