I’m Sorry it has to be like this IKEA

I went to Orlando this weekend.  I really wanted to see what IKEA had to offer.

I was super pumped for IKEA.  I get the catalog each season.  Everything in it looks cool and Swedish.  I was also thinking about decking out my new apartment with IKEA products.  Once I walked into the store, my super pumped-ness slowly dwindled as I made my way through the first showroom (Living Room).  The floor was covered with sofas of different crazy patterns and material.  None of them were extremely comfortable and all I kept seeing were “Ektorp” sofas.  Most of the showrooms had an “Ektorp” piece of furniture.

As I progressed through the warehouse, the walkway became narrower and narrower, and more cluttered with displays.  If you do not know, I do not like a lot of clutter or a lot of people in a store.  The clutter takes away from what the store has to offer.  Everything is presented to you shotgun blast style.  No thanks.  Please keep everything tidy, organized, and well-presented.  As for the people, there should be a limit as to how many people can be inside at once.  It is hard to examine furniture when there are a million other people crowded around you, trying to do the same thing.  Please decrease the maximum capacity of people in the store by 300.  Thank you.

I had high hopes for you IKEA.  You have been added to my list of “Stores I Cannot Shop at, in Person.”  To keep you up-to-date, these are the stores that are currently on the list:

• Forever21, XXI
• WetSeal
• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Express (during their clearance sales) (It is sad to see this on the list)
• Building 19, or any flea market
• Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, or any other stores of this sort
• IKEA (most recently added)

Sidenote:  IKEA has $0.50 hot dogs.  For all those broke college kids out there, this is a great deal.  Actually, this should be added to SlickDeals.

I’m not a window shopper, I’m a picky shopper

I am not the typical girl. I am not a big fan of shopping, in the malls especially.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to spend my money on glamorous things.  I just do not like being bombarded by salespeople and clothing.

I love to find deals on clothes.  You will most likely not find me at a clearance or end of season sale.  They do have great deals then, but I cannot handle the atmosphere.  Let’s use Express (my favorite store) for example.  I have spent more money there, than any other store in my life.  They always have these crazy sales where they put all the clothes in boxes.  It is then your job to rifle through these presorted clothes.  People always end up throwing articles of clothing into random boxes, thus the sorting system is useless.  I do not want to be digging around in boxes.  It makes me feel weird.

I want clothes presented to me in a neat, orderly fashion.  Please have them displayed by color or style.  Please avoid shoving a billion pieces of clothing onto a rack meant for 10 hangers.  I do not like having to move through articles of clothing.  When I do find one that I am semi interested in, I do not want it to snag on the million shirts that it was crammed in between.  You always end up pulling out more than just that shirt you had your eye on.

Forever 21 is infamous for this.  Every time I walk into that store, all the clutter in there just seems to keep growing and growing.  I feel like I might be sucked into a clothes rack jammed with 2 billion shirts.

I sometimes see something I like on a mannequin and think to myself…”Let’s give it a shot, it shouldn’t be too tough to find this shirt.”  I always think, maybe it will be different this time. No, it is not.  For most stores, I walk in, make a loop, and walk back out.  I am more than willing to hand over my hard earned money to these stores, if only they made a better presentation of their stores.

[Listening to Andrea Bocelli - Ama Credi E Vai]