Adventures in Merchandising

When you get married Everyone has some piece of advice for you. Believe me, all night at our wedding people were saying "If you do this.....you marriage will last forever" or "you know what the secret to a good marriage is?" Then their statement would either be some actual piece of advice but most of the time, it's some joke about always doing what your wife says or learn the phrase "yes dear.....anything you say dear." Well I'll tell you what, I've learned what the secret is, it's the ability to put off everything you want to do to head to Ikea. On Saturday I got the pleasure of not surfing or watching any college football so we could head to San Diego for some good ole Swedish merchandising. What's even more funny about this, since we used to live in Utah, this was the first Saturday trip to Ikea we'd ever made. See, we would always save our trip's for Sunday morning since 98% of the state was spending the morning at Church.

Well, the point of this story is the layout of Ikea. If you've ever gotten to spend a wonderful weekend day wandering inside of these giant stores, you have had the chance to see a crazy demonstration of Merchandising. I've always been amazed at the amount of house products that they have put together, how they've actually set 20 tables with all different items and then assembled and made 40 different beds. This trip was also different because it was the first time that someone seemed as confused about how to navigate this wonderland of Allen Keys and brightly colored cups as we've been. As we wandered through the light section, we were approached by another confused customer. "Hey Guy" he says to me "I'm all turned around in here, do you know where the exit is?" I couldn't help but laugh and say "I think it's that way" while pointing to what seemed like it could be the way out. What's interesting about this, is that of all the people around, for some reason, I looked like I knew where the exit was. Either he could tell that I've got plenty of Ikea experience or I had that "get me the hell out of here right now" look on my face.

So, if you've never gotten to experience this place, then by all means, cancel anything fun you've planned this weekend and get ready for the most baffling shopping ordeal of your life. But when I'm there I can't help but wonder, do people ever get so lost in their maze of products that they end up spending the night?