IKEA

I'm cleaning out my laptop bag for the hell of it, and I come across a map from last week's trip to Chicago. Now you would think it'd be a map of Chicagoland or something, but that's just not true. It is a map to the Schaumburg IKEA.

This IKEA is probably one of the biggest single purpose stores I've ever been in. And actually, the nearby Woodfield mall is the biggest mall I've been in. Anyway, they handed out these maps as you walk in the store. And as soon as you get the map, there is an escalator staring you in the face. This implies that there's a second level to the store. True story there. But wait, not done yet. There's actually a third floor too. And these aren't any wimpy sized floors either. Each is probably around the size of your local small-town Walmart, if not bigger. According to wiki, the square footage is something like 458,000. When numbers start getting that high, it just gets translated to "big-ass building" in my mind.

What do they sell? Personally, I had no idea of who they were until a few months ago. But apparently they have anything you need to furnish an apartment/house. These floor listings are the main headings from the map. First floor: carpets, greenroom, garage/attic/basement. Second floor: bedrooms, bath, workspace/office, children's, seasonal stuff, lighting. Third floor: living rooms, home decor, dining, kitchens. Yep, they've got all that stuff. And a lot of it. Most of it is pretty cheap too. Granted, there's assembly required and it probably won't last forever. But hey, it's gotta be cheaper for a reason.

There were a couple of things that I'd never seen in a furnishings store. There's an escalator for carts. This guy runs right next to the people escalator. All you do is push your cart up to the cart escalator, it gets caught on some sort of latching, and then it goes up/down right beside you. There's also a restaurant, a cafe, and a bistro. Just in case you get hungry, sleepy, or anticipate road munchies apparently. About the last category, I saw a reasonable number of out of state plates. Kinda surprised me.

So yeah, the Schaumburg IKEA is a pretty big place with lots of cheap furniture. As a med student (aka poor student), there's a high probability I'll be getting some stuff from said IKEA. Kinda sucks that it's a thirty mile drive from my apartment though. Is there a chance the stuff I buy will 1.) be owned by a lot of other people or 2.) not last 10 years? Yes on both accounts. But hey it's cheap and it'll fill my apartment up. Besides, the only stuff I plan on paying decent money for are a mattress and a futon. I place semi-high value on my sitting and sleeping implements :D