Ikea the supermarket

Last week I was leaving the office when I met a friend. He was so surprised when I told him that I was going to the Ikea Coventry store to have lunch with my wife and son. "Are you sure?" he asked.

He is looking forward to visiting the restaurant on his first ever trip soon.


My son fell asleep in the shopping trolley during a recent trip to the Coventry store.


Anyway, most people still see Ikea as a furniture store but strangely we rarely buy furniture though we are regulars at the store. Most of the time, we usually go to eat there but we do end up buying something or the other - a picture frame, candles, rugs or even plants. This may be de to the fact that we don't change furniture that often.

They have also started selling luggage, books, electrical equipment and even soap. In the future we may actually see Ikea transformed into something like Marks and Spencer (another favourite store of ours) selling everything from food and clothes to furniture and electrical equipment.

First Commentator:
Lynne

Thrice to Ikea in 2 weeks

I am sure we are the customers that retailers dream about - I mean we went to the Ikea store in Coventry three times in 2 weeks. Not that we have a lot of money to spend but the kids were restless at home and it's freezing cold to go roaming anywhere else. So thinking about a warm place where the kids can play supervised for free, with affordable yet good warm food and maybe grab some bargains at the same time - well the Ikea Coventry store is the only place which ticks yes to all the points above.

Anyway, we were there yesterday - again, to buy the Sultan Sova mattress for our daughter and a new shower curtain. So we left our daughter at Smaland. It's on the third floor near the checkouts. We then went up to the 4th floor where the customer returns are located to return a cup. We had bought it the last time we had been there and later on discovered that it had a chip when we reached home. I didn't think they would but they gave us a refund.

We had gone there to buy the mattress and curtain but along the way some candles went into the trolley, as did a few slippers which were on sale for only 10p a pair, some gift wrappers (49p), a set of glass tumblers, a cup and some items from the bargain corner.

I finally found the 'UK at home' book as I was browsing around for bargains near the checkouts. The book costs £19 but I got it for free thanks to a coupon I had received sometime back and I got a further £10 discount (another coupon) as well.

Took out my daughter from Smaland and we had an early dinner together at the restaurant.

It was a nice day out.

Ikea Coventry sale

Both my wife and I are Ikea fans and we decided to pay the Ikea Coventry store in the city centre a visit yesterday. The Ikea store here celebrates their first birthday and we were expecting some celebrations but were disappointed to find out there weren't any.

I had received a few coupons (for being a loyal Ikea customer) and one of the coupons was for a free copy of their new coffee table book 'UK at Home'. Was quite disappointed when I found out that it was not available in the store and the staff apparently did even know anything about it.

We didn't have anything in mind and had gone there to browse through and grab a bite. However, as it usually happens, we came back with a car boot full of stuff. We didn't buy any furniture but we got some great steals from their bargain corner.

They had cut prices on a number of products. I guess the credit crunch has hit them as well and like other retailers are trying to pull in their customers with bargain offers. The choice of candles was amazing - in various shapes and sizes and with different aromas. My wife grabbed a few. Our house smelt of apples and berries nice last night.

We also grabbed a bite at their restaurant.


Anyway, their winter sale starts tomorrow.

Empty Coventry Ikea store

Just got back from Nottingham where I had spent the night together with the wife and kids. Had a wonderful dinner yesterday at our friend Amrul's house. Not many guys like cooking but it's a fact that some of the best cooks are men. Amrul happens to be one of them. He loves cooking. He has a nice kitchen fully furnished with Ikea furniture in the house he's renting. Our small kitchen looks terrible in comparison.

Talking of Ikea, we visited the huge Ikea store here in Coventry on Tuesday. Both my wife and I, are long time Ikea fans and if we had the choice (and money), we would equip the entire house with Ikea furniture and stuff.

Anyway, when we entered the store, we were shocked when we found that there was absolutely no one around - not even the store employees. It was like we had the entire store to ourselves. We did get to see a couple of other customers after a few minutes. But having got used to crowded Ikea stores in Malaysia, it was a big surprise. Made me wonder whether the Coventry store is making any money at all.

We also decided to try out the food here. The food was great and quite cheap. Reminds me of the days in Malaysia when we used to go to the Ikea store for food.

We had wanted to grab a few items but like usual ended up with a whole shopping cart load of items. Looks like more DIY time for me.

