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
This post may include affiliate links.
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.
I feel ashamed of what has become of the human species. If only Thanos removed these type of people from the world! *Sigh*
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.
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.
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.
A guy came in and wanted something that we only had “in the air” so it would require a forklift to get the product down, which we don’t do with people in the store for fairly obvious safety reasons. I told him we could get it down right after the store closed for him but that was not an acceptable answer. He proceeded to lose his s**t on me demanding I bring out a forklift and take it down now. As this is happening, his wife and two small children walk up. I say, “well sir, just imagine that your children are in the aisle when the forklift comes out and an accident occurs, your children could be crushed by a falling pallet, the arms of the lift, or any other number of possibly fatal incidents.” His response, “I don’t give a s**t about that, I just want you to get my f*****g table.” I didn’t have to continue the conversation. His wife took care of it.
danielmark_n_3d said:
For the life of me, I do not understand the relationship nuking ability that Ikea seems to have. My partner and I have gone several times and have a riot each time. Even putting it together is not too much of a strain. So tell me- what the f**k are people doing there that does this?
Robestos86 replied:
Ikea is to relationships what wind is to fire, it destroys the small, it kindles the great.
shizzlingmanizzling said:
I used to work in IKEA in my student days, the Glasgow, Scotland store.
When it was newly opened an elderly Irish guy and his wife stopped me and asked where IKEA was, I explained that they were in IKEA and they couldn’t understand. They had arrived at the ferry port in Ireland that morning and decided that they’d go on a day trip to somewhere they hadn’t been before. When they arrived at the port in Scotland there was a dedicated ‘IKEA’ bus. They thought IKEA was an actual place in Scotland and didn’t realise it was a shop.
I walked away trying not to p**s myself laughing as I could hear them blaming each other for the mistake!
stevemachiner replied:
Jesus, this might have been my folks.
I was working in the kitchen accessories department and this middle aged guy asked me where the cheap white plates are. So these are the lowest price plates that come in one color and are sold straight off the pallet. But they changed the color from white to light beige a month ago.
I explain this and this guy starts raising his voice at me, telling me he owns a restaurant and that I go back there and bring him more white plates. At this point I know I'm not dealing with a rational person here, but I go to the computer and check if there isn't in fact a pallet of the stuff just so he sees I've tried helping him. Even shown him the big fat zero on the screen. He gets red in the face and starts telling me how I'm personally responsible for the gas he spent driving here on his Audi A8. Asked me if I know how much gas an Audi A8 burns. He's yelling now, the whole floor is looking our way and I'm doing my best to not laugh but I realized I'm already smiling and that p****d him off even more. The convo went something like this:
"You're gonna pay for the gas I spent driving here."
"I doubt that sir."
"LISTEN HERE KID! I'M GONNA DRIVE BACK HOME, LOAD UP ALL THE F*****G WHITE PLATES INTO MY CAR AND DUMP THEM ALL IN FRONT OF YOUR F*****G STORE AND YOU'RE GONNA PAY ME EVERY LAST CENT FOR THE DAMAGES"
"That's a good idea."
I wasn't even trying to be rude I just really wanted this guy to do this, but then he asked for my manager, yelled at him basically repeating everything including his Audi A8 gas mileage, everything. He ended up buying the light beige plates.
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.
Christians: takes a holiday (holy day) and turns it into a greedy orgy of materialism. Then say things like "Jesus is the reason for the season". while throwing a hissy fit because you said "happy holidays" - tHeY'rE wAginG wAr on cHrIStMaS!!!!!
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.
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.
That was so cruel. Should the mum like to be told a loved one died as a joke? Poor kid 😔
I hope someone was following us yesterday, because I went to IKEA in West Chester with my husband and mother-in-law (Note: this was not my idea.). We were looking for a reading chair for me. MIL kept suggesting very industrial-looking designs, with either very low arms or no arms at all. I was trying to explain that her suggestions did not make for comfortable reading. My MIL’s response was, “You read too much. You should read less.”
