Ikea, Finally

Michael In November '99, I reported once before that a large Ikea was supposed to open in Oakland, right on the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay. As a European, one probably can't imagine what it means to live without Ikea. The nearest store here was 400 miles further south, in Los Angeles! Well, the Oakland store opening finally came true, and it was announced with great fanfare. During the first few days, a raffle was drawn every hour, and whoever was standing in the checkout line won their purchases without having to pay anything. One weekend, we managed to stop by.

Coming from Munich originally, where there is regularly the so-called "Ikea Jam" on the autobahn offramp into Eching on weekends, we were used to the hype quite a bit, but we had never seen anything like this. The new Ikea in Oakland is indeed huge and features a gigantic parking lot the size as a football stadium, but the crowds were so large that security guards had to temporarily close the lot. The vehicles were then guided with red cones into an opaque maze, at the end of which they found themselves back on the highway before they knew it. We knew the area, drove to a nearby industrial area, and walked back to the store.

A line of people had formed in front of the entrance. To prevent people from trampling each other inside, they were only allowed in small groups, and only when some left the store, others were allowed to move in. The waiting time was about one to two hours--just to get into the store. That was too silly for us, so we drove home, planning to return a few weeks later when the excitement would have subsided a bit.

This time, we just managed to find a parking spot, immediately entered the store, and strolled through the aisles. Ikeas look the same all over the world: upstairs is for furniture displays, you mentally select what you want, and then pick it up downstairs. Once downstairs, instead of the selected piece of furniture, you find a red note on the corresponding shelf indicating that the item is out of stock. Frustrated, you buy a 100-pack of tea lights. The Ikea in Oakland, however, took it a step further: when we got downstairs, we only saw completely empty shelves--I was reminded of a visit to a department store in East Berlin in the mid-80s! Frustrated, we didn't even buy a 100-pack of tea lights but rather a useless little wooden box with drawers that were far too small, and we drove home.

The local press has already taken up the topic of "Ikea"--in an article in the San Francisco Examiner.

Meanwhile, the local press has taken on the subject, the a story in the San Francisco Examiner suggested to simply sell tickets in front of the entrance to at least make it look like a museum visit if no furniture could be found.