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This is unfortunately true for my country as well. Online catalog is not on par with regular store availability. It's even weirded if you take into account that

by szszrk 6y ago

This is unfortunately true for my country as well. Online catalog is not on par with regular store availability. It's even weirded if you take into account that their delivery fees are very high. It's often cheaper to buy small amounts of IKEA goods from resellers that just go to IKEA and buy it for you, then ship with standard services. Does US stores also have the ability to pick items up from a warehouse next to their stores? Btw. how is this option also a paid one is beyond me. This is unfortunate as they have a really cool offer of smart devices (lights, remotes, battery powered blinds, etc), which by default are not online (can be connected with things like google now but it's limited to local physical gate device by default). It's hard to actually buy all of these in one place, you have to hunt.

MrGilbert 6y ago
> Does US stores also have the ability to pick items up from a warehouse next to their stores? Btw. how is this option also a paid one is beyond me. That's because every IKEA store is it's own warehouse. Everything you can see is the stock. There is only a small part where you can store stuff. So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it. It's basically a "convenience fee", because it's more expensive for IKEA to collect it for you then you collecting it. I'm not here to judge, though...
- szszrk 6y ago
  You are right that it is work that needs to be done and should be paid for, but some local companies offer transport plus assembly in the price of IKEA transport only. Also in Poland availability is different when I try to buy same thing online, check if it's present in local store, or order the same item to be picked up by myself from warehouse next to store. It's even weirder! Sometimes I order things that are "present in my local store" with transportation, but the actual transportation is made from a central warehouse in different part of the country. So IKEA's "availability" is clearly a concept very different from what client might think. > So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it. Here warehouses are usually buildings next to the actual store. So in either case employee has to pick it up from warehouse, but with "pick up from warehouse yourself" option they don't need to transport it to the store next by. I still have to pay for that extra. It's just weird.
  - asdfaoeu 6y ago
    Maybe those other companies are just rolling the price into the cost of the goods? I looked here at a competitor and they were both charging AUD$69 for the delivery of a sofa.
  - l33tman 6y ago
    It's a bit complicated to compare the fees of a company like IKEA to the fees of small local companies, in that business sector I'm willing to guess there's a large fraction of non-tax-paying companies with worker unions non-existant etc. IKEAs online experience is glossy but horribly non-functional, agreed :/ Had that experience in Sweden as well. There is simply no way to buy something which isn't in stock in the local warehouse either, their support actually told me to "try to buy it every day".
Spooky23 6y ago
Ikea stores are franchises. Part of their operating model is that the store is the warehouse and the warehouse the store. That makes online commerce challenging as there is always a tension between the stakeholders who "owns" the sale. I went to the Ikea in Brooklyn back in November... in that store because of limited space they actually put up a tent in the parking garage for fulfillment. It just worked awkwardly. Other than that, the magic of a place like Ikea is they source from a global market and make it magically appear. In 2020/2021, the magic is broken because global supply chains are broken. In my own business, I have about 18 people working on sourcing various commodities, where as in 2019 we had 4 doing the same job.

by szszrk 6y ago

MrGilbert 6y ago

> Does US stores also have the ability to pick items up from a warehouse next to their stores? Btw. how is this option also a paid one is beyond me. That's because every IKEA store is it's own warehouse. Everything you can see is the stock. There is only a small part where you can store stuff. So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it. It's basically a "convenience fee", because it's more expensive for IKEA to collect it for you then you collecting it. I'm not here to judge, though...

szszrk 6y ago
You are right that it is work that needs to be done and should be paid for, but some local companies offer transport plus assembly in the price of IKEA transport only. Also in Poland availability is different when I try to buy same thing online, check if it's present in local store, or order the same item to be picked up by myself from warehouse next to store. It's even weirder! Sometimes I order things that are "present in my local store" with transportation, but the actual transportation is made from a central warehouse in different part of the country. So IKEA's "availability" is clearly a concept very different from what client might think. > So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it. Here warehouses are usually buildings next to the actual store. So in either case employee has to pick it up from warehouse, but with "pick up from warehouse yourself" option they don't need to transport it to the store next by. I still have to pay for that extra. It's just weird.
- asdfaoeu 6y ago
  Maybe those other companies are just rolling the price into the cost of the goods? I looked here at a competitor and they were both charging AUD$69 for the delivery of a sofa.
- l33tman 6y ago
  It's a bit complicated to compare the fees of a company like IKEA to the fees of small local companies, in that business sector I'm willing to guess there's a large fraction of non-tax-paying companies with worker unions non-existant etc. IKEAs online experience is glossy but horribly non-functional, agreed :/ Had that experience in Sweden as well. There is simply no way to buy something which isn't in stock in the local warehouse either, their support actually told me to "try to buy it every day".

Spooky23 6y ago

Ikea stores are franchises. Part of their operating model is that the store is the warehouse and the warehouse the store. That makes online commerce challenging as there is always a tension between the stakeholders who "owns" the sale. I went to the Ikea in Brooklyn back in November... in that store because of limited space they actually put up a tent in the parking garage for fulfillment. It just worked awkwardly. Other than that, the magic of a place like Ikea is they source from a global market and make it magically appear. In 2020/2021, the magic is broken because global supply chains are broken. In my own business, I have about 18 people working on sourcing various commodities, where as in 2019 we had 4 doing the same job.