IKEA through the eyes of an 87 year old

i had a really interesting afternoon. i took my 87 year old grandmother to IKEA for the very first time. i got her there by bribing her with the promise of decent swedish meatballs (her mother came to America from Sweden in the early 1900s) and lots of eye candy. let me back up first by saying that my grandmother is in a monogomous relationship with Sears and has been for 60+ years. i think the only thing she doesn't buy there are groceries and she would do that if they sold them. shopping at Sears in fashion place mall has been part of her life my entire life. she goes there to use her 20% discount card, but i think it is more about her knowing the store, knowing the products that they sell and feeling comfortable with that as a customer. she genuinely has a relationship with the brands and even the employees at her sears store. i went there with her a couple weeks ago to buy an iron and both the manager and the woman at the counter knew her name. isn't that crazy?

so today's exposure to the universe that is ikea was especially foreign to her. i don't think she was at all prepared for the scope and breadth of what they sell. i don't know if i'm really prepared for it! the amount of physical stuff to look at is boggling and definitely over-stimulating. modern day consumerism is its own unique thing. it is like shopping on steroids. and i think we've all gotten a bit used to it. row after row of plenty.

today's visit to ikea highlighted to me just how far we've gone beyond the kind of shopping my grandmother does. for one, i don't think anyone is brand loyal enough to make a store their one and only, despite the fact that more than ever individual stores like Target and Walmart carry everything one could possibly need under one roof. and being unaware of what exactly the inventory inside the 4 walls of a store is, is part of the madness and/or charm of the modern day shopping experience. we don't want to already know everything they have, we like to round that corner and see the new, new thing, don't we? i haven't known the person selling me something (other than insurance or a house) on a first name basis maybe ever. it just isn't part of the way it works anymore.

we certainly have become very savvy at shopping as a people. we can hang with a zillion end cap displays and we can discern the subtle difference between being identified as a walmart or a target shopper. the whole consumer experience is much more varied and takes up a lot more time, but since shopping has become an actual past time in our country, that is something we have all accepted, which is ironic since the demise of the mom and pop stores, and the rise of things like ikea, really happened because of the allure of convenience. getting everything all in one place, or increasingly all in one store has become more of the norm than going to separate little storefronts for everything on your list. but it is sad to think what is lost without the small shops...the relationships with the people who own and run the store, and the expertise it takes to run a store with a limited inventory of a certain thing. if you sell knives and nothing else, i imagine you really get to know your knives. and what's more, your store has an actual point of view. the owner has chosen to sell these certain things most likely because they think they are good, quality products. i don't know if i can be so sure that my chain grocery store or the franchise at the mall is so conscious of why and what they sell.

getting back to ikea, despite these musings, i would say my grandmother's feeling abut ikea was really positive. she enjoyed the "modern" "substantial" stylings (her words) and seemed genuinely to enjoy herself. but buy something? no way. she wasn't the least bit interested in taking anything home with her. she even tried to talk me out of the $1 ice cream cone for cleo at the end of our trip, saying it was just too expensive for plain old vanilla. when is the last time you went into a store and walked out with nothing?

p.s. i can't resist giving a plug for something ikea related but with a definite twist towards the subversive. check out http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ the entire blog is dedicated to the ways people have reconfigured products ikea sells for their own uses. some are ingenious, some are downright hilarious, but mostly i love the way people have found ways to personalize something as mass produced as a piece of ikea furniture. i find that very inspiring. enjoy.