Midsummer party at IKEA!

I just saw this today when I was visiting, and just got this news link with more info, so rushed over to post it here as well.

Tommorrow, Saturday 21 June 2008, starting at 11am IKEA West Chester will be celebrating Midsummer with the local Swedish American club that you might remember from the opening.

The West Chester Store page has the following:

Midsummer’s Day is one of the most treasured holidays celebrated in Sweden. It’s the day Swedes observe the onset of summer with a large festival filled with food, singing, dancing and family. IKEA is proud to bring the Midsummer’s Day party to West Chester June 21.

Enjoy a traditional dance and song performance around the maypole by The Swedes In Greater Cincinnati.

Performances are at 11 a.m. and Noon.

There will also be Swedish food samples and Kids crafts

PAAARTTTYYY! Oh wait… PÅÅÅÅÅÅRRRTTTIIIII!

IKEA in the City

The Red Hook/Brooklyn IKEA started it’s grand opening campout this morning and there were 18 already by 10:30am. (They have nice weather for it, wanna prove your love, do it in 40 degree weather after a blizzard!)

Here’s the kicker for me, the first 35 in line GET A $300 COUCH. I still have a chair I haven’t assembled from my #12 in line prize. I understand they are trying to step up the excitement (bribe) a bit since the store has had nothing but trouble getting built, even protests from the local area for building on a historical but dilapidated dock from the Civil War, but after what I think is nearly five years they’re finally there.

But a couch? I’m now going to put on my Jan Brady Voice: “It’s always Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn! Hrmph!”

This video (linked above as well) is funny though, so I’ll post it despite not being Ohio related.

Updates and mysteries

Word is that the West Chester store is closing early at 7pm on Sunday June 29th for “some sort of event”. No word on what that is all about.

I also got word from some insiders that West Chester is likely NOT doing the Summer Sale since they are new and not having a bunch of older stuff to mark down. (Winter sale could still be pretty decent maybe)

They also said the Summer Sale is rather sporadic in places out east due to the Brooklyn store opening next week.

Getting an IKEA Kitchen?

These folks might be able to help you get it all planned out. Looks like they have lots of good advice and tons of experience installing them. I added the link to the IKEA Blogs section down on the right so if you ever need it it’ll always be easy to find.

I dream of the day that I’ll be able to redo my kitchen, but I think I’ll have to trick the various family members into helping me assemble them. Like rent a big party room and bring in beer and pizza and it’ll be BYOTruck to help me get them home. (That’s a party! Drunken IKEA assembly!)

SALE! (?)

You might have seen the ads on tv. Currently the Summer Sale is going on at IKEA, but I can’t determine if West Chester is doing the sale or not (lazy me hasn’t driven by in a couple days), so call first if you are traveling. I’m hoping one of my IKEA West Chester coworker readers will chime in to tell me for sure. You all know the secret handshake.

The Summer Sale is one of the few yearly sales they have. I don’t think it’s quite the blowout that the Winter Sale is but you still can get some major deals with “select products” up to 60% off. That is nothing to sneeze at!

Since the new catalogs come out soon, often they use these two sales to clear out that will be discontinued in the next catalog. If you see something you want that is marked down, get it. No really. Not kidding.

How to tell a price sign from a sale sign (know if it is marked down to disappear forever):
They usually are two kinds of signs, a white sign with yellow squares and black prices, and all yellow signs with red prices. These yellow ones are tell you that this is a markdown to move out, most likely forever. Yellow + red = green.

If you think in the future you will want three of that unbelievably marked down bookcase, get them now if you can. Seriously, they will likely not be there again and you will live in a constant state of remorse.

They do this again in starting the day after Xmas for about two weeks, and that was when I made my yearly pilgrimage to Detroit or Shaumberg. Deals, deals, deals! The winter one is not a sale to miss over your holiday break. Stuff moves fast, and if you snooze, even a week, you lose. So start charting your invasion now.

New 2009 catalogs should be arriving in the Cincinnati/Dayton area mailboxes or newspapers by August. Usually. Maybe.