I was speechless. For about 2 minutes. Then I basically turned in to Gollum, and hiss-whispered, “What the hell is wrong with you?” She proudly answered, “A person who doesn’t read.”
Former Uber driver here. I had a pickup request at an Ikea. For the record this was after you could specifically request SUVs was rolled out. So I pulled up to the pickup area in my Prius and this there was 2 people, mother and daughter, waiting for me. When I park I see they have an entire bedroom set. I ask them if they have a second car coming and she was like no I need you to load it up in your car. So I start folding my seats and she said "No! My mother needs to come too!" I told her "I can't do that I don't have room for everything." That was when she threatened to email Uber over refusing to help her.
Like b***h I can take your mom or your furniture not both. request an SUV or pay Ikea $50 to deliver it for you. Quit being cheap. It's not my fault you went to Ikea without a car or a game plan for getting it back.
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. :/
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.
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.
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.
I once overheard a young woman talking to her man in the furniture section. She was sobbing uncontrollably, talking about how if she doesn't have all the best, fanciest, most expensive furniture, she'd be ashamed to have her friends over and that would trigger her panic attacks. Dude was calmly trying to compromise with her because he didn't want to spend enough money to buy an entire house just on furniture. But she was having none of it. She started hyperventilating and had to lie down because she was going to faint. Dude was just looking around at people with this apologetic look while he tried to maneuver her into a chair.
All I could think was, "Wow. Poor bastard."
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.
Why didnt you call the police earlier, like when they took other people stuff to their car?
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.
The first one was during the breakfast at IKEA which is only 1 euro. So I work at IKEA food and saw a woman flipping to another older woman about taking the last slice of Cheese. Which will always be refilled in a matter of seconds. The slice is only 1 of the 7 things included with the 1 euro breakfast. She then totally lost it and was shouting at the older woman, calling here a racist and that she was going to beat here up outside, "come fight me b***h" after that already insane reaction she continued with here rage and started at the 3 managers that came to de-escalate the situation. In the meanwhile the older lady was all in tears and brought to safety in the co-workers restaurant in the back. It really made me angry at the time that you can't really do the thing you want with your IKEA clothes on.
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
Not an employee, but my extended family and I went to the Mayfest Celebration at our local IKEA. Endless meatballs and a Princess Cake for all!
We did not pack extra clothes for my infant daughter, who proceeded to have the biggest poop explosion ever right in the middle of it all. Up the back and in the hair level of poop.
Poor husband ran through the store in a hysterical panic, thinking of his poor naked baby. We ended up grabbing a few bibs and a blanket, with some strange looks from the staff.
We survived, and still laugh about our child being carried around like the infant Jesus swaddled in an IKEA blanket and nothing else.
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.
Not a family but relevant I think. I work in the bistro area and I once had a customer scream and threaten a coworker when he was told he couldn't get a cup for water. We only have one cup in the bistro, it cost one dollar and is counted as inventory so we can't give them out for free. When my coworker told the guy this he flipped out said IKEA is pure s**t and we are operating illegally by not providing him water (we aren't there's a water fountain to the right). He begins to call my coworker a piece of s**t approaches me and ask for a cup I tell him the same thing which only angers him further. Once I point out the water fountain nearby he says he won't use it because he isn't a 'peasant' and says he'll come back to deal with me and my coworker for trying to profit off his dehydration. Needless to say I never saw him again and my coworker and I shared a good laugh.
All of us are idiots! Either having our dehydration profited on or being peasants!
mandatory not me, but my buddy works at Ikea.
a man and a woman, in their mid-20s come to the store. they look like the average people who'd you see stepping out of 2-seater high-end BMW, with attitude to match.
they ask my buddy for help and ask a lot of questions about couple of pieces. they end up wanting them, so my buddy gives the the warehouse codes for the items.
the man is like '?????'. they're apparently new to ikea, so my buddy explains the items are to be self-assembled at home. the guy gets real angry and starts lashing out about this kind of shit being below his paygrade.
my buddy suggests they use their installation service. the guy is first like 'okay, finally some service', until he learns it costs extra to have them assembled by the service.
the guy goes into a rage and yells 'I'M NOT PAYING! I'M NOT PAYING! I'M NOT PAYING!' and causes a huge scene. The lady comps him. he throws the sheet of paper at my buddy (but it's not crumbled so it kinda just floats away) and marches out, promising not to ever step that s**t store again.
