For:
1. a stool called Poäng? The two-seater sofa Knopprap? Vittsjö, our parlor table? Ikea product names are more entertaining than an entire season of “Big Bang Theory”.
2. wine rack Vurm also proves its worth as a shoe rack.
3 . interpreting the cryptic building plans brings back memories of the birthday when we tried to put together the Lego engineering car.
4. from Köttbullar to rollmops to hot dogs – culinary guilty pleasures as a timeout from the urban healthy hype. The safari through mysterious industrial zones always feels like a geographical expansion of our horizons.
5. for picnics, dirty laundry or transporting vinyl: the blue multifunctional Frakta bag is the most practical invention since, er, the Tamagotchi?
Against:
1st Saturdays at Ikea ruin weekends, relationships, even entire existences: traffic jams on the way to the store, the underground parking garage is like Tetris, while shopping we take body checks for an entire ice hockey career, at the checkout we stand with our feet so flat that they barely fit into our Täsjön slippers.
2 Thank you, old Swedes, for reminding us that we need, er, could use a cab poster for the bedroom.
3. the range reportedly comprises almost 18,000 items. Why do we always meet the same five people in other people’s homes?
4. a matter of faith? Ikea advertises the Family program so aggressively, while Scientology missionaries are veritable fabric softeners.
5 . speaking of family: the fear of being forgotten in the colourful ball pool traumatizes children by the hundreds, oh what: millions!
