Shopping for clothes and the like is fun. Shopping at IKEA is not. Kevin has detailed a few of the problems we had. There were a lot more. Things like the catalog not agreeing with the store, and the catalog not agreeing with the web site, and the web site not agreeing with the store, and items being shelved in the wrong place, and having to read the small print on packages to discover that they are only 1 of 2, and even the web site not agreeing with the web site. Yes, really: they have different ways of looking up the size of an item, and they give different answers.
But the really EVIL thing about IKEA is that when you are queuing at check-out you are continually assaulted with the smell of freshly baked cinnamon buns.
I just took a print to the printing press. The book shall come out next monday: its a dissertation of Hanna Lindberg about IKEA.
So if you want to know what really lies behind that sweet smell of cinnamon buns, we jus have to find an english translator and publisher to that publication.
ipa