I used to work at the entrance (greet people and give directions and information) at an IKEA in Austria. That ikea is open till 9pm during the week. At 8:45pm a young austrian guy(its relevant for the story) comes up to me to ask me where he could find a kitchen item and if i could look it up on my computer. While talking to him, 3 people approached my desk, extremely stressed, shopping cart chock-full, one of them interrupted the young man I was talking to and said to me:"You! Where is the checkout!!??" The young man, slighty annoyed still politely told the group to wait a second. After he was gone, the man of the group winked to me and said:"what a nervous and rude boy,". I told him that I think its ruder to interrupt (I know, I usually dont). He then said sth to me like "now you are rude" but wanted to leave, when suddenly his wife completely loses it. Called me ALL insults the German language has, red faced, tense body, fists, I thought shes going to attack me. The woman then accused me of being a "racist b***h" because she was (I think) Egyptian and the young man was Austrian. Her husband had to drag her out of there to the elevator, she screamed at me the entire time. I think she screamed at me for 10 minutes. My hands were shaking when I picked up my phone to call my manager to warn him that there might be a complaint later...
Not an IKEA employee but I was at the IKEA in Wembley in London and basically ended up wandering through the shop behind a mother and daughter. The mother was probably about 80 and the daughter about 50.
They were bickering with each other the entire time and in the worst possible place (the section with the stacks of wine glasses in the aisle), the mother said something and walked off... and the daughter grabbed her by the hair and dragged her backwards. They both fell into the big display of wine glasses and smashed the s**t out of it. Didn't seem like they got cut up but I moved out of there quickly as they were still fighting so didn't see the end result!
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.
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.
Here's my happy story about IKEA. We are the last to squeeze in one of those massive lifts that hold about 50 people (it feels like). The doors close and my adult daughter (who's normally pretty quiet in public) turns round and says, "Now, I've gathered you all here today..." One of the funniest experiences of everybody's life that day I think.
I don't remember where it was, but Ikea once had an issue with some guy who used the direction markers (that should lead you out of Ikea) to create a labyrinth with them so the customers wouldn't get out of the store anymore.
i remember that story! unfortunately though, it was satire (from There Is News). here's the link https://thereisnews.com/man-arrested-for-put-fake-arrow-decals-on-the-floor-of-walmart-and-create-a-labyrinth-with-no-exit9999/
Load More Replies...
My favorite IKEA memory was watching a couple get into a screaming match, then watching the husband storm off in a fit of anger. Only he couldn't just stomp off and go outside. He had to stomp his way back through the whole path of the store, since it's laid out like a maze with dotted lines to follow. Hilarious.
Here's my happy story about IKEA. We are the last to squeeze in one of those massive lifts that hold about 50 people (it feels like). The doors close and my adult daughter (who's normally pretty quiet in public) turns round and says, "Now, I've gathered you all here today..." One of the funniest experiences of everybody's life that day I think.
I don't remember where it was, but Ikea once had an issue with some guy who used the direction markers (that should lead you out of Ikea) to create a labyrinth with them so the customers wouldn't get out of the store anymore.
i remember that story! unfortunately though, it was satire (from There Is News). here's the link https://thereisnews.com/man-arrested-for-put-fake-arrow-decals-on-the-floor-of-walmart-and-create-a-labyrinth-with-no-exit9999/
Load More Replies... My favorite IKEA memory was watching a couple get into a screaming match, then watching the husband storm off in a fit of anger. Only he couldn't just stomp off and go outside. He had to stomp his way back through the whole path of the store, since it's laid out like a maze with dotted lines to follow. Hilarious.
