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LogisticEarth posted:Yeah, the store is designed to prompt you to walk all the way through it, but you can walk right in and right out pretty quickly if you just follow the shortcuts. I actually rather like IKEA'S store design. Folks treat it more like a destination rather than an everyday shopping experience, so walking through a series of showcases is actually fairly useful and/or entertaining. That sounds like the D&D system mastery thing where they intentionally design bad skills and feats to trick dumb people into taking them because it makes "smart people" that know better like the game better. Like making two skills that raise HP but making one sound good and be bad and one sound bad and be good so you have to be "in the know" to pick the right one.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 16:44 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:06 |
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:That sounds like the D&D system mastery thing where they intentionally design bad skills and feats to trick dumb people into taking them because it makes "smart people" that know better like the game better. Like making two skills that raise HP but making one sound good and be bad and one sound bad and be good so you have to be "in the know" to pick the right one. Is it that hard to read a store map? Also I've been considering buying something from one of Amazon's new furniture brands but it doesn't have any reviews on it yet so I'm hesitant.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:47 |
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Amazon will buy Kohls and put their furniture in those stores.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:50 |
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Hand Row posted:Amazon will buy Kohls and put their furniture in those stores. And then all Amazon's efficiency experts die from aneurysms as they read the metrics on how long their cashiers take per customer. (But seriously, every Kohls I've ever been in is staffed by the SLOWEST GODDAMNED CASHIERS IN THE WORLD.)
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:53 |
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LogisticEarth posted:They have a general mix of styles, but yeah, it's never anything mind blowing*, and I can't imagine that a hypothetical Amazon Basics furniture line would be inspirational. The magic of IKEA is that it's all of the same brand, it's all of a similar, appealing style (the midcentury Nordic look is huge here in Seattle), and there's lots and lots of stuff at the lower end that's very, very cheap. If there were an Amazon Basics in that vein I think it would do really well. Part of the problem with Amazon is choice overload, like if you go and you try to find a desk or a lamp or something you're given a billion things that are of wildly conflicting styles and prices, and an Amazon-brand furniture section would sidestep that. I'd be surprised if they did that, because they seem to be kind of terrible at corralling themselves into supporting their own brand and providing any kind of sensible browsing on their site. Shopping on Amazon sometimes feels like shooting into a pack of panicked zebras.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:54 |
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:That sounds like the D&D system mastery thing where they intentionally design bad skills and feats to trick dumb people into taking them because it makes "smart people" that know better like the game better. Like making two skills that raise HP but making one sound good and be bad and one sound bad and be good so you have to be "in the know" to pick the right one. what the gently caress
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:55 |
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Sundae posted:And then all Amazon's efficiency experts die from aneurysms as they read the metrics on how long their cashiers take per customer. The kind of people tht shop at kohls tend to prefer chatting
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:58 |
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boner confessor posted:what the gently caress There is a skill that gives you 3 hp and one that gives you 1 hp per level so by level 3 you have 3 hp. When asked about it they said that that DOES have some use (campaigns that will never get to level 3, wizards with 1 hp at level 1 that need more now, etc) but they like to keep that sort of "system mastery" stuff in because people like the game better if they feel like they made the right choice by having other wrong choices exist. If you know the secret ikea shortcut you like ikea more because you feel better at ikea than the hoi polloi
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 18:59 |
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l failed my roll to detect secret doors at Ikea and got trapped.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:03 |
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Baronjutter posted:l failed my roll to detect secret doors at Ikea and got trapped. *rolls for initiative* "gently caress this i'm going back to the food court"
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:08 |
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Baronjutter posted:l failed my roll to detect secret doors at Ikea and got trapped. your cinnamon roll
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:09 |
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Sundae posted:And then all Amazon's efficiency experts die from aneurysms as they read the metrics on how long their cashiers take per customer. Definitely true. I haven't checked out a Kohls that has the Amazon store within it yet, but I heard the people are Amazon employees and have their own checkout.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:12 |
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Hand Row posted:Definitely true. I haven't checked out a Kohls that has the Amazon store within it yet, but I heard the people are Amazon employees and have their own checkout. I actually had no idea that Amazon bought Kohls until I saw this second post. I thought the first one was a joke.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:15 |
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They haven't but the thought is long term they may. At first it seems foolish for Kohls to ally with Amazon, but maybe it's smart since is any dept store going to survive? The short term thought is the foot traffic for Amazon returns and tech will then shop in the rest of the store.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:18 |
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Magic Hate Ball posted:The magic of IKEA is that it's all of the same brand, it's all of a similar, appealing style (the midcentury Nordic look is huge here in Seattle), and there's lots and lots of stuff at the lower end that's very, very cheap. If there were an Amazon Basics in that vein I think it would do really well. Part of the problem with Amazon is choice overload, like if you go and you try to find a desk or a lamp or something you're given a billion things that are of wildly conflicting styles and prices, and an Amazon-brand furniture section would sidestep that. As you say Ikea has some style. Amazon and Besos have no style and you saw this with their phone flop as well as their mediocre cluttered site design. Amazon excels at delivering basics and it’s “basics” brands make a lot of sense but I don’t necessarily see that working particularly well for furniture. Maybe they’ll do ok if they partner with the right people but they haven’t always succeeded here.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:32 |
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asdf32 posted:As you say Ikea has some style. The more I shop at Amazon, the more I realize what a tremendous pain in the rear end it is to find something if you don't realize exactly what it is you're looking for. Half the time I give up looking for whatever it is I'm trying to buy, find a good product by googling around and reading reviews, then use the Amazon reviews to narrow down the choices. I still prefer that to going to the store and taking a wild guess based on whatever selection they've got, but still. Even something as simple as sorting through the Kindle book deals is annoying as hell.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:54 |
