First Visit to IKEA in Sunrise

Yesterday, we all went to IKEA in Sunrise, the Swedish retailer's first Florida store and we were fortunate to have it so near. It's only18 miles and 20 minutes away from home going in the direction of Sawgrass Mall. IKEA had been planning to open in Florida for quite some time now but as always when big stores show their intent to build a store, most people would say yes but not in my backyard. I know at first they were planning to do it in Davie but obviously that didn't push through because some group of people were opposing it. They're so afraid of traffic, blah, blah, blah. I think they just wanted to wait for some concessions from the retailer. It happens all the time here. Their loss I believe. Anyway, the store opened Oct. 17 and that was almost 5 weeks ago but we know that if we did go there it will certainly not going to be a short visit. We wanted to go on a weekday and avoid the weekend crowd and also being so new, there will always be that 'novelty' of it that a lot of people would want to visit it right away.

After picking up the kids from school, we drove directly to the store. They have this food area in the second floor and that's where we went to stop first. After getting our fill of Swedish meatballs, gravadlax (raw cured salmon seasoned with dill), mixed green salad and mac & cheese for the kids we moved on to their showroom which is located on the same floor. It was so big that we literally stayed there for like two hours before going to the store floor.

As expected the kids, were alright with the idea and was happy going around too doing their own thing in the showroom but once we were in the store floor, then the reality set in for them (and us). They kept asking when are we going home. They were so unrelenting that finally I just decided to get them out so Ophine did her own shopping but didn't really get everything that we wanted. The showroom was a big help. The products were tagged with so much info including the specs., where to find it in the store (aisle and shelf?) that it was really much easier to find it. The items were so reasonably priced especially those made in China (why not?). We got more than a few stuff for the house, got some Swedish food items too we'd like to try out including salmon pate and creamed smoked roe in tubes and some treats/sweets.

We'll be coming back soon. We still have to come back for that rug that was out of stock, a counter chair and some large photo frames for my 16x20s. This time we don't need to go to the showroom anymore and the kids, well, we just have to stash them somewhere or they just have to bear with us.