I have been to the largest IKEA in Asia, have you?

I have a new theory. The latest trend in Malaysian shopping in the yuppie Klang Valley is to take leave and go shopping. I am a convert. My latest trip to IKEA has proven this point.

Took the day off and decided to go to IKEA in the afternoon, after the disastrous outing at 9pm last Saturday, thrid day after it opened. Not only was I down with a bit of flu, both me and my friend had no clue where to park and was astounded by the sight of cars lining the road at Mutiara Damansara. So we chickened out and I told myself the impossible- why don't I get up at 9:45 tomorrow to be the first in? Of course that never happened.

So I was in THE IKEA this afternoon at 2pm with my mum. After taking a wrong turning, we finally managed to get in through the Damansara Perdana link road to find that the entrance was just next to TESCO! When we finally parked, we managed to get a reasonably good spot near the entrance, but I was astounded again by the almost full (90%) car park at a weekday!!!

Here's a quick rundown on the things I saw:

Cool things that makes IKEA a winner:
1) The loading area : The lane closest to the entrance/exit had a restriction to the trolleys, ie. you cannot push the trolley outside as it had little short metal bars to stop the trolley. However, the genius'es (plural for genius, or was it just one person?) behind the design decided that there are stuff which is better loaded to the car boot, like shelves, etc. Heavy stuff. Hence they designed it like an airport arrival/departure area, cars could get into the inner most area and part shortly for loading only. I would not know how this responded to the heavy traffic on the opening day and weekends. But it is very useful and functionally a winner.

2) The SMALLAND aka Kids dumping area : Read about this, but when I saw it, it was kind of obscured, however I noticed that it was a) enclosed b) had boxes for kids bags and shoes c) was more than just an area with a lot of little bubble balls like the last one d) it allowed a different drop off and collect point convenient for shopping parents. Of course we also saw one set of parents who had left the poor toddler in the pram whilst they were obsessing over a couch nearby...

3) The calculation and planning areas (not forgetting the reminder sheets) : There are tiny areas with bar stools and table, with pencil, spec sheets of the stuff, and even one with the square drawing paper for planning the furniture. The best one? They had super glued solar calculaters to the table for customer's use.

4) Super friendly staff : Two people I asked about some items which was remotely unfamiliar seems to have a good feel on where it was, at least they knew it exists and directed us to there.

5) Huge restaurant and a few mini bar areas : We stopped at the restaurant which served nearly nothing, but the area was filled with shoppers (once again, on a Friday afternoon!). The space and midway point allowed people to just take a breather and lepak for a minute, and of course those who forgot to eat, has to make do with the expensive meatballs and bratwurst sausage. Hmmm, maybe the food can be cheaper.

6) Bags and bag carts, and kid carts : The famous yellow IKEA bags are quite sturdy, easy to carry and improved with a carry handle and a sling handle. Furthermore the bag can be hung over a bag cart. The kids have a tiny kid cart for them to buy toys and stuff. Very smart encouragement to buy.

What they needed more :
1) Toilets - Not enough toilets to allow people to wonder aimlessly in the store for hours, does not look like there's one near the restaurant area as well. Sometimes we are hurried by natures call to the exit. Maybe I missed it.

2) More focussed cheap areas - Kind of huge store, but no longer has those cheap stuff in the aisle that we're used to from 1-Utama days. Back when just walking past the store will bring me to buy some useless stuff, now I got to look for the stuff.

3) More shopping carts, besides the bags - After strength training my arm on lugging the rug over 1/3 of the floor area to the checkout counter before finding a trolley, this has got to be improved. Again, maybe in my gym madness, I missed it.

What's the feeling they are trying to get the customer to experience ? 1) I feel like buying a home 2) There's always something IKEA has which can be useful in my house, hence my being poorer by RM200+ of non-essential buying for the afternoon.

Now, let me get back to my round rug spot and my cool new toolbrush holder...