Day 9...
OK, now things took a bit of an odd turn today.
In the ongoing effort to analyze how to redecorate our house, we went to the IKEA store today in New Haven. It's not that the place wasn't good, it was ok. Just ok. We probably won't buy anything from there for our house.
But it was the nature of the shopping experience that gets you.
They trap you.
IKEA is a Swedish company that sells minimalist, Europeanesque items at a slight discount because you have to assemble the furniture yourself. That summary is the the uninitiated, of which there are probably only a few amongst our blog readers.
Here's what I mean by "they trap you". You walk around the store, look at a few items and them walk on. If you, like we, are ready to leave about half way through the store, that's too bad. You have to walk through the rest of the store on the way to the exit.
As we walked along, it occurred to me that the business model of this company presumed that humans could be made to mimic lab rats. And they have achieved the perfect plan to achieve that - make the exit at the end of the maze.
Now, I don't begrudge anyone their business model. IKEA is a good company in many ways, for sure. But this was a bit strong handed. After the cowskin rugs (which we liked), we were ready to leave and had formed our opinion of IKEA such that we were not going to seek one out in North Carolina. But we had to walk past the greenhouse, carpets, and outdoor furniture sections before we were permitted to get out of the store. It was different.
We saw an Amish family at IKEA. I was as puzzled by their presence there as I am about why "Amish" is an option on FaceBook's pull-down menu for religious affiliation. Are they changing? I guess so.....
And where do they live in this very expensive and densely-populated state that has very little farm land?
And such was our day today.
We'll be back soon for a lengthy stay in a couple of weeks, I'll explore New Haven in greater depth. It is the city where Tara and I fell in love, so it is special to us. And it has become almost hip in the last five years, so we're really enjoying it.
