The Ikea Mob Post

Ikea opened a new store here in Orlando on Wednesday. The store is right in the Millennia area and is about 2 minutes from my house barring traffic. Today however it took 20 minutes, a team of professional parking organizers, a squad of cop cars and guys yelling from rooftops to get in the damn place. It was a total mob-scene. I haven’t seen that many people in one place less maybe City Walk in the summer. Insane. The store itself is exactly like the Potomac Mills location in Virginia, so it wasn’t anything new for me really, but just getting through the serpentine showroom took the better part of an hour. Once I was inside I was just determined to get out, I’ll come back in a month too see what’s there as far as stuff for the new apartment, its just too crazy at the moment. The parking lot overflowed and people where being parked, Disneyworld herd-style on surrounding grassy areas. There where guys positioned on rooftops yelling to their dispatch below where free spaces opened up, and guys on stilts talking over the sea of people. Inside there where mariachi guitarists wandering the showroom singing and playing away, as well as more stilt guys and balloon animals. It was a freaking carnival. How anyone could go through the relatively demanding Ikea checkout procedure in all that mess I have no idea. I wanted to chill and get some Swedish meatballs and see if it died down, but they had crowd control for the restaurant and a line at least 300 people long, so I ended up skipping that too in favor of hitting the local mall and getting some Christmas shopping done. I love merchandising and I love some good holiday hype- but this was too much even for my tastes. Black Friday is going to be a beast this year…