The newest IKEA in the land is now open quite close to us. We had an invitation to a preview open-day on Tuesday and late afternoon we made our way along.
I'm pretty sure that IKEA grapples with the challenges of road systems and parking, with my memories of huge delays when foolishly visiting an IKEA in Southampton at a weekend and long delays at one close to Bristol. Both times within sight of the store but unable to get in for over an hour.
I gather there's 21 of them in the UK now, so presumably the pressure on individual stores reduces, although, IKEA is still an example of destination shopping, with this one 90 minutes closer to the far west than the prior one. I think the nearest one to Penzance is in Brest.
Anyway, this one has its own slip roads and traffic lights and for these early days a series of cones to regulate traffic flow. A right turn into the site has been coned off and a way to access it from a nearby housing area has also been coned.
Our own journey was therefore easy and reminded me of the simple way to access the IKEA adjacent to Metro Centre in off-peak times. I suppose IKEA have done a soft start to the store, with a friends and family day, press day, 'locals' day and 'family card members' day all ahead of the main opening.
Sure enough, there was music and balloons as we approached, but once inside it was just like walking around in any large IKEA store. Arrows on the floor. Plenty of Billy and Kallax and the cafe just before the marketplace. A feature here, which I don't remember from other stores, was the special shortcut signage reminiscent of a tube line graphics. And there was an outdoor living area in a greenhouse. By the end there were plenty of lanes open to avoid any early rumours of excessive queueing.
So far it all seems to have worked, although there's an upcoming test when The Chiefs, the County Show, the Scouts and Guides camping weekender and the new IKEA all compete for roadspace.
I must remember to stay away from that particular stretch of road.
2 comments:
I rarely get to go to Ikea because my nearest is over an hour and a half away on the M6, so that's not my idea of fun on any day!
They might have made it a little more attractive from the outside.
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