This picture was taken right before we stepped into the mad chaos of Ikea on a Saturday afternoon in Mannheim ( hence, why I am smiling.) The smile quickly faded as we were slammed between cramped showrooms and lost in translation. With the whole store being in German ( go figure...) It was very difficult for us to find anything we needed. Also, I think we went into our shopping extravaganza with the wrong perception. Shopping at Ikea in the US is much different than over here. We went into it thinking it would be the same experience..why? i have yet to figure that out. Anyways, the real fun came when we went to go order lunch from the cafe...and since we have only been here for less than 3 weeks, our ordering skills are on the low end of the scale. We just ordered what we saw the most of.. which was meatballs and fries... sounds good.. but i went to go get a drink after I was done and thought that coffee sounded good...instead I ended up at the hot cocoa machine..nothing like washing down meatballs with a nice steaming cup of cocoa. mm. So after lunch, we managed to clear our heads, and we were able to get a few things for our new place. However, here in Germany they have a 19% sales tax added onto every item..this makes the sales tax in Chicago look really good! But thankfully in the military, they recognize the we do not want to pay that, so we get what is called a VAT ( value added sales tax) form that eliminates that sales tax. So we ended up saving 10 euro after waiting in line for 30 minutes...added frustration- yes...added tax,no. To say the least, I think we are going to have to give it a little time before we give Ikea another go.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
IKEA...not a good idea.
This picture was taken right before we stepped into the mad chaos of Ikea on a Saturday afternoon in Mannheim ( hence, why I am smiling.) The smile quickly faded as we were slammed between cramped showrooms and lost in translation. With the whole store being in German ( go figure...) It was very difficult for us to find anything we needed. Also, I think we went into our shopping extravaganza with the wrong perception. Shopping at Ikea in the US is much different than over here. We went into it thinking it would be the same experience..why? i have yet to figure that out. Anyways, the real fun came when we went to go order lunch from the cafe...and since we have only been here for less than 3 weeks, our ordering skills are on the low end of the scale. We just ordered what we saw the most of.. which was meatballs and fries... sounds good.. but i went to go get a drink after I was done and thought that coffee sounded good...instead I ended up at the hot cocoa machine..nothing like washing down meatballs with a nice steaming cup of cocoa. mm. So after lunch, we managed to clear our heads, and we were able to get a few things for our new place. However, here in Germany they have a 19% sales tax added onto every item..this makes the sales tax in Chicago look really good! But thankfully in the military, they recognize the we do not want to pay that, so we get what is called a VAT ( value added sales tax) form that eliminates that sales tax. So we ended up saving 10 euro after waiting in line for 30 minutes...added frustration- yes...added tax,no. To say the least, I think we are going to have to give it a little time before we give Ikea another go.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment