Shopping for furniture and household items is certainly an experience that requires time and patience. If you have ever been to an IKEA store before, you can probably imagine that it can make for a stressful time for some people. However, according to this Reddit thread, there are times when some customers go beyond stressed out.
Redditors who participated in the thread have shared some near-unbelievable stories of others or even themselves witnessing, and even getting involved in, some rather peculiar situations. From tantrums to situations nearly escalating to violence, this list is about all things that can go wrong at IKEA.
The thread has over 34,000 upvotes and over 11,000 comments, some of which are quite surprising. Scroll down to have a look at some of the strangest and most entertaining entries.
More info: Reddit
#1
I worked at IKEA for 5 years selling sofas. One of my coworkers, let’s call him Jim, worked evenings and weekends in returns while his day job was teaching math at a local high school.
One day a woman comes to the counter trying to return some pillows. Generally speaking, they didn’t take returns on pillows for sanitary reasons. She also didn’t have a receipt and the pillows were clearly used and absolutely disgusting. Jim tells the customer that he’s sorry, but our return policy states we only accept products within 30 days of purchase, with the receipt, and unused in the original packaging.
This did not sit well with her and she began to scream at Jim. She was spiteful and cruel. Jim had come to the US from another country years ago and while he spoke perfect English, still had an accent. She mocked his accent and told him to speak English. She repeatedly shouted that he was stupid and would never amount to anything. He was too dumb to get a real job, etc.
Meanwhile, her teenage son is in the background. He’s pleading with his mother to stop shouting at Jim. He’s begging her to give it up so they can go home. Eventually she turns around to shout at her son and ask him why he cares so much. “That’s my calculus teacher…” There had already been a parent-teacher night scheduled for a few weeks later, his father went alone.
Image credits: ikeathrowaway168151
#2
I work in the Smaländ area in Ikea, for those of you who don’t know Smaländ is a free service where you can drop your children off for an allotted amount of time while you shop around.
A few days ago I was signing in a parent for them to drop off their kids. We have 2 requirements that allow kids into Smaländ. 1.) They have to meet the height requirement 2.) They have to be fully potty trained, no pull-ups or diapers. After checking with her to see if her children met the requirements she responded rather defensively that her daughter was wearing a pull-up but was fully potty trained. After I kindly told her that her daughter would not be able to enter Smaländ today because it’s against the policy she grew furious. It then escalated to us calling the manager who calmly explained the policy once again and apologized for the inconvenience… BUT IT DIDN’T STOP THERE. This lady continued by yelling and pointing at my manger “don’t tell me you’re sorry for me, because if you were you would let my children in” in which my manger replies “oh no I’m not sorry for you at all I’m sorry for your children.” and she stormed off with her children.
Image credits: gonegirl6
#3
An older gentleman in our baths department ranting about how “cheap” the furniture is, banging on things, etc. Tried to slam a drawer but it soft closed on him. Oops, your tantrum was foiled by quality furniture.
Image credits: sleepypunk
#4
This was my Ikea family meltdown. My then boyfriend and I were getting our own place just after college. Until then, we had both been using twin beds thanks to student living spaces and sharing a single twin was proving uncomfortable for two adult humans subjected to California summer temperatures. To fix this issue, off to Ikea we went.
Things start off ok. We start with lunch, admire the living room couches, move into kitchen wares. All so far enjoyable fantasy. And then we reach our destination, bedrooms. A sea of beds in a variety of price points greet us with brightly colored duvets. An experienced furniture purchaser I start scanning the price tags to narrow the options. I bring him to an attractive affordable model I think matches some of our bookcases. And this is where the trouble starts.
See up until now, I didn’t realize exactly how bad this man’s fear of decision making was. He stares at the bed incomprehensibly for literal minutes, refusing to talk about it. Eventually it is discovered that buying a bed means committing to delaying graduate school, never moving to the east coast, and having children with me. I don’t understand that logic and request explanation which is slowly and tearfully given.
