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Ikea hot dog - now twice the wait

Ikea forgets brand basic, suckiness ensues.
Today we went to the Ikea house at Kungens Kurva just south of Stockholm, Sweden. This is the first and still biggest Ikea house in the world. Or so they say. Anyway. After picking up a few last minute items, we were looking forward to getting hot dogs at the "Bistro" just after the cashier line. Ikea started selling wieners and soda and other snacks dirt cheap many years ago, the idea being that customers who grabbed a dog on the way out should leave the house with a sense of contentment and value for money. And at SEK 5:- (68 cents US) a pop we always used to get a couple for the walk to the parking lot. The buying process was as straight-forward as you can make it; walk up to the counter, pay the man, get the dog, walk out and be happy. There could be crowds sometimes, but everything always worked itself out without any irritation.

Today was different. I have never seen angry Ikea customers at the hot dog counter before, but today there were several. The reason? Well, since we visited Ikea last, they have adopted a new soviet-style system for selling the famous hot dogs. First I had to stand in line to get to a touch-screen vending machine (two out of three machines were out of order) where I punched in the kind of snacks I wanted and paid by coin-slot (card-reader optional). Successful payment (not always the case, as the people before me could attest) got me a receipt stating my purchase. After this, with this piece of paper in my hand I had to stand in line one more time to pick up my order. I got the usual hot dogs at the usual price, but it cost me twice the time waiting in line. It sucked.

How the Ikea people, many of them (you can trust me on this one) among the smartest people on the planet, can think of adopting this old soviet-style selling style is beyond my comprehension. Ikea is all about making it easy to buy their stuff, so how could they fall for this waiting-in-line-twice idea? If implemented to their regular range of goods it would mean that you first walked around the shop to decide what you wanted to buy, then waited in line to pay for it, and then waited in an another line to pick your stuff up. Who would accept this?

My personal thought today is that Ikea have decided that the sale of cheap hot dogs is costing too much and must come to en end, but they can't just stop because customers have gotten used to it and, to an extent, expect it. With the new twice-the-wait system in place they can, in time, no doubt claim that sales are going down and thus justify the discontinuation of the hot dog counter.

Have they implemented this system where you live? If so, what do you think of it? Mail us and we'll compile a list of double-wait Ikea hot dog stands. Mail us at info[at]dailylemon[dot]com replacing the "at" with @ and the "dot" with a full stop.

21 December 2009

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