The Employees at IKEA are just plain stupid and/or rude.

United States
November 10, 2008 6:40am CST
So, it's Veteran's Day weekend. Subway is giving out 6" long subs for free and IKEA is doling out free breakfast in their cafe for 4 days from Saturday-Tuesday. The cafe offers free coffee if you get there an hour before the store opens. So, not knowing that free breakfast was being offered, I showed up on Saturday for some free coffee. When I arrived, I noticed a very long line snaking around the building. I saw overweight IKEA employees stuffed into tightly fitting shirts that read,"Seize the Day." I was approached by a French woman on the way to stand in line. She wanted to know what was going on. I said I wasn't sure. "I just came for free coffee," I said. I walked to the back of the line, which seemed to go forever. I have gone there before for the free coffee, but never before had I seen so many people. I thought,"Gee, the economy must really be bad if everyone is standing in line for free coffee!" Then, two very gay men worked their way down the line with flyers. One of the men blurted out, "which color would you like?" I asked him what it was. It looked like a stool. He assumed I was there for something besides free coffee. Then he showed me a picture of table that was on sale for $199. I asked him how long it was. He said it 80 inches. I told him I wasn't going to buy a table today, but out of curiosity I asked him what kind of wood it was made out of. This question seemed to stump him, as he knitted his eyebrows. He then said,"Veneer." When I heard him say this, I realized that it was people like him that were responsible for the economy slumping. No wonder places in my town are going out of business left and right. They hire complete idiots to represent their store. I mean, I know the Veneer tree is highly endangered; but, at $199, I think I'll pass.
1 response
Lindalinda
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
10 Nov 08
Ha, ha this is funny. I think I will try and grow some veneer trees on the balcony of my condo. I hope they are cold resistant because it gets pretty chilly where I live. We have Rememberance Day coming up and I wonder if our IKEA store is giving out free breakfast as well. Now, I don't know how much training these young people get when they start working at a store like IKEA that sells everything from knickncaks to dishes to furniture to bedding and more. The average young person out of school probably has no clue as to the different types of wood and the difference between solid wood and veneer. So I would not be too hard on them. Just out of curiosity also did those two young men wear a label that stated they were gay?
coffeegurl
@coffeegurl (1467)
• United States
10 Nov 08
Thank you for your comment Linda. As for knowing what veneer is and what wood the table is made from...I knew the difference between veneer and solid wood in grade school. I grew up in a house with hard wood floors. Having worked in sales jobs most of my life, if someone is trying to SELL me a table and the sale price is very high already, they had better know everything about that table, especially if I hadn't approached them in the first place. This was a featured item on sale for one day only. There were about four employees handing out vouchers so that you could reserve this table. Without the voucher, one couldn't buy the table. You would think if the item was being featured that day they would try to learn everything about that item. To answer the question as whether they had name tags on; they did not. But they were very obviously gay. Maybe in the 1950's it was hard to spot a gay man. But I have excellent "gaydar." And there is no excuse for a gay man to not know how to sell a table. They are supposed to be good at that stuff.