Brissie Mums Ikea stories needed

[mum_I'm_hungry]

Hi mummies :wave:. My name's Allison and I write a column in The Courier-Mail called Desperate Housewife and sometimes longer stand-alone pieces as well. I'm wanting to write a piece on the new Ikea at Logan and would love to hear your stories (good and bad). Personally, I know I knew the old store like the back of my hand. Until last week I was too scared to go to the new store at Logan (especially now I have two kids). I braved it and it was an, um... let's say 'interesting' experience! (Tears, tantrums, yelling, screaming and that was just me parking the car!!!). It would be great to hear how you went navigating the store. Did you take your kids? Leave them at home? Put them in the play area? Want to put your husband in the play area? Think there should BE a husband play area? Let me know your thoughts! :D

[jojojonsey]

My partner and I adore Ikea and have been really impressed with the new store. We went the week after it opened (after going around the block three times we eventually got past the police barricades and managed to find a relatively handy parking spot!). We have been twice more since then. Which is a lot considering we live over the north side of Brisbane and it can be up to a 40 minute drive.

We have two kids age 6 and 3 and I'm heavily pregnant with our third. The two kids are now the perfect age for the playcentre and love to spend the hour in the there drawing and playing - it's amazing the perfect behaviour in the car on the way there once they know where we are going!

My DP and I now know that we can do a good sweep of the new store exactly within the hour that they are playing. We walk around, child-free arm in arm cuddling and giggling like newly-weds. People often comment on my growing belly and they more often than not assume that it's our first and provide many knowing looks that seem to imply we don't know what we are getting ourselves in for.:)

[pom04]

Hi There

As pons my hubby and I love Ikea - and the new store is more on the scale of Ikea UK - we braved the new store with 7 month old twins!it was interesting to say the least !!

After two lift journeys with the big twin phil and teds we managed to get going - and I could get around most places without wrecking the displays - the change rooms are upstairs and I didnt have a look in - I was half way around downstairs later when I needed to do a bottle feed and getting back up to the other floor was not an option for the girls - they are like switches so we sort of knelt in a corner my husband and I mixing formula and giving bottles - getting very strange looks off two staff members - a settee here and there would be great I guess !!Must admit I found it a bit stressful - but its much more spacious than the old store where I used to get stuck with the pram in various nooks and crannies - ha ha !!

Claire

[pom04]

Hi There

As pons my hubby and I love Ikea - and the new store is more on the scale of Ikea UK - we braved the new store with 7 month old twins!it was interesting to say the least !!

After two lift journeys with the big twin phil and teds we managed to get going - and I could get around most places without wrecking the displays - the change rooms are upstairs and I didnt have a look in - I was half way around downstairs later when I needed to do a bottle feed and getting back up to the other floor was not an option for the girls - they are like switches so we sort of knelt in a corner my husband and I mixing formula and giving bottles - getting very strange looks off two staff members - a settee here and there would be great I guess !!Must admit I found it a bit stressful - but its much more spacious than the old store where I used to get stuck with the pram in various nooks and crannies - ha ha !!

Claire


oops that should say POMS!!!not pons!!

[mum_I'm_hungry]

Did anyone else go to the parents room near the cafe? I was actually really unimpressed with this -- the chairs were terrible for feeding in and what really got me was that they had placed them in front of the sliding glass door that you needed to enter/exit from. This wouldn't have been so bad if the parents room was the last room down the hall all the toilets/parent room was situated along, but the parents room was actually the first room along. This meant that everyone (men and women) walked past the door to get to their respective toilets. Only part of the parents room door was frosted glass, so everyone could see you feeding. I'm no prude, but it was kind of embarrassing for both them and me. People would look in (just because the door was there and you could see in), realise what you were doing and quickly look away. :o

We had a good visit otherwise. Except for the domestic we had to have about one of the items I wanted (hey, it wouldn't be a trip to Ikea without a domestic!). What really cracked us up, though, was one of the calls that came over the loudspeaker... 'Code 300 in Small Land. Code 300 in Small Land'. I guess it sounds bad to say, 'Big poo in Small Land.' The whole store had a huge laugh on hearing this. :laughing:

[Seekrit]

I love Ikea. Ask my husband, one way to get my eyes to light up is saying "So hun, want to go to Ikea?" last time we were there we spent 3 hours... didn't realise it was possible but hey, it was. And did we buy what we were there for? No, of course not. Did we buy about 10 other things? Absolutely!

I only have 1 major gripe (which turns to 3 smaller ones) about Ikea. The 1 major one is the parents room. The chairs aren't really breastfeeding friendly Cobey kicks his legs up against the side as a game. (that's 1)
What in the heck is it with the lip of the changing tables? Again, Mr Kicky-pants pushes himself away from me over to the wall to hit his head. (number 2)
And Number 3 is the Parents Toilet... I had *fun* trying to open the door... push my stroller in... balance the new glasses I'd bought and hope the door doesn't slam shut! I feared my newly bought glasses would smash everywhere! Thankfully I got in and out alive (no accidents! of ANY kind)
Oh wait, I remember another thing to whine about - if I may. THey have an area in the cafe for breastfeeding mothers.. I navigate my stroller around to that area, hoping to have a spot that I could sit, eat and feed my baby in privacy... however when I got there I noticed that it was simply another one of the ridiculas chairs (as mentioned at "number 1") no table that I could put my plate, nothing else.. Hmm..

But other than that gripe. Oh I love that place.

