A Visit to Ikea, or Playing It Safe

A Full Load, originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

Nothing shakes your faith in humanity quite like a visit to humanity. To get the full effect, make the visit while you're still sick. That'll really do it.

The people there exude a strange mix of competition, aggression and fear that puts everybody on edge. Generally, I try to go in the evenings or during weekdays, to avoid the worst of it. However, Lorna's family are coming to stay, so we needed the new sofa bed pronto.

I sat, waiting for something from the warehouse, and looking at the tills. All I could thin about was the tens of thousands of homes, all done up with the same furniture. It depressed me thoroughly. Ikea, for all its “laugh at designers” advertising and cheap prices, still manages to produce goods that are boring and, basically, bland. It wraps safety in a veneer of design, and I hate it.

I hope that it's our last trip there in a while.