Shopping at Ikea without a car
08 Aug 2010
City Car Club, costs of transport, Fun without a car, shopping 2 Comments
So we need a sofa bed.
In fact we need a settee; our old soggy one now having been destroyed by the cats, and the detritus of our lives down the back of the settee now starting to overflow. Nice.
And the bed element will come in handy for visitors to our diddy flat.
Having slept on Dot’s and also snuggled under a blanket watching TV 5 abreast, the decision was made. From the smorgasbord of sofa beds on offer at Ikea, it had to be the Manstad (L shaped to the right).
So, not having a car, what do we do:
1. Buy on-line. NO – not an option in Scotland.
2. Ikea Direct (I didn’t know about this, but having called the Edinburgh store they said it would be best). This involves emailing your request. Then Ikea gets back to you and gives you a quote. WE DID THIS. But no reply and we just couldn’t wait!! (Audrey and my nephew Chris are visiting this week, as are Chloe and Rebecca…can we have the Manstad sharpish please?)
3. Visit Ikea: Boo. Not my first option – not even my third…But hey ho. My main memory of Ikea is of Tess as a little girl throwing up everywhere, especially on Brian: a kind of aversion therapy. Especially for Brian. Anyway, so we go to the website to find out how to get there…
Ikea website gives us directions BY CAR - nothing by public transport. Thought you cared about the environment Ikea? Tess had a look around the internet and found that the Lothian Buses No 47, which goes right past our house, goes direct to Ikea. Oh joy.
Downloading the iPhone application “edinbus” we could see we had 20 mins to the next bus departure from the stop 5 mins away.
Life was looking up. Seamless lives.
So – we get to Ikea. We order our bed settee (boo – we have to wait a week or so – Audrey and Chris wil be on the floor), and buy another £150 of “stuff” we don’t need.
Even us public transport users spend money Ikea!!!!!
(Interestingly – well kind of interestingly) when we came home there was an email from Ikea Direct quoting the same price as we paid in store plus £20 delivery. I wonder if I will have to pay this for our new Manstad?
Aug 10, 2010 @ 09:51:11
When we bought our sofa and sofa bed from IKEA in Brussels, we used one of their IKEA taxi vans to get it home, it’s basically an IKEA branded van that you hire from outside IKEA just like a Taxi (i.e. with a driver). Means you can find your own way there, and not worry about how you are going to get bulky items home. I don’t remember seeing these at the Edinburgh IKEA though.
I think you could also rent an IKEA van minus a driver for a couple of hours, but that would obviously mean having to return it back to IKEA after you’d dropped off your purchases at your house, requiring 4 journeys, so probably not the most environmental friendly method!
Aug 18, 2010 @ 23:39:59
I never saw these either on this trip. Funny old world. And why can’t you just order on-line in Scotland as in England?!!