We spent three hours in that Ikea and left with nothing. About a month later we went back and again after several hours bought that exact bed. He never went to grad school or moved to the east coast. We also did not have children and broke up a few years later. He took the bed.
Image credits: IMeanIDontEvenKnow
#5
Two words. Black Friday. It was 9:55, we open at 10. We were almost done, all that we had left to do was put out some children’s kitchen set. What we didn’t realize was that it was 50% off. I only had two pallets left to put out when the store opens and the horde came.
They were crazy. Sprinting, pushing and shoving. They fought to get to these kitchens and when they noticed my pallets, they tore them open and took it. Eventually one woman started screaming and attacked the guy who took the last one off of the pallet, not noticing the the two full pallets. I had to pull her off him and security came. After about 10 minutes the chaos ended, and I cleaned up.
At the point an elderly couple came and asked if there were any kitchens left and I put one in their cart as my coworkers laughed at what had just occurred.
Image credits: MindenMachine
#6
I was on a lunch break and talking a walk through IKEA when I’m stopped by this middle aged man with his wife asking me where this particular table was. I replied that I had no idea and proceed to continue on my lunch break walk.
They man and woman then proceeded to hurl all kinds of abuse at me in front of multiple children about how horrible my service is, how I’m taking jobs away from honest working Australians and how I should be fired.
My deadpan reply was basically “That would bw problematic, because I don’t even work here, sir.”
I will never forget the deer in headlights expression they gave me for a split second. They then proceeded to mumble a “sorry” and ran off in search of their table.
I’m actually appalled by people’s attitude when they think they have power over you. And then it’s just funny when they realise they don’t.
Image credits: DynamicIcedTea
#7
Going to be buried, but my friend used to work at the Ikea across the street from the Mall of America. Some background, the MoA has an amusement park in the center, it’s currently called Nickelodeon Universe, but for the first 15 years or so it was called Camp Snoopy. In 2006 the MoA lost the Snoopy franchise and re-branded to the generic “The Park at MoA” before they acquired the Nickelodeon sponsorship.
A few days after they change from Camp Snoopy happened my friend was working at the daycare at the Ikea. She heard a child ask their mother, “What happened to Snoopy?”
The mother responded without missing a beat, “Snoopy died.”
Cue the child bawling her eyes out inconsolably, to the point where they wouldn’t let the mother leave the child at the daycare.
As a bonus, my friends and I started and still refer to the amusement park as Snoopy Memorial Park.
Image credits: EthanS1
#8
I work in customer service in a UK store. We get so many meltdowns…it’s really hard to choose. I’ve had so many things thrown at me I’ve lost count. My best one might be the gentleman who demanded to speak to Ingvar Kamprad about his waiting time at the collection point. When I stupidly offered the department manager he said he’d settle for someone Swedish. Unfortunately we couldn’t help him. He took his things and left screaming that he’d write to sweden. I’ve not heard anything back yet. :/
Image credits: YohannaLPDJ
#9
Obligatory not an IKEA employee.
Was at an IKEA one day getting a dresser. Was walking through the small item section (between the showrooms and the warehouse, for stuff like plates and such), saw this guy looking in this bin for shower curtain rods (or maybe just regular curtain rods, can’t remember). The bin was empty, but there was a nearby shopping cart with one in it. It was clearly someone’s shopping cart that they had left sitting while they went to get something else.
The guy took the curtain rod from the cart and was leaving when the guy came back and caught him. The guy refused to give the curtain rod back to the original person and a physical altercation ensued. Yes, two grown men fought over a cheap IKEA curtain rod until security/employees came and broke it up.
Image credits: Altephor1
#10
I am not am employee, but as a customer I had a pretty intense experience.
My wife and I had gone through the showrooms and were just about to enter the area where you pick up your boxed furniture kits. There weren’t any of the flat sleds, so everyone was waiting around for more to be loaded. I was there for a good 20 minutes and I was second in line.
