IKEA

Ah, IKEA — my go-​to store for closet organizers. As with stores located in other countries, you’ll find an assortment of furniture, kitchenware, décor etc. for the choosing. It’s also a bit of a maze to navigate through, so look out for shortcuts to skip through sections you have no interest in.
The only thing I don’t like about this place is the crowds. Avoid visiting during evenings or weekends if you don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to shuffle your way to checkout.
During the summer, a lot of people make use of the air conditioning and will spend hours sitting on the couches and chairs. I once witnessed a group of secondary school students conducting a study session complete with cups of coffee.
But, prices are affordable and quality is okay, so I’ll probably keep coming back.

Ugh! I HAVE A LOVE/​HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU IKEA! Ugh!
I LOVE you because of your value. (I can buy a great shower curtain for $ 19HKD and a small clear plastic box with a lid for $ 3HKD…come on… that is a deal!)
I HATE you because of your crowds.
I LOVE you because you have everything to fit in the modular small spaces of Hong Kong. (Everything is just so and designed for a perfect fit!)
I HATE you because of your crowds… it’s like going down a lazy river in an intertube of peanut butter at a snails pace behind countless lingering people.
I LOVE you because you are a feast for the eyes (They have everything you would ever need for every single spot in your house that you did not even realize you needed stuff for)
I HATE you because I cannot pop in and out quickly from your store because of the slow, lingering, wandering, ambivalent people that patronize your store.
I love you and I hate you Ikea. I will return, but I will be damned if I trick myself into going again on a Saturday… you are walking into the lion’s den of the wicked lazy river of slow, wandering people if you do. Be warned! And go with the patience of knowing you too will be in the lazy river… it comes with the popularity of the IKEA brand.

IKEA is a low-​cost global furniture chain serving up cheap housewares and some assembly required furniture. If you are new to Hong Kong, chnaces are you are going to head. If going to the store by the MTR to Causeway Bay, go out Exit E and then turn left. Keep walking for about 5 minutes and IKEA will be located on your left (it is underground, so look for the sign). If you reach the end of that street (Victoria Park) you have gone too far.
IKEAs in Hong Kong are different than the USA, where you will have to have many large items delivered from their local warehouse. Do place an order, look for the desk just before the registers (just after the candles/​plants). Take a number and wait to be called. Make sure you know the iteam number you need (take a picture) becuase the staff are not familiar with the inventory and seem unable/​willing to look up items in my experience.
Once you have paid for your items, you likely have one or more heavy bags. Time for a taxi! If you exit to the right, back towards Exit E of the MTR, there is a taxi stand located at the first (and only) cross street to your right. Some friends will head to the taxi stand at the Park Lane Hotel located behind the IKEA to avoid the lines.
When you get to IKEA be prepared for the usual maze to get from Entrance to Exit. The shortcut doors are particularly well hidden and the bathrooms are also a challenge to find. In the couch/​chair section you will observe tons of local Hong Kongers and visiting Chinese tourists camping out relaxing in the A/​C on their phones (and sometimes sleeping). We have dubbed this «date night» for the many young couples we see hanging out in the faux living rooms. It is quite annoying if you are shopping for a couch and want to test it out.

I’ll try to keep this short:
We weren’t planning to stay in HK for more than 2 years, so we opted for IKEA furniture. Of course you can’t expect much. It’s IKEA!
Anyway, delivery was in 4 days. They were supposed to deliver by 5 — 8 p.m. They didn’t show up til 9:30 P.M. !!! NOT. COOL.
So they rushed to put together all the furniture. Needless to say, they did such a bad job. The workers had to be 16 year old — definitely inexperienced as they couldn’t put the furniture together without mixing up parts or breaking them. We have been here for 6 months and our furniture is falling apart slowly so the bolts need to be tightened from time to time.
Anyway, IKEA Hong Kong quality doesn’t match the price.
If you can get to Shenzhen, I hear you can get much better furniture for the same money.
I’d say that the only things that are worth buying is everything else that isn’t furniture.
I know there’s other boutique places where you can get better furniture, BUT, we aren’t willing to invest in expensive furniture when we’re only here temporarily.
Still, I wish there was another alternative to IKEA.

I understand that this is not America/​Western Europe… but this IKEA here is TINY and doesn’t actually stock anything, meaning we had to wait 3 weeks for anything to be delivered (to an empty flat nonetheless) and deal with items missing/​discontinued from the delivery. Without many other low-​cost furniture options (especially for a wardrobe) around here– IKEA really sticks it to you!

Ahhhh, IKEA. Where do we start with you? You are both an abomination to the furniture world, also a convenient necessity in this modern age. Love or hate it, it is very likely that every single one of us has been to IKEA at some point in our lives.
As with all of the IKEA is around the world, this one in Hong Kong is in principle no different. Sure, we don’t have workers sleeping in the display beds, or children doing a poo in the display toilets, as they do in Guangzhou, but otherwise it’s all consistently the same. I have found most IKEA items in Hong Kong to be more expensive then in the UK, but perhaps the markets here can sustain a slightly higher margin then in the UK (is it considered a semi luxury item in Hong Kong?), where IKEA is considered very much the lowest of the low.
What IKEA does very well, is cheap and practical furniture and house hold items. In Hong Kong our alternatives are to go to the stores like Wing On, Sogo, Aluminium, or Hamptons, which can be quite expensive. At least with IKEA, we know what we are getting, and we know it is cheap.
Now that we have established that we do need to shop in IKEA for our basic furniture needs, let me drop in a few of my thoughts as to how we can make it a much more pleasant experience…
Never go at the weekends or in the evenings. It is MENTAL busy! If you can, go during weekday mornings. This may not be convenient for work, but you will be able to get everything done in a quarter of the time.
Don’t buy Christmas trees here, especially if you take delivery. You won’t be able to see what you are getting (they deliver them from a warehouse), and you will in variably end up with a 6ft stick with two limp branches — I kid you not.
Don’t ever let the delivery guys put your furniture together. Do it yourself or get a buddy to help you. At a pinch, get a contractor to do it. These guys are to busy and rushed to do it, and they will make a hash of it.
To end on a positive, if you want meatballs and Dime bars, do buy them here — yummy!

Ikea, Ikea. How should I begin with? I love it and hate it at the same time. This lovely ambivalence well worth a review I guess?
I love Ikea for the convenience of location ever since I was a teenager. In high school not having a lot to spend, the air-​conditioned space serve as a petite expose of designed little rooms where you could end up napping in. I love Ikea for how many times after my regular work hours I was still able to grab something hadn’t immediately for my other freelance jobs. I love Ikea for 98% of my furniture in my apartment is furnished by Ikea.
With the last point said, I already have enough reasons to hate it. Budgeted goods are always the equivalent towards budgets durability. My little stack shelf crashed simply because of the pretty lousy sustainability of the wood fabricated. Well, unlike it’s a new story to us, but this gives me a good reason to frown.
I’ve been to Ikea in other countries and the operation is definitely a little different. Hong Kong is a city that owns itself to efficiency so we only need a miniature Ikea that would be able to provide us a showroom space. I loved how I was able to pick up the desk right away and stuff it into my trunk but here in HK, all you’ve got to have is patience. Props to Ikea’s delivery service that they are usually very prompt and professional.
One more pet peeves– sorry Ikea for the 3 stars prolly it has a lot to do with this: every single time I might just want to get some plastic glass but I ended up carousel along the Ikea path ritually. There’s simply NO SHORT CUT (there is, but limited). Can’t this be done with more flexibility?