Cleveland to Ikea anyone?

This comes from CIndy in Beachwood, who is looking for a IKEA courier.

Hi Jen,

I came across your website when I was looking for local places to buy ikea furniture.

I live in Beachwood, so the closest ikea is in pittsburgh, but I am not comfortable with driving such a long distance since I’ve just recently started driving. FYI the shipping charges from ikea are VERY expensive. They said it’s $400 if I want something delivered (and I would still need to go to the store to order it), and $100 if I order something online or over the phone.

The problem is, I really like vika manne (the pink, oval desk), but it’s not available online or on the phone. I was wondering if you know any local sources that I could get the desk from?

Thanks a lot!
Cindy

If someone is driving from Cleveland to hit an IKEA feel free to contact Cindy at: sn234@cornell.edu
I’m sure she can even pay you in advance to save herself the ordering long distance charges.

For the record…

IKEA’s new Appleflarn crisp cookies are.. INCREDIBLE

I didn’t think anything could beat the regular plain havreflarn cookies (the chocolate ones are just decadent) but, damn. The apple ones we bought yesterday are liable to be converted into breakfast cereal to speed thier demise. Hope they stick around a while

I got one of the new little mini hand truck carts at IKEA. They are new since the opening, and I think this brings the style of shopping vehicles in the store to four. (But never the one you want when you want it)

Just as the bags, there are yellow versions in the store and blue ones you can buy and take home. Just the right size for household junk too. They are $19.99 to buy, but I think they’ll get cheaper with time like most other things at IKEA.

Currently at West Chester there is a extremely nice selection succulents and cacti in the Greenroom area next to the entrance to the warehouse. My mom took 20 minutes to pick one out, there were so many varieties and just amazingly healthy (I mean NICE) and cheaply priced she had a hard time choosing. If I had a place for plants I would have had a cart full. They are a deal and a half!

Note to Clevelanders

Or is it Clevelandians? Clevelandites?

Anyway… Now might be a great time to come down and see West Chester versus driving to the Pittsburgh store. I found this on a item page on ikea.com:

ATTENTION PITTSBURGH CUSTOMERS!: Due to Pittsburgh’s upcoming remodel our stock availabilty on our accessory items will not be accurate. Be sure to stock up now on your accessories as our marketplace remodel will begin in May.

So Pittsburgh, already the smallest store (by a bunch), is going to have even less than the already very limited selection it had. Take the extra hour and drive down here.

I don’t know if it’s a remodel or a remodel/expansion, though having been there I don’ know how they’d expand on that hilltop other than going up. So it’s probably just a remodel remodel.

Cleveland IKEA mention on 30 Rock

Beccabee tipped me off in the last post’s comments (I hadn’t caught it on my TiVo yet as I was out watching Iron Man) that last night the eternally fictional IKEA in Cleveland was mentioned several times. Very funny with

You can watch the ep on hulu.com or below:

It starts about 8:00 minutes in and Liz is talking to an old flame, Floyd, who says he regrets moving to Cleveland sometimes.
She answers, “Well, what does NY have that Cleveland doesn’t? I read you guys are getting an IKEA!”
Floyd responds “Yeah, I’ll believe that when see it. We’ve been burned before.”

Then later, about 14:45, they are fighting and “I’ll move to Cleveland when you get that IKEA! Never!”
He rages “Don’t you deprive the good people of Cleveland an IKEA! You are vindictive Liz Lemon!”

Too funny! At least they got their facts right…

IKEA related fun fact

I am a big Battlestar Galactica fan (I even do a podcast on it with two other geek pals) so when this came over the Google alert I knew I wanted to post it…

Commander Adama has a shaving mirror in his cabin. This mirror is made by IKEA, and is a model called “Fräck” (spelling according to IKEA Web site). This word is similar to “frak” (spelling according to the subtitles with an “a” and without a “c”), which is the primary vulgarity in the Battlestar Galactica universe. - Article Link

Now that’s funny. I know one of the set decorators had to do it on purpose… love it.