Posts tagged as ‘ikea’
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I’m a frying pan.
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Okay, I Forgive You Conglomo-Ikea
Ikea has redeemed itself for its careless customer ways and organized a furniture swap right here in Amsterdam. On February 9th, up to 250 people will be allowed to bring in all their furniture (in all its CSI-inspired stained glory – both in Ikea and non-Ikea flavors) and swap it with the lucky few who were able to get in.
The dumpster diving affair is an attempt to encourage customers to “think like designers, which includes experimenting by rearranging furniture they already have” according to Springwise. After having just been to Ikea no less than two days ago, I also think the husselmarkt is also a viral part of Ikea’s most recent ad campaign, which is all about about moving furniture. On their Netherlands website the song featured in the flash animation for “Husselen die Meubels” (translated roughly as: “You have more in your house than you think, begin here with the moving …Move the Furniture!”) is also played over and over and over again in the store itself (which I didn’t understand at the time, I just thought they were trying to brainwash me to buy more light bulbs).
The following commercial has also been playing here in Amsterdam:
Which is supposed to inspire you to rearrange your furniture. Honestly, it’s an ingenious idea on the part of Ikea. After exhausting almost all of the human emotional reasons for visiting your local Ikea in their ads (including guilt), the last emotion they have left to exploit is “irritation”. Go ahead and rearrange the furniture in one room, and you’ll see just how many missing lamps, rugs, and extension cords you will notice you have to most undoubtedly pick up from (where else) Ikea.
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You Can Take Your Carbon Footprint and Shove It Up Your Ass
Today’s trip to Ikea brought not only the need to take public transport instead of “Silly”, the big silver bicycle I bought at the fietsfabriek before the new year (named for the “silly” little way it sends me to the ground every time the wind blows a little stronger than usual), but also the realization that if I had not had brought an extra tote with me, I would have been carrying back a lamp under my shirt, set of knife sharpeners in my backpocket, and three packs of batteries in my shoes. Everything else I would have had to leave at the cash register after finding out that Ikea has decided NOT to supply their customers with plastic bags for their purchases anymore. Now I’m as environmental as the next guy and happily supply my own tote going to the grocery store, but this is friggin’ Ikea, and no one wants to find out after spending an hour meandering through a giant warehouse of things you don’t really need that you can’t really take it all home. Honestly, a little warning would have been nice. Something along the lines of, “Please don’t enter this building if you don’t have the carrying abilities of the Hindu god Ganesha” by the ice cream machine would have been nice.
Meanwhile, the Rest of the Netherlands Has Decided to Kick Flooding in the Taco
Since the Netherlands isn’t really a country for warning, the next time Mother Nature comes knocking on Holland’s door threatening to flood (for the country’s overall attitude that a couple of dykes can prove she does not exist), the powers that be have decided to actually let her huff and puff and blow the doors in. It’s a new project called “Room for Rivers” in which the Dutch government is allowing the dykes in about 40 parcels of land that will now become flood zones. They have even convinced inhabitants of these areas to sell their land to the government and relocate. Apparently, even though some of the people who have to move squabble over the cost of their property, the government overall doesn’t seem to have that much trouble convincing them with their superior Dutch logic that it’s what’s best for the country. And it probably is. What other country would come up with a solution like, “Hey, those people are in danger. Let’s go ahead and move them”.