IKEA! Really?

Tried out our local branch yesterday evening;

I had a shopping list of 4 component items for a desk I wanted to make, chosen from their online listing and their paper catalogue. 3 of the items were out of stock. I was offered a 5 week wait for new stocks to be in place. The purchases were all interdepenant. So the outcome was a "no sale". About £80.00 of thrown away business in fact.

Earlier this week I heard on the BBC that people in The City were a bit surprised that Ikea had taken a downturn in their profit figures. I can only assume The City have not lately tried to just buy something from the retailer.

Here's a tip for Ikea: If you want profits, then you could try having most of your product for sale in your store. It's a really simple concept. Clearly you can not expect to prosper from "out of stock" situations.

I'd also heard lately that there could be customer service issues with Ikea, I did see some people there who certainly did appear to be having one as it happened.

Would I go back there and try again? Probably not.

I was an average punter in an average city on an average evening trying to buy some average goods; my conclusion must be that, on average, Ikea is currently under performing.