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:The more I shop at Amazon, the more I realize what a tremendous pain in the rear end it is to find something if you don't realize exactly what it is you're looking for. Half the time I give up looking for whatever it is I'm trying to buy, find a good product by googling around and reading reviews, then use the Amazon reviews to narrow down the choices. I think the Marketplace model where you list other people's poo poo is a mistake for that reason. You end up getting dozens of duplicate listings and it makes it too hard to find things. Amazon is going to need to step up their Search and Information Management game if they want to keep the Marketplace model.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 19:56 |
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Baronjutter posted:l failed my roll to detect secret doors at Ikea and got trapped. Every time we go to Ikea, my wife and I joke that all the employees were shoppers who got lost and the store just kind of absorbed them.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 20:54 |
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asdf32 posted:As you say Ikea has some style. Like I said: Magic Hate Ball posted:I'd be surprised if they did that, because they seem to be kind of terrible at corralling themselves into supporting their own brand and providing any kind of sensible browsing on their site. Shopping on Amazon sometimes feels like shooting into a pack of panicked zebras. If they were able to form some kind of consistent branding rather than heedlessly absorbing as much as they can and spitting it up with no form of organization, it would probably be a huge hit. The fact that shopping with them is like hacking through jungle underbrush is its own huge problem.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 21:10 |
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anonumos posted:Every time we go to Ikea, my wife and I joke that all the employees were shoppers who got lost and the store just kind of absorbed them. Roll for 'sale' resist. Bring a thief to sneak past security. Raise your reputation to get 10% extra meatballs.
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# ? Nov 20, 2017 21:58 |
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anonumos posted:Every time we go to Ikea, my wife and I joke that all the employees were shoppers who got lost and the store just kind of absorbed them. http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3008
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 10:02 |
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:There is a skill that gives you 3 hp and one that gives you 1 hp per level so by level 3 you have 3 hp. When asked about it they said that that DOES have some use (campaigns that will never get to level 3, wizards with 1 hp at level 1 that need more now, etc) but they like to keep that sort of "system mastery" stuff in because people like the game better if they feel like they made the right choice by having other wrong choices exist. The fun thing is that they based this idea on Magic the Gathering cards, where the 'trap' options would be common cards and the better ones would be rarer. The D&D 3rd edition designers had no idea what they were doing. But in any case, Ikea having the whole shopping 'experience' is very much on purpose, it's designed to make people want to see and buy more stuff, especially since Ikea stuff is designed to go together. Unlike D&D, it's unified, thought-out design. The short cuts are there for people who already know their way around and know what they're looking for. It comes off as weird because most stores don't put an iota of thought into store design as an experience, aside from putting all the candy by the checkouts so the kids will nag their parents for it.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 10:08 |
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:The more I shop at Amazon, the more I realize what a tremendous pain in the rear end it is to find something if you don't realize exactly what it is you're looking for. Half the time I give up looking for whatever it is I'm trying to buy, find a good product by googling around and reading reviews, then use the Amazon reviews to narrow down the choices. I use Amazon more or less exclusively for buying books which I've already heard of and haven't been able to find in a physical shop. Every time I've tried to use it as its own thing, or browse on it, I've quickly given up. It's incredibly poorly designed.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 11:32 |
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apparently offering "storefronts" on amazon is the hardest god drat thing in the world its like hey I like things from this brand is there an easy and simple way to look at other things from them in a nice layout? No is it hard to make an html with such included? no amazon doesn't really care what you buy so why wouldn't they make it easier to shop like this if I wanted to look for any lamp I can just type in lamp in the search but if I want to look for stuff by LL bean then I can maybe try to search for it but just get a giant search result with no easy way to browse for poo poo
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 11:47 |
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The best way to search for things on Amazon is to do it on another website first. Once you know what you want, you then go to Amazon to see if you can get a better deal.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 11:50 |
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anonumos posted:Every time we go to Ikea, my wife and I joke that all the employees were shoppers who got lost and the store just kind of absorbed them. Ikea is timeless and changeless. About 12 years ago my partner and I used Ikea in Bristol, UK to furnish our flat. We now live in Sydney and we went to Ikea to have a look and pick up replacement seat pads for our Poang chairs. We could have travelled in space and time back to Bristol 12 years ago. It was disorientating how similar it was. The same sequence in the layout and even mostly the same stuff for sale. All the stuff we'd bought long ago on the other side of the world which had been used and then replaced was still for sale. The signage and the fonts used was still the same. Ikea has harnessed Tardis technology. They have a formula and it works. Amazon: Americans may be slightly shocked to find out that Amazon is coming to Australia next week. Yeah, Australia is only just getting it's own Amazon online store. If you ordered off Amazon in Aus before now you had to use the US store and put up with limited choice and long shipping. I have a UK Amazon account and hardly anything will ship, so I only use it for kindle books and digital games.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 13:11 |
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Helith posted:and even mostly the same stuff for sale. Ikea tends to change its designs in subtle ways very often, it probably wasn't mostly the same stuff.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 14:07 |
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Badger of Basra posted:Is it that hard to read a store map? Count me out.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 15:21 |
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LogisticEarth posted:Yeah, the store is designed to prompt you to walk all the way through it, but you can walk right in and right out pretty quickly if you just follow the shortcuts. I actually rather like IKEA'S store design. Folks treat it more like a destination rather than an everyday shopping experience, so walking through a series of showcases is actually fairly useful and/or entertaining. I can navigate 4 out of the five NYC boroughs by sight with absolutely no maps available if I have to. This includes Queens, which is notorious for layout and street naming. I can do the same for North Jersey, all of Westchester and most of the island. That said, no matter how many times I visit, I cannot, for the life of me, bypass the store to get to the marketplace without having to pause and think about it at the IKEA in Elizabeth. They did a really REALLY good job in making that place disorienting. Still worth it though.