My Boxing day in Coventry

If you are in the UK, I am sure you are aware of the crazy scenes in stores all over the country. Yes! I am talking about the Boxing day sales. I am not really into branded stuff and I didn't join the people flocking to the West Orchard shopping centre nor did we drive up to the Bull Ring in Birmingham.



I did do some shopping though. Drove down to the nearby Go Outdoors store with our friend, Kyrzul who's visiting us. A bit disappointed because I had been expecting lower price cuts but bought some stuff anyway.

We later went to see 'I am Legend' at Odeon - my first time there. The movie was simply amazing. One of the best I have seen in a while, maybe except for Transformers.

Anyway, after the movie as we had about an hour to kill before the next bus (buses ran every hour for Boxing day), so we dropped by Ikea. The store opened on 16th of this month. No! I wasn't there at the opening. It is huge - slightly less in area than the store in Damansara, Malaysia. For your information, the store in Coventry covers 24000 square meters while the Ikea store in Mutiara Damansara is the largest in Asia with a shop floor area of approximately 270000 square feet (25000 square meters). There were some fantastic deals and of course more shopping.

How was your Boxing day?

Job search update August

I went for an interview yesterday (the second one since I moved to Coventry). It went off quite well. At least I think I did. However, I don't really know as I thought that my previous interview went off really great as well. No! I didn't get that job.

Coming back to the interview. It was an interesting experience because it was the first one where I had to take a practical test to test my skills before the actual interview. I was really nervous and hope I did OK.

So my job hunt is in full swing. I have been applying for all kinds of jobs - left, right and centre and am not even restricting myself to managerial or supervisory positions anymore.

Last Thursday, read this ad in the newspaper saying that IKEA was looking for customer service, checkouts, sales, food services and warehouse staff. So I drove to the IKEA Recruitment Centre at Saturn Facilities, Lockhurst Lane. There was no one manning their counter when I got there. The receptionist for Saturn Facilities there, asked me whether I had brought along my CV. I had rushed there without thinking and so I went back home, printed my CV and came back again. I dropped it off with the same receptionist.

So far no reply from them.

On Friday, I also dropped by the Adecco office in the City Centre. They are supposed to be UK's largest recruitment agency and if anyone can help me get a job, it's them.

Here's their address: 12-16 Trinity Street, Coventry, CV1 1FL. Tel:024 7655 9655, Fax:024 7625 1699.

Kylie, the lady who talked to me was really helpful and asked me to email her my CV. She asked me to send her two versions - a detailed one and another scaled down version. I am still waiting for a reply from her as well. So you can see that I am waiting for a lot people to get back to me.

Ikea in Coventry

As a long time fan of Ikea, I was really excited when I heard that they were going to open a store here in Coventry. This store on Queen Victoria Road, is the first one to be built in a City centre shopping area. Work started on the site on 15 May last year and is scheduled to open later this year.

The building will be seven storeys high, three of which will be for parking and another three for stores (with a store space of 24,000 square meters).

Ikea's decision to open a store is a boon for Coventry which has seen an exodus of businesses and public services leaving the city in the past few years. The new store is expected to create around 1000 new jobs here.

Right now, they already have a small store open at 2 Croft Road, CV1 3AZ.

Would definitely love to work with them. Since they are recruiting, I thought it would be a good idea to send in an application too. Unfortunately, have been rejected twice.

Guess I will have to send in an application again.

My ebay computer

I love small laptops for their portability. However nothings beats a proper PC when it comes to everyday computing, playing games, editing photographs, designing websites and crunching numbers on the SPSS statistical software. I simply hate typing on the cramped tiny keyboard.

Even though I have tried the so called "desktop replacement laptops" said to be fastest growing segment in the portable computer market, I never really liked them. It's kind of funny when you look at the term itself. I mean is it a desktop or laptop?

We were also tired of fighting over the only lap top we have (actually belongs to my wife). It's quite fair as she needs it for her research work. So we finally decided to buy a PC.

When we checked around, we were quite shocked with the prices of PCs here in the UK. They even have insurance for computers. It is not surprising considering that almost everything comes from overseas. I am beginning to really miss Low Yatt plaza.

So in the end we ended up looking on eBay UK, our favourite e-commerce site.

