Ikea is NOT the New Black

We had plans to hang out with our good friends the Dickey's today and Frances had a fabulous idea that we should load up the families (there would be 4 adults and 7 kids between us) and take a road trip to Ikea. I was all about it since I have been dying to go to Ikea since I heard it was open. Dying I tell you...in fact I've mentioned to Paul about 10 times that I was sure we'd find our playroom storage solutions at Ikea if we'd only go. He was a little less excited than me and I think her husband was even less excited than Paul but whatever..they agreed to go. So, we packed some snacks and loaded up the kids and off we went. The trip down was uneventful and we got to Ikea with only one potty stop. Excellent. We grab some carts, check out the childcare area and planned our attack. Since we could only leave the kids for an hour (we later (much later) found out you can leave them in more than once as long as there is 30 min between hours) we decided we'd keep them all with us until we couldn't stand it any longer. The older 4 kids could go into the area, leaving the little (but loudest) three. Not bad.

Ikea was just as I remembered it - big, lots of people and oh so many things that I just have to have. We headed upstairs to the showroom and began to look around. The main things on my list were storage solutions for the playroom and a computer desk. Right away I found some bookcases I liked but kept looking. We made our rounds upstairs and managed not to lose any kids (a big win) and actually found a storage system that would accommodate our needs in the playroom. Score one for Ikea! And it was reasonable priced! Score two for Ikea! We proceeded downstairs dropped the big kids off and set out for the Marketplace. Oh, the Ikea marketplace..so full of junk you don't need but is so cheap that you feel like you do need it. I was looking for some storage baskets for said storage unit so I hunted. And hunted. And couldn't find. Then we went to the self service area to check out our storage units. And they were out of stock on two of the shelves we needed. What?? Our time was up so we had to grab the kiddos and since kids eat free this weekend (!) we decided to eat before picking up the big stuff. After dinner and depositing the big kids back in the child care area we head over to get the big boxes. We find out the storage boxes are out of stock and "have been for a while now" and that the 2 shelves are also out of stock and will arrive in 8 weeks. Great. Just great. So much for getting the playroom organized this weekend. We decide to go ahead and get the big shelving unit that is conveniently packaged in 3 boxes. We grab them, check out and go to load up the truck (did I mention Steven has a truck - yay!) As Paul is loading in the boxes he notices one is damaged. This is not good. We have 10 min to get new boxes and get the kids. Paul takes all the boxes back in and of course they have no more on the shelf and "even if we had some up high, we don't get them down until 9pm..you can come back tomorrow to get one" is what we were told. What? Even if you had it you wouldn't get it down for us? Apparently that's how they roll at Ikea.

I'm so, so bummed. I loved this storage collection and to order it online would cost me $160.00 in shipping. Yes, $160!! I get that they are going to be out of stock on some things but they should put something on the displays in the showroom if they are going to be out of something for 8 weeks! Anyway..now I'm so over Ikea and I don't know if I'll be going back in 8 weeks to get my shelving system..maybe I'll find something better. So there Ikea.