Hey Co-workers!

Wednesday was your day too, and I liked that you guys got your own portion of the festivities. That was very cool.

Tell me about your day! How was the staff holding up at closing? How were the staff that were new to IKEA doing with all the fanfare? You can email me privately and I’ll not use your name if you want. Got any good stories?

Return to IKEA

My face, after suffering sunburn and being freeze-dried, is rough. My lips are chapped, and I’ve lost my voice, but despite the ravages of camping out I’m the happiest girl in the world today.

And obviously insane as I went back this afternoon to see how it was going, and to see if the Ektorp chair was gone from As-Is. It was. But getting in and out and buying some of the double decker chocolate Havreflarn cookies took 30 minutes, and that includes chatting to a coworker at the food store that I met in Detroit. Saw another from the line on the way out so I don’t feel SO crazy.

I have to say though, finding a parking spot was dang near effortless. I’m not saying the lot wasn’t full, it was, but there were empty spots to be seen dotted all over it. The parking lot team was keeping track it seemed where there were spaces available and steering cars that way. Busy? Oh yeah. But certainly not the madhouse of yesterday.

And the weather today is so nice I actually opened the windows in the house and turned off the furnace. Also found myself reaching for the AC in the van after it warrmed up in the lot.

Changes imminent

Phase I of OHIKEA was rumor-mongering, wishes and sparkles. Phase II was monitoring the progress and all the news from the announcement to the opening. Phase III is here now that the store has opened. If you’ve been here from the beginning you know that means I have plans for redesign and other nice things.

Redesign and a new name - FlatpackOhio.com! Commenters really responded to the name, and liked Ohio having it’s own IKEA theme site rather than widening it out to other areas. There are lots of other blogs that do that.

So, if you come back to OHIKEA and the site is gone or looks wonky, fear not you caught us fidgeting around. We might vanish for an hour or two, but when you come back we’ll be here in some form.

As soon as the new domain resolves I’ll get started in the changeover. I will set OHIKEA to point there so you long time readers won’t need to remember it. I’ll also likely have a “formerly OHIKEA” in the header for a bit as well.

Now is the time to tell me what you’d like to see on the new site-to-be… put them in the comments!

So how much was sold?

6, 821 people bought something yesterday, that’s the word today.

Wow.

This just came in via comment and I wanted to share it really fast:

“over 9500 people exited the store as of 9:30 PM I’m sure there were at least another thousand left in there.”

I’m guessing he works in the store, but from what I saw on TV later and while there, I have to think that’s about right.

Before the opening I was seeing IKEA reps saying they expected 10,000 over the weekend. They got that many in the first DAY!

Wow.

First day over - whew

Pictures are coming in fast and Furious! I’ve put mine up as have others. Go look!

Some thoughts now that the rush is over. Warning: They are completely random, I’m too tired still to edit them into a sensible cohesive unit.

Everyone in line was great, a really friendly crowd. very few of the first 50 were there for anything but “the experience” that us hardcore fans found ourselves chanting ad nauseam to all the media. Only one or two were there for the free chair.

I was #12 in line and got a $50 gift card on the way in. My friend camping with me got a free cinnamon roll, and was quite bummed. I heard lots of $10 cards. So far the card I got was the biggest that I’ve heard of.

While waiting at the door to go in, while all the festivities were going on my friends and I were singing “It’s Log!” from Ren & Stimpy. (The weird looks of the 20 somethings near by shows that this show hasn’t made the jump.) The stage and screen were nice, but for those of us at the very front we had trouble hearing somewhat and couldn’t really see much. and for the record, I would have clubbed someone like a baby seal to raise the Ohio flag - had I not been so freaking exhausted.

As soon as I got off the escalator victory ride, I took a pic down from the top and then I turned to my companions and said “Follow me if you want to live!” (Okay not really, but they did follow me.) My knowledge of the similar layout of the Detroit store had us off the escalator and into the cafe before nearly anyone else had even gotten there. We had the NO line, choice of any table we wanted and had food and a seat in under 5 minutes (more or less). After 24 hours in piercing cold, hot scrambled eggs never tasted so good let me tell you.

You could definitely tell the virgins in the store, they were the ones walking against traffic, making their own way all willy nilly. As I’ve said before IKEA has a traffic pattern your shopping trip will be SO Much easier if you “go with the flow”.

As expected many weren’t getting the whole yellow bag thing and when spotted with my cart we were asked where we got it several feet into the second floor showroom area. (PS after the excalator turn left into kids, go around the staircase, and turn left again and take the elevators by the cafe downstairs, get your cart and bring it BACK up.) Also a few who got carts thought they were broken with the way they steer. Explained that even the carts are european.

What did I buy? Nothing. I’m going to be returning on Sunday without a van filled full of camping gear, but the ektorp chair in as-is had my full attention. Might scoot over Thursday and see if it foud a home yet.

Well that’s enough for now, I’m going to go to bed. Tommorrow I’m hoping to have a jumbo post of news links.

I’m back

And after a warm, snuggly nap in my bed I’m scouring my hundreds of emails from the last few days, reading my comments to the site (Thanks guys!) and nursing a case of sore throat and sunburn (we spent most of an afternoon basking in the sun while in line since it was 10 degrees warmer in the light).

I’m working on pics and a bunch of info, that will come in batches tonight so keep checking in! (if you took pics, either send me some or tell me where you have them up, or better yet, add them to Flickr’s IKEA West Chester photo pool!

When I left at 11:30 of total exhaustion the word was there had been 5000 people in the doors already.

IKEA gave us early line-uppers all kinds of logo swag which will be added to my “Look and don’t touch or I’ll cut you” collection.

It was a very cool day, I almost cried. Almost, ’cause crying is for wussies.

I’d like to thank my Mom for posting for me from the front lines. I got the coolest mom in the world.

Today is THE day!

More

I’m heading to the store to take my spot in line in about ohhhhh six hours or so, so this might be one of the last updates for a bit from me. I will be telling my mom over the phone what is going on and who will in turn be posting in my name while I’m in line.

More articles!

Shoppers camping out at IKEA - WCPO 12

Shoppers already in line for Wednesday IKEA opening - Middletown Journal

People Camp Outside West Chester IKEA Store - KY Post

There are about a dozen now in line according to reports.

The few, the first, the proud…

I order of arrival:

More pics here