Hacker News Reader

Comment by ugh | Hacker News Reader

Aren’t IKEAs linear? I never had any problems navigating an IKEA since there are only two directions to walk to. There are shortcuts (paths which obviously don’t look like the main path) but I always ignore those (except for one – I think every IKEA has a shortcut right at the very beginning that takes you to the end) and just walk on the main path.

I guess my tip for everyone lost in IKEA would be to always stay on the main path and to never use the shortcuts.

I actually prefer this linear design to the completely non-linear designs of many other furniture stores I have been to. I certainly want to look at everything when I’m at IKEA.

View on HN

Did you watch the video? That was exactly the point being made: IKEA is designed such that you're pushed along a specific path where you have to see their entire showroom before you're taken to the part where you actually buy the products. This gives you subliminal hints for what things go together and triggers a marked increase in impulse buys.

No, I did not and shame on me. I thought the text is a sort of short version of the video but there is apparently a mismatch between article text and video content. I only quickly jumped around in the video.

But this brings up an interesting point: I think that Ikea is a fundamentally different experience from many other, traditional furniture stores. Ikea sells stuff at prices below the impulse buy threshold, that's why it's all about the browsing when visiting Ikea. That just doesn't happen in more traditional furniture stores. If browsing is your goal when visiting Ikea the experience is not terrible at all.

It's not that sequential access is difficult; it's that random access is much more efficient. But obviously IKEA doesn't want you to be efficient in finding what you're looking for.

It seems like thats what the catalog is for. The purpose of showrooms is usually to show things.

It sounds like you're being purposefully obtuse.

The catalogue shows you the goods but then when you go to pick them up you are pushed around the entire showroom (with the hopes that you'll see things that will go well with what you've picked out already).

The showroom's purpose for a customer is to show them things before they buy (or alternatively to give them ideas and fashion cues). If I want to buy a bed though I don't really want to look around cupboards, kitchens, children's toys, etc., etc., I want to look at beds.

From the companies POV the showroom is to show you things. For IKEA it is to show you as many things as possible with the hope that some of those things will look attractive to you. If you go in for one thing they are doing their best to ensure that you leave with other things too.

There's also a consideration of sunk costs. The showroom takes about 45 minutes to navigate, if you go around and don't buy anything it feels like you've failed somehow. The idea is that if you buy something then you haven't wasted the time. Indeed there are no exits except through till lanes. You are a customer, you will buy, leaving without buying is made as hard as possible.

They have alarms on inactive checkouts! Sneak out without buying and you set off an alarm; they're good at what they do.

Well, I guess IKEA is not for you. I always went to IKEA with the understanding that I actually want to look at everything.

IKEA is one of my favourite places actually. We go there for coffee if we're in the area - I really enjoy looking for the clever little adaptations in their designs that make all the difference.

However, I have found in the last 5 years or so that they appear to have slipped a bit from good value to cheapness.

It is possible to circumvent some of their tactics too, for example going in backwards up to the checkout area and in to the "warehouse".

It's not so much that you get lost... it's that you have to walk past every other item in the store.. Compared to say "Harvey Norman" where if you want a couch -- you walk to the couches section..

Well, the sections are marked and you can just ignore everything else and walk straight to the couches section without stopping. One thing that does irk me about IKEA, atleast here in the Netherlands is that I first walk through their section with a bunch of model rooms, then I walk through the section where they display everything. After that you generally go downstairs (passing right by the restaurant), and walk through the "shopping" section and then the warehouse. The result? I see the same products 5 times, which is exactly what they want.

It seems rather strange to describe this by saying that "delayed gratification" leads to more impulse buying. What leads to more impulse buying is making everyone look at all the merchandise.

Right. I looked at the store map last time I went to Ikea and it looked quite similar to a space-filling curve. It doesn't seem that tricksy to imagine that Ikea a) wants to maximise its use of space and b) wants to ensure people look at all its merchandise. I suppose it is different to a regular kitchenware or furniture store though.

My first time in IKEA I definitely got very lost. I think I went down one of the "shortcut paths" and ended up going back and forth between the beds and the office area trying to find the direction I was supposed to be going - and I was with a friend, so it wasn't just my crappy sense of direction.

So yes - IKEA newbs do not take the shortcut paths!

They are linear but with short-cuts.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com