Over a period of 2 weeks starting 16 of November, we bid on and lost and won several items. And yesterday, I have everything I needed.

1. AMD ATHLON 1.3 GHz powered PC (Refurbished) with 256 MB RAM and 40 GB HDD. Price: £47 (the most costly item).

2. A0C 17" CRT monitor (Used). Price: £2.20.

3. BENQ X530 Wireless keyboard and mouse + Misson 2.1 Multimedia speakers (Brand new). Price: £22.01. This was my best deal because the speakers alone costs £17.75 in the market.

4. Internal Wireless PC LAN PCI card Adaptor (brand new). Price: £14.

Of course we need a table to put the computer on:
5. Ikea Mikael Computer Table (Almost new). Price: £4.99.

The total cost: £90.20 (RM640.29 approx.).

Of course, this does not include the cost of petrol. I had picked up most of the stuff from the sellers' homes myself. This had two advantages - 1. I saved on postage charges and 2. It helped me familarise myself with the various roads. While fetching the stuff, I also passed by some very interesting and historical sites. For example, the Temple Ballsall in Fen End, Warwickshire. As the name suggests, it is related to the Knights Templar. Though I wanted to, I couldn't stop by as I had to rush back to Coventry. Maybe later.

Tags: eBay Temple Balsall PC

Going to Ikea for food

I suddenly realised that our daughter now decides many of our joint decisions. Like last Friday we wanted to go and have an early dinner and couldn't decide the venue. So we aked Rahil, our daughter who is now 2 years and 7 months old. She said "Ikea" without any hesitation and Ikea it was. It's quite funny I know. People go to Ikea to buy furniture. We go there for the food.

This morning I was listening to Mix FM and heard this ad about a new Condominium. It was too good to be true but since it is not 1st of April, I guess it is. They were offering a free car to anyone who buys a condo unit and best of all, buyers can move in straight away. I wish I had delayed my decision to buy the Flora Damansara apartment.

Till now we haven't been able to get any tenant for our apartment unit though we have received a lot of enquiries. Most people told us that it was too costly. Others wanted us to install kitchen cabinets, airconditioning and water heater, without increasing the rental. So we are still waiting.

While eating breakfast today morning, we came to the conclusion that maybe we should lower the rental (we are asking for RM900/per month) even though we would be losing money. Right now supply is more than the demand and there are other similar units available for only RM800/month rent. Maybe we made a mistake of partly furnishing our apartment. Till we get someone, it is our weekend home.

Related post: Apartment to Let

Tags: Apartment Ikea

Ikea and Mamak

Ikea has nothing to do with Mamak stalls (unless some mamak puts Ikea funiture in his stall). Just wanted to make the title interesting. Actually these are my #5 and #6 photos for the 30 Days of Photos Challenge, respectively.



Taken in the Ikea store in Damansara. After I took this picture, one of their staff (a girl) came up to me and told me that photography is not allowed. I didn't see any warning anywhere. Well! No more free advertising for you guys then.



My favourite mamak stall. We will normally have our breakfast of 'roti canai' or 'nasi lemak' with a cup of hot 'teh tarik' almost every morning. For those who didn't know, 'mamak' refers to the ethnic Indian Muslim comunity in Malaysia.

Tags: 30dayphoto Ikea Mamak Photography

Ikea Kitchen Planner

I can hear some guys going, “Not Ikea again!”

Yes! This is another Ikea post.

If you have visited the Ikea Malaysia website, I am sure you would agree with me that it is pretty boring. There is just a map of the location and Store locator and an online catalogue in the pdf format.

Just compare it with their site in Singapore, , which is much more interesting and informative.

Anyway, while we were in Ikea on Friday, we were surveying the furniture in the Kitchen section when we noticed some of their staff playing around with the computer. Out of curiosity we went to take a closer look and discovered that it was a kitchen planner.

It is a software where you “can customise your layout, drag and drop kitchen units, and appliances and view the layout from different perspectives.”

My wife was telling me how great it would be if we could have that software on our computer so we could design our dream kitchen at leisure.

Yesterday, my wife informed me that the software was available for download from the Ikea Singapore website. In fact she had already downloaded it and was playing around with it.


Screenshot

Try it out. However, it is a ‘PC only’ software. Sorry Apple fans.

