A few years ago I started meticulously planning each Ikea trip, with a checklist of things in the right order so we'd be able to breeze through there, I know mo

A few years ago I started meticulously planning each Ikea trip, with a checklist of things in the right order so we'd be able to breeze through there, I know most of the shortcuts and we buy other random junk only if it's something we really honestly forgot to put on the list. It's given me headspace to do some people watching and there really is what I call the trek of despair as couples and families are travelling the long, long trail set out for them by the Ikea psychologists. Some people aren't very sensitive to the general mood in their environment and I guess you wouldn't necessarily be stressed out if you are like that, and also not too budget-constrained and/or easily tempted, but for most people, the trail of many decisions is a tough one. You can't easily come back for something because it takes half a day to do this, so each decision not to get something matters, and every meter of the way there are a couple of microdecisions to make, and the sheer number of decisions is a pretty strong stressor. It's also physically exhausting, our Ikea is quite large, I get tons of steps on my Apple Watch each time I go there, all at a pretty slow pace because others are stalling for arguments (giving you more time to start your own ones), it's really quite insidious and I'm certain none of this is an accident. It feels a lot more engineered than a typical supermarket and I know some of the psych work that goes into laying out a supermarket and those people don't leave much to chance, so I think it's reasonable to expect Ikea as a company that started exerting super tight control on their brand experience before almost anyone else in that segment and who builds their own stores will do that to an even higher degree. I guess if this leaves you wholly unaffected and unbothered (big if, a lot of this is very subconscious) then you're a big outlier. Most people certainly soak up the vibe and get stressed out to varying degrees. It's actually quite striking if you have to go there on Christmas Eve (I once had) and find the whole store pretty much empty, it completely transforms the feel of the space into something pretty fun and positive. It's a weird, weird place.