TRAV N BOOK : S2. IKEA's FURNITURE HUNTING

This may sound as if I have nothing to put as a blog entry this time but the truth is that I am testing this photo mosaics. The best way to do is by writing one entry. And at the same time, I have a little story to tell on how to look for items in IKEA whether or not they have the items in store.

Our little messy kitchen

I agree it's messy. So I reckon we have to set up one area for dining, so we need table here. Need to go to IKEA again, and now visiting IKEA has become our weekly routine. I am sure this blog has followers from Kinabatangan and Cheruk Tok Kun (no offence aaa, just joking), so I better describe what is this IKEA all about [I owe you a book review here].

http://www.ikea.com/

IKEA is owned and started by Ingvar Kamprad from a small village called Smaland in the Southern Sweden. He started selling matches when he was five. That was in 1920. Needless to say he became more interested in selling furniture and the company IKEA expanded globally ever since. IKEA opened its outlet at Mutiara Damansara in the year 1996.

Now let's have the same ambition as Mr Kamprad shall we. Let's start selling something, of course not matches. Maybe smart phones will do.

Where is Mutiara Damansara?

The best is to drive, but when the MRT is completed in 2016 (can they be on schedule this time?) you can take the MRT right from South Kajang town or North Sungai Buloh to Bandar Utama station. We are looking forward to that time.

The section of interest.

Back to our story. So I figure a high table with two chairs would be nice. And in fact, our kitchen can only accommodate two chairs.

Found this nice rack. Good to display our souvenirs.

We were distracted by the nice-looking CD rack, and we want to convert this to be souvenir rack instead. Take photo, so that when the time to find these items, you can refer to the rack number and section. In IKEA, you have to do everything yourself, it's self-service concept here. Look for the furniture yourself as well, but for bulk items, you just make the payment and collect the items from the collection centre outside of the store.

Finally we found what we are looking for.

Oo ya by the way, all IKEA products have names, so the one we are looking for is named as BJORKUDDEN, maybe in Malay it is called MEJA KUDIN.....hahahah.

This name is important because later when you search for it in the warehouse, you just look for the rack number, section, and the name. Just like looking for your lost kids I suppose.

The matching chair is named FRANKLIN

We have found the table named BJORKUDDEN, what about its matching chair? We can choose from two options, the chair with backrest named FRANKLIN or the square stool-type named BOSSE. I prefer FRANKLIN, but wait a minute, there are two different prices for FRANKLIN, one with RM95 price tag, the other with RM99. Oooo I see, the cheaper one is the younger brother just 95cm tall, but the elder is 103cm. I need the taller one to suit the table. Now I am addressing those items like human being. That's what happen if you name furniture.

The younger brother of FRANKLIN.

Stool-type.

Now that the table has only wood birch, but I have bought from previous visit, the intended matching wall-mounted drop-leaf table named NORBERG in white finish, this will not match anymore. It should match with birch named NORBO.

NORBERG that has been bought earlier

Ahaa solution found. This weekend another trip to IKEA to exchange NORBERG with NORBO.
The good thing shopping in IKEA is that even after buying things from them, and you suddenly change your mind, you can just return those products within 100 days, and you will be refunded in full so that you can buy that new product. In fact, if you only want to get back your money in full, they will not question anything.

Have we done that? Of course we did, we bought an item with the wrong price information, or in other words, we thought that item was cheaper, so after paying, we went to the redemption counter and return the product. At another case, we bought a glass shelf and found that the glass had shattered, so we return back and got the full refund. IKEA is great in that.

The matching NORBO

Enough said, now is the time to find those items based on the rack and section number. We walked to the warehouse, just before the payment counters to find those items we have identified.

AND........................wuallllaaaaaaa.

Mr BJORKUDDEN is out of stock............................. Serious, its OUT OF STOCK!!

What about Mr FRANKILN?

FRANKLIN is arrow down.

YES FRANKLIN is IN STOCK.

But since we could not buy the table, we hold from buying the chair for now. Who knows it could be out of stock for a longggg time. So I approach the sales / store personnel asking if I can order our table, and he answered that they order products everyday, but customers cannot order. I was comparing with ordering books, you can order books that is out of stock, and they will inform you when the stock arrives. Not for IKEA. Why? I have the answer later.

So you remember the rack I found earlier? That rack happen to be stocked just next to the table, so I grab this instead.

Put on the trolley.

Slide into the car

Assemble and mount it at my favourite wall.

Later on removed to the opposite wall.

Apparently she has different idea. Better idea?

Back to those missing link on how to avoid the hassle of going to IKEA only to be disappointed by the product OUT OF STOCK? Ooo come on this is the internet-age. Yes check online before buying unless you want to be in that crowded and traffic-jam prone area for dual purposes like shopping at THE CURVE and bring the kids to KIDZANIA.

Here is how to check the product availability online.

Again, go to: http://www.ikea.com/my/en/store/damansara/indexPage