IKEA the Right Choice

If you were in Ikea yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, you might have noticed a guy busy dismantling a bed near the customer service area. Yeah! That was me.

Our new apartment is completely bare except for the electrical switches and plumbing. As we didn’t take the renovation package offered by the developer, we have to do it ourselves, one step at a time.

Do it yourself (DIY) is still a new concept here in Malaysia. However, as prices of services go up, I reckon that DIY is going to get more and more popular here in the future. Ikea is the pioneer of this movement (at least in furniture) and creating more Prosumers (a consumer who is also a producer) in the process. Anyway, going back to my story...

- First of all, we have to fix the lights (13 in total) and 3 ceiling fans.
- Then fix grills to the windows and door. At the same time, fix railings for the curtains.
- Next would come other furnishings including wardrobes and kitchen cabinets.

As money is a constraint, we decided to go for stuff, which is good quality, reasonably priced, yet doesn’t look cheap. Some of you might be asking “Where Got like that?” (Manglish).

Read on my friend and you will discover that quality, style and cheap prices do indeed come together (sometimes).

Of course, our first destination was the Ikea store in Damansara (5 minutes away from our new apartment). We paid several visits this month to look for ideas, as well as to survey the prices. Before you ask, yes! We also visited dozens of furniture malls around the Klang valley as even paid second hand furniture shops in Taman Tun a visit.

After looking around quite a bit, we were either not happy with the quality or the price. Some “Super Sale” deals came with hidden conditions or were of crappy quality. The “quality” stuff came at super prices too.

In the end, we have decided to completely furnish our house with Ikea stuff. Well! Actually partly furnished.

We spent last Friday and Saturday buying all the lights, light bulbs, 2 ceiling fans, several curtain railings, 1 Queen size bed, a single bed, a wardrobe and a table. Apart from the fans, we bought all the rest from Ikea – all of it for less than Rm1000/

Which brings to the first part of my post. What was I doing dismantling a bed?
No! I did not get a part time job in Ikea.

On Friday, we discovered this place in Ikea, which we had never explored before – the ‘As Is’ section. This section carries old showroom furniture (technically, it’s not second hand), slightly damaged stuff and old stock.

Even though the stuff here does not have any warranty, a lot of it is in great condition. We bought the table, the curtain railings and the two beds here. The Queen size bed was a real bargain (we got it at a fraction of their real price) because it had a small chip on the headboard - nothing that a small paint job won’t fix.

Anyway, while paying for the stuff, the cashier mentioned that we would have to dismantle the furniture ourselves with tools provided at the service counter. It was not something I had been looking forward to actually but I had no choice or so I thought.

I spent nearly an hour dismantling the two beds with help from the Ikea staff (and their tiny S shaped screws), when we casually asked one of them about the delivery services. The guy gave me a strange look and told me: “Oh! If you use our home delivery service you don’t have to dismantle the furniture. Our staff will do it for you.”

[NOTE: All delivery within the Klang valley will cost you RM65/ for any number of items. If you want them to assemble the furniture for you, that's an extra 5% of the cost of the products.]

I felt like a complete idiot - all the hard work for nothing. I could only look at the bright side. At least I know how to dismantle them we want to move anywhere next time.

Would love to design the kitchen and fix the cabinets myself – when we have more money. And probably all the stuff will be from Ikea.

Ikea With Rahil

This friday, went to the Ikea store in Damasara (again!!). I suddenly realised that we had made 3 trips to the store this month alone. This time we were here to get the matress pad. I guess we are the kind of people that marketers love.

However, this time we made a mistake - that of bringing Rahil along with us. It was her nap time and she was really cranky. By the time we reached the kid's section, she was throwing a really big tantrum - screaming to the top of her lungs and crying with tears streaming down. The thing was that she wanted to run around and didn't want to be held. We put her on top of the trolly and quickly selected the Matress pad (Sultan Timan, which cost around RM500) and went as fast as we could to the checkout counter.

Along the way, I did pick up other stuff, like mirrors, pillows and a side table. After my wife had paid using her credit card, we quickly went down to the parking lot. I left them near the drop off space and went to fetch the car. To my horror, I couldn't find the car with fears rising. I ran around quite a bit with Rahil screaming "Baba, Baba" in the background.