[TyBean]

Did anyone else go to the parents room near the cafe? I was actually really unimpressed with this -- the chairs were terrible for feeding in and what really got me was that they had placed them in front of the sliding glass door that you needed to enter/exit from. This wouldn't have been so bad if the parents room was the last room down the hall all the toilets/parent room was situated along, but the parents room was actually the first room along. This meant that everyone (men and women) walked past the door to get to their respective toilets. Only part of the parents room door was frosted glass, so everyone could see you feeding. I'm no prude, but it was kind of embarrassing for both them and me. People would look in (just because the door was there and you could see in), realise what you were doing and quickly look away.:laughing:

We went and lil man decided he needed a drink.... I agree with the change tables and chairs to feed in..... however.... I cannot breastfeed and there was no where to warm up bottles.... no bottle warmer... no microwave.... so we had to make a quick dash and head for our place.... not easy when you got to walk through half the store to get out..... It's not just bottles.... its solids for toddlers too.... there was no where to warm them up..... was not impressed about it in the slightest....
other than that it is more spaced out and I could get the prma around it well!!

[Spewiesmum]

We actually had heaps of trouble finding a stroller (?)trolley the first time we went (about a week after opening). We asked an 'un'seceurity guard and he radioed to such-and-such and informed us that there may have been some trolleys upstairs. We were downstairs an hour later before we came across a tonne of them. I don't know how, but we had no idea where the trolleys were kept at all.

We went again just two weeks ago (on a weekend). This time we parked in the sun on the roof but there were tonnes of stroller-trolleys just sitting lined up where customers had dumped them.

I was also unimpressed with the parents-room. Luckily we only had to change a nappy but I didn't really like how things were set out.

I don't like the way you are hearded through the store - it's kind of like the Sistine Chapel. If you want to stop to look someone had to stay with the trolley and DS while the other scrambled through people to look in the displays. The market hall is okay though.

Actually I don't like how the kids stuff is so close to the elevator and stairs either - DS was keen to throw himself down the stairs when he managed to break free.

And I love watching all the unattended kids balancing on top of the kids bit in the cafe while their parents sit with all the trolleys and prams on the other side saying "don't do that Johnnie". I can see a lawsuit coming on!!!

Oh - but I love Ikea!

[rachdent]

Hey Ali

I was thinking about a similar idea for an article a while ago - entitled 'On Taking a Male to Ikea' - but never did get round to submitting anywhere.

Anyway just wanted to say that my hubby despises the one-way system of the Ikea store and carpark! He purposefully finds the little sneaky walkthroughs that cut off parts of the stores as he wants to rebel against the store forcing people to look at absolutely everything!! Don't know if that will help you at all.

Good luck

[li'l mac]

Well I love the idea of Ikea's products (I'm a storage nerd) but it's just such a crazy shopping experience. I went there last week and it was incredibly busy, making everything that little bit more difficult. I agree with the others about the one way maze they herd you through, try doubling back to look at something you missed with a pram, it does NOT make for happy shoppers around you. I figured DS and I would have some lunch before driving home (30 min drive) but the lines were just so long that I decided instead to get something from a cafe nearby. Well they don't tell you that you won't get out of the store for another 30 mins due to the extra sections left to go through, then the warehouse type bit and then the long lines at the check out. Luckily I was armed with snacks so DS didn't eat my arm off in the meantime!

All in all, I'd only go there if I really knew what I wanted and couldn't get it anywhere else. It's just not convenient enough for me.

[SilverStarfish]

Did anyone else go to the parents room near the cafe? I was actually really unimpressed with this

I second that. Ikea Logan has one of THE WORST parent rooms I've ever had the misfortune to have to use. It's cramped, it's smelly and has practically no facilities at all. It's like they forgot about a parents room when they were building it and decided at the last minute to stick it in a spare boom cupboard!

You’d think in a brand new building that is bigger than the ‘Gabba they could have sprung for something a little bigger than your average wardrobe? I’m not kidding. You can’t fit more than about 6 prams in there without some serious precision parking (or stacking!) and there are TWO places on the bench for nappy changing. There are no facilities for heating food or bottles - though admittedly there is one in the cafe down the hall a little - and only ONE private area for breastfeeding. There are two other chairs in the main area… right in front of a clear glass sliding door! And the chairs are utterly IMPOSSIBLE to breastfeed in!! They have really high arms which makes it very difficult to feed without some serious baby origami.

Not Cool, Ikea :shame: For such a great store, with friendly staff and great focus on family and kid stuff, they really could have done better.

[rynosmum]

I must admit, I love the new Ikea.

I took my 2.5 year old on the 27th December - specifically to find things to decorate his room with.

There was plenty of parking right near the entrance. We wandered up and I put him in one of the small trolleys (the one with just a bag behind it) which is incredibly easy to use. We didn't have to wait long for the lift, navigated around our way around well (the one-way traffic seems to keep everyone moving well).

We spent $80 and found some fantastic items for DS's room. We stopped and ate at the cafe, it was great to be in a place with food that suited both of us at a reasonable price. The checkout was harmless and we easily got everything back to our car.

Ikea prides itself in low prices which it does fantastically well. The place is interactive so you can really get a feel for the furniture and other items. For the value of the products, I think the new place is exceptional.:thumbsup:

I didn't try the parent's room.

[nitty]

i love ikea, i go at least once a week for coffee, i put my 4yo in the play area and have a coffee before grabbing always one or two things. I find the change rooms downstairs better then the ones up the top.

some of the girls have complained about the chairs for breastfeeding but i love them. being a bigger girl i often have trouble with smaller chairs and these are great. however i often pop dana in the sling and feed her anywhere so im not really a shy one when it comes to feeding.

Only thing i think they need is a short cut to the checkouts. my 4yo had a huge paddy one day and i had to carry him all around the store to leave.