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# ? Nov 21, 2017 15:47 |
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Fame Douglas posted:Ikea tends to change its designs in subtle ways very often, it probably wasn't mostly the same stuff. The first time I went to IKEA, they had a little triangular Lack table that I really liked. Someone helpfully took our cart while we were in the bathroom or something and we didn't have the will to go do it all again. A month later and the table was discontinued.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 09:59 |
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The ikea near me has a secret super-shortcut that's ridiculously hard to spot. In addition to the usual signposted shortcuts, near the end of the showroom there's a fire door in the corner that's completely unlabelled and has no signs or window on it. Even if you notice it, you'd assume it's a staff only door, even though it's not labelled. If you actually go through, you step out onto a walkway which has a staircase leading down to the cash desks. Using it feels a bit like cheating, it's fun.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 12:11 |
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The rebuilt ikea south of Seattle has an interesting take on the whole maze idea. Now they have the individual items on one floor and all of the showrooms on another. If you know that you want a spatula you can just go to the kitchen wares and get it without having to meander through the showrooms at all.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 15:58 |
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HEY NONG MAN posted:The rebuilt ikea south of Seattle has an interesting take on the whole maze idea. Now they have the individual items on one floor and all of the showrooms on another. If you know that you want a spatula you can just go to the kitchen wares and get it without having to meander through the showrooms at all. That's not how all their stores are? Everyone I've been to is showroom on the second floor and individual items by showroom area and self serve warehouse and check out on the first.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 16:15 |
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I've never been to a modern IKEA, all this talk about secret passages and poo poo has me intrigued. We used to have one in town, a very profitable and but small one. When they decided "all stores must be at least X size and have Y design" this store wasn't quite big enough so it was shut down, even though it was incredibly popular. But corpoate cares more about "establishing a consistent physical brand" or what ever marketing doubletalk.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 16:30 |
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Dameius posted:That's not how all their stores are? Everyone I've been to is showroom on the second floor and individual items by showroom area and self serve warehouse and check out on the first. That's how the newer stores are. Seattle had an old layout that has been replaced by a new layout.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 16:44 |
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Confession: I have never been to an ikea because I have boycotted all self assemble furniture. Because I’m a bit poor this has meant second hand but gently caress MDF for forever and a day. It’s terrible floor sweepings compressed and wrapped, and pretty much the worst thing you can think of for making furniture out of. Pretty much the only thing it’s good for is for levelling off floors before laminate is put down. Furniture is meant to last forever, not expand and blow if it gets wet, or simply start to fall apart after a few years. This is the evil of ikea, they know on the surface it looks cheap and good for the price but the reality is that they are the embodiment of the Sam Vine’s theory of economic injustice. https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Injustice “At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars. Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.”
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 17:02 |
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Oddly enough IKEA is one of the cheapest places to get furniture that is actually wood or metal. Everywhere uses those compressed boards now. Even like a nice lazy boy will have that type of board made from waste used in the construction . IKEA has a pretty fair amount of pine, the composite birch stuff, and metal. Some of it isn't crap.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 17:19 |
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But like all stores these days the not crap stuff is the expensive stuff, and they still have the balls to make you assemble it yourself. If I’m paying £500 for a table they can drat well sell me a table and not the component parts of a table.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 17:25 |
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learnincurve posted:Confession: I have never been to an ikea because I have boycotted all self assemble furniture. So spend the 5 bucks extra on the next higher tier of furniture at Ikea? I don't get boycotting them because your house is a perpetual swamp or whatever is destroying their cheapest stuff so fast for you.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 17:25 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:06 |
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Only buy 50+ year old solid wood stuff. Also my office had a ton of these really well made solid wood storage cabinet things and it turned out they were old ikea stuff.
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# ? Nov 22, 2017 17:28 |