I suddenly realised that we were on the wrong floor. I had parked the car at the lower parking PII. My wife was a bit cross with me as she was having a hard time with Rahil. Rahil finally calmed down after we started the car and went off to dreamland.I didn't even have time to pee even though I was about to burst and held on till I reached the house. She slept for nearly an hour.

A good lesson for both of us : never bring along Rahil when it's her nap time. She can get really cranky. However, it's a normal phase that a toddler goes through as she develops.

Ikea Mattress

My wife called me up this morning and told me that she was just preparing to leave for her office. It was around 11 am. She told me that she woke up late today. I was a bit worried at first - "Maybe she has a headache or something" and asked her whether everything was all right. Then I found out the reason why she woke up late - our new mattress.

I once read somewhere that we spend half of our lives on bed and it is absolutely necessary to invest in a good mattress. However, when we were about to get married, since we were on a tight budget, price was the major decision factor and we decided to go for a bargain. Wrong choice and after 2 years we finally felt the effects – back pain, restless sleep and so on.

We finally decided to get rid of our old bed and last Sunday, went down to Ikea store in Damansara. After going around trying out and literally sleeping on the various mattresses, we decided to go for the firm FängeboFORESTAD foam mattress (Queen size). It set us back by RM 995. This is excluding the RM60 delivery charges. Since we didn’t have any space to keep the old mattress, we had to pay the delivery people an extra RM30 to get rid of the old one.

The Ikea mattress is our choice because of 4 main reasons:
- Reasonable price
- Trusted quality
- 20 years warranty &
- Green rating from Greenpeace (I guess that's good).

It was delivered yesterday. No wonder my wife couldn’t wake up this morning.

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
My wife pulled me along with her to the Hush Puppy sale at the Armada Hotel in PJ. In the end I ended up spending more than her. Actually she bought 2 shoes and I bought only one - a pair from Obermain, which cost me only RM100. Yeah! even at a bargain, guys shoes cost more. Maybe its because we don't buy that often and only have a few pairs as compared to women.

Added this later:I have been here at the Armada hotels for various sales. In fact, I bought most of my Hantaran (Malay wedding gifts) at some of them. This time, it was a bit more organised with the organisers restricting the number of customers entering the hall. Last time, it was a riot with ladies pushing each other tugging and pulling. This time, the pushing and pulling was still on but on a lesser scale.

In the evening we finally watched Sepet. Correction: I finally watched Sepet. My wife had already seen it earlier on Wednesday. Anyway, tried to book 2 tickets at One Utama's TGV over the phone but found that it was fully booked. So decided to try our luck by queuing up for the 9:10 pm show. Found that the only seats available were those on the front row. We were really disappointed until the lady at the counter pointed out that we could wait till 8:40pm. They would then release those unsold seats booked over the telephone. We waited and got great seats, 3 rows from the back and in the center.

Regarding the movie, I guess I have nothing new to blog about. Yes its a great movie and I really liked it, I guess because it is like a breath of fresh air after all the Erra Fazira and fantasy based/Hindi movie clones. However, the scene transitions were sometimes a bit jarring. We laughed along with the others at some of the funny scenes. The sad scenes were a bit touching initially but the girls weeping at the back and in the front rows somehow made it funny. I recommend everyone to see this movie if you have not done so.

Saturday:
Went to Melacca for work again. Didn't have chance to explore the city again.

Sunday:
Went to Ikea in Damansara with Rahil tagging along. Our friend, Hardy gave us free vouchers worth RM100 and so we decided to do a bit of shopping. A tip: You can save on parking if you park at the Curve's parking, which is still free and then walk to the Ikano power center. Anyway, we didn't buy anything big and picked up some small stuff which cost altogether about RM60. So we have about RM40, which we must finish off before 16th March. We may have to come back for a bed set, which will set me back by more than a grand. Uh Oh.

My younger sister called me up from Australia to wish me Happy Birthday, a bit early. She will be here in Malaysia in April and she can't wait to see Rahil.

Monday:
Back to work in Kedah. It's my birthday but I will be celebrating it alone. My wife gave me a nice pen and a wallet (to replace my old one). Everyone loves presents and I am no exception. My sister called me to say that she has something for me when I come back next week. Keep those present coming.

I remember those days during my teenage years when I couldn't wait to be older. Its kind of funny but you keep reminiscing about those teenage years....