Right around the 20 minute mark one sled comes down the conveyor and a guy from the back of the line walks up and says to the guy ahead of me:
“I guess your getting the next one.”
Of course the guy in front of me was like, “Hey man, I’ve been waiting and this cart is mine.”
The other guy then proceeded to pull a knife, grab the guy in front of my by the collar and hold the blade to his neck while saying “I’m pretty sure you’re getting the next one.
So yeah, I almost saw a guy get stabbed over a fight for a shopping cart in IKEA.
Image credits: almightywhacko
#11
I did a stint doing early-morning (5am start) replenishment at IKEA one summer.
I was stocking a bin in the warehouse at opening time, so I had a view of the duy going over to open the gate at the front of the store to release the hordes right at 9:00. The time comes he flips the switch, the gate starts rising and as soon as it’s high enough this woman ducks under it and begins all but running across the store. That’s when I realize her kids, who looked like they were about 3-5 frantically chasing her flat out just to try and keep up. Made me kind of sad.
Image credits: Leningrad_optical
#12
My favourite has got to be the family of five ranging from maybe 15 – 50, incredibly vocal middle eastern family that had almost zero English skills between the them. I had the unfortunate task of informing them through a translator that the bunk bed they had ordered was in stock, but was in the air in the self serve area and not currently available so they could come and pick it up after close. We’ll that wasn’t good enough for them and all five of them threw themselves onto the ground and just flat out began wailing. To keep this in perspective. They had ordered this bed at 2055. The store closes at 2100. They had to wait an extra 10 minutes maybe 15 minutes to get their product. When they see that wailing doesn’t seem to be working for them, they begin to take items of other people’s trolleys and taking them outside to their car all while yelling at the top of their lungs. At this point security are with them trying to calm them down. 10 minutes into this, the bunk bed has been brought down and is ready to hand out. Even after being informed that their order is ready, this family carries on for another 30 minutes and security was forced to call the police. 10 minutes later, the police walked through the door and the family immediately stopped everything they were doing and just simply walked out of the store and left. It was an interesting sight for us and a pretty terrible experience for all the other customers there at the time.
Image credits: Pranxta
#13
I used to work at IKEA and have so many stories from there. I think a memorable one wasn’t a family fighting, but it was 2 women fighting over my service. I was helping one customer and it was a super busy weekend, so I’m sure all the employees were pretty busy. As I was helping her, another woman came up and interrupted us. They started arguing and one of them called the other woman a cow.
Image credits: TA704
#14
Not a meltdown, or an employee, BUT — I was in an IKEA when a random lady grabbed my hand, pulled me over to the bookshelf section, and told me all about the number of books she hoped to fit on one, color scheme of her bedroom, etc. it was pretty weird but I gave her my best advice on bookshelves and made it back to my boyfriend, who was about 20 feet away looking at me with “should I come save you?” eyes. IKEA is a weird place man
Image credits: leahd26
#15
Obligatory not an employee, but IKEA broke up a couple my parents knew.
I believe it was around the time IKEA first came to the US, my parents went to one with their friend and her boyfriend. The boyfriend did not realize what he was in for, and my parents basically watched all the life drain out of him as his girlfriend dragged him through furniture. There may as well have been giant flashing signs saying COMMITMENT everywhere, this dude was not ready for it. They were bickering hard by the end and broke up shortly afterwards.
Image credits: TelemarketingEnigma
#16
I’m not an employee, but I once saw a kid tantrum cause his family moved past the kid room with the slide equipped bunk bed. He followed up by breaking a display television. It was too much of a scene for me so I continued on to the end to buy some cinnamon rolls.
Image credits: okaytran
#17
Ikea employee here. Was organizing some products as I noticed an elderly couple (approximately 60s) walking past me. The man stops and comments on a rug, saying it’s nice. The wife replies “That won’t fit in our home.” The guy immediately growls back: “oh come on we both know what this is about. You think I’m stupid! I’ll show you stupid.” He then grabs the rug and angrily stomps off. The lady just kept walking as if nothing had happened.
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