IKEA opened in the Boston area and I decided I had to try it out this evening. What a trip! It is enormous, larger even than the new IKEA store in Philadelphia. It was packed. There were security people directing traffic from two blocks away. And this at 7 on a Saturday night.
I took notes for a couple of needs in my new apartment, but I wasn’t able to find shades for the ceiling-fan lights with bare bulbs. I did pick up two boxes of those wonderful oat crisps with a chocolate layer, some crispbread, black currant preserves, and a tin of ansjovis for making janssons frestelse.
Är du svensk? Jag med! Been reading your blog for a while and may not be as enthusiastic about IKEA as you since it is part of the Swedish way of life. Almost everyone over here buy most of their furniture from IKEA which is a bit boring. It used to be the cheapest option but nowadays there are several good alternatives but not with so much different types of things. (I heard IKEA has been targeting the gay community in the US with marketing campagins. Thats funny since if they did that in Sweden their trademark would probably be considerably weakened. IKEA is one of the most important swedish symbols of normality. Being gay is not considered normal — not yet anyway.)
No, I’m not Swedish. I used a web translator page for that.
IKEA is spread thinly enough here in the U.S. that it’s not yet ubiquitous. There are lots of alternatives for inexpensive home furnishings, but IKEA has better quality in many cases.
There is considerable gay marketing here. In fact, in the new store in Stoughton there’s a sample apartment that has a cover of the Advocate (a gay magazine) pinned to a bulletin board.