Bookcases

[Bruce]

One side of my family is from Malmö, Sweden, so I know my meatballs! The meatballs in IKEA are good. Not excellent, not great, but good. It is difficult to obtain excellent Swedish meatballs in Britain, but it is easy to obtain good ones from IKEA, and their lingonberry sauce is great.

I buy my meatballs from ALDI. They are better than IKEA meatballs, great but still not excellent. Meatballs are meant to be cheap, so excellence is hard to find. IKEA also sells the excellent Spendrups beer and Kopparberg pear cider, the latter in 4.5% vol. and alcohol-free versions.

I usually cook Pyttipanna for Saturday brunch (diced potato, diced bacon and chopped onion). Ärtsoppa (pea, bacon and onions soup) is another family favourite but not Frestelse. There are better ways of eating fish.

[Stuart Noble]

Well, what a surprise that must have been!

[Andy Hall]

I have much more enjoyable ways of getting that

[Stuart Noble]

But they say it makes you go blind

[Andy Hall]

I'd be careful after your comments about donkeys......

[Andy Burns]

I think Tesco and Sainsbury sell that thesedays

[Ed Sirett]

Invariably I go to IKEA for good value medium quality flat pack furniture usually for mid-market landlords.

How to tame the beast...

0) Forget Saturday. 1) Have a van (or estate car + roof rack). 2) Park near where you will come out of the store. 3) Know the products so that you don't have to see what it's like in the showrooms. 4) Check, online, that your nearest branch has them in stock. 5) Ideally arrive at the opening time. If early have a free coffee. 6) Know how your local store is laid out. 5) Go straight to the checkout and enter the warehouse section directly from the checkout area. This may involve stepping around the barrier at a closed checkout. 6) Get aisle/bay numbers from touch terminal, and trolley(s) from the same area at the start of the warehouse section. 7)Load 8) Pay (no queues as no one else will be a the checkouts yet!). 9) Load van and away.

Maximum time 30 minutes from vehicle back to vehicle.

[Bruce]

I've only ever bought it at IKEA, but apparently it is the UK's #1 seller, so it must be sold at other outlets too.

[Andy Hall]

A lot of research beforehand though... :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

Shortcuts are signed in Thurrock + shown on maps.

You can check availability on line.

The hot dogs are great!

[Anne Jackson]

You're both men, so you won't enjoy the Ikea experience. Women love Ikea!

[Anne Jackson]

The message from fred contains these words:

I fixed the middle shelf upside down, on the first one I built, and CBA changing it. (Didn't even notice, until I was finished.)

Managed okay with the other four, though...

[Anne Jackson]

The message from Andy Burns contains these words:

I don't 'follow the arrows' in Ikea, but then I was always something of a rebel - or just a stroppy bitch?

[Anne Jackson]

The message from Andy Hall contains these words:

That wasn't Stuart. that was Huge!

[Andy Hall]

Mine doesn't...

[Andy Hall]

Ah yes. Oh well, never mind.....

[Andy Hall]

Call it being an individual. I do.

[dennis]

Mine doesn't either.. she, like I, thinks Ikea is full of over priced, cheap cr@p. The only thing I find IKEA cheap for is glass for the top of desks.. you can buy them separately so its an easy option. I find MFI stuff to be much better but nowhere near as good as ASDA flat pack (not that they do much).

[Man at B&Q]

Well, it was a donkey!

MBQ