The Great Ikea Myth

A few days ago I read an article titled the Great Ikea Synagogue. The story went on to discuss the new owners of Ikea in Israel are Haredi Jews (in secular terms, Ultra Orthodox), how they had put in a synagogue so that men could pray there. (Men are required to pray(daven) 3 times a day.) So now, it would not be necessary for men to leave the store to daven, they could make a minyan( quorum of 10 men) right there in the store! It was complete with Torah, prayer books and other religious objects. All printed neatly with the word Ikea on them. Now I have only been to Ikea once in my life and that was when we were here in 2003. It seemed exciting and impressive and every year in my mail box comes their pretty, glossy catalogue and I look over it lovingly, not unlike we did with the Sears Catalogue when we were kids at Christmas time. All those toys...................Well now they are grown up toys like couches and book cases and kitchen gadgets.
Well yesterday I got to play hooky with one of my good friends who needed a day off. Her kids are 12-9 and had art class so she could not take off with them, instead she took off with me and my kids. After running a few necessary errands, we were off to Ikea. The Disneyland of Israel.
Now, Americans here love Ikea because the furniture looks like American Style furniture and Israeli's love Ikea because they now have more disposable income and love having somewhere flashy to spend it. And well, since Ikea is European, I guess they feel at home shopping there as it is a European store.
So we arrived at the store and dropped S. off at the kiddie care center. After registering him, he was off with out so much as a good-bye. After all they had wooden trains, a huge plastic ball pool and T.V.! Certainly more exciting than hanging out with mommy and crew. We loaded the twins in the cart and I headed off to shop while my friend waited for D. to meet up with us as it was his early day. I was so excited, everything new and shiny and fancy. Until I got to the bookcases which is one of the things I was really after. And here is where fantasy turned to reality. *Note: For those of you who love Ikea, read no further as the rest of this is blasphemy. The quality of the book cases was so poor, even the higher end stuff I would not have spent that kind of money for. This observation continued through out the store, the furniture was expensive and made with cheap material and gave me the impression that it would seem worn out the first time my kids sat on it. This is not to say that we walked away empty handed. For who could resist fancy do dahs and kitchen gadgets we weren't aware of that now we cannot live with out! Actually that last part is not true, we bought kitchen shears which I have been wanting for awhile as I hate the fact that I open S.'s icepops with the same scissors I use to open all our packages from the states, etc. Yuck! And we bought a new can opener this wil be our third one since Jan., I hope it works althoug it seems to be MIA and I am hoping it is with our friend. And we bought two insulated tote bags which I think will work for long bus trips. And finally we found little 3 shekel toys for the kids. Because all in all they behaved really well. An hour later our free time was up at kiddie care and it was time to collect S. Just in time for me clean up the mess he made in the bathroom.....but that is another story. He was not ready to go, but finally decided that seeing his abba was a pretty good incentive. Off we went to find the gang. We finished the kitchen gadgets and headed up to the kids area with toys and flashy bedroom furniture. For us it was like being kids again, cute little tea sets and wooden train tracks. So I feel we did pretty well by only spending 9 shekel in that dept. Check out time arrived. Uh oh, how do we get to check out? We saw it when we came in, but now how do we get there? Ikea is set up like a maze, complete with arrows on the floor to follow to be sure even the most disciplined shopper won't miss a thing, in fact one may go in circles a couple of times trying to find the way out and there by ensuring that you might have passed up on that nifty little bobble the first time and the second time you passed it looking for the bathroom, but surely not the third time as you look for the way out. And the other dissapointment, now as I said before this store is owned by religious Jews. There are not ONE, but TWO places to buy lunch and a place that sells fancy pre-packaged cookies. Although both of the places are kosher, they were kept at a minimal supervision. A level so low that the owner of this place would not eat here himself. This was a huge dissapointment as we expected to take the kids to dinner there. For about half the population the level of Kashrut is acceptable, but for people like D. and me it was not enough. Normaly I don't have a problem with this. The fact that this store and its restaraunts are owned by someone who would not eat in their own establishment bothers me. D. says it is a matter of economics as most people don't care. But I bet most of you would not go out to eat in a resaraunt where the owner would not eat the food in their own place and that is how I feel. So with our curiosity satisfied and our urge to buy fancy doo-dah's placated we were off to find dinner. It was a fun trip and a good time was had by all, but I think for now I will stick with the fancy catalogue pictures and go to local quality retailers who will deliver and put my furniture together for me. And the next time I need a fancy doo-dah and an hour of free baby sitting I know right where to go.