I rather like IKEA's food. It's not gourmet (though the deserts are quite good), but not bad for the price. The area I live in is mostly chain-restaurant hell. Other than a few Chinese restaurants , it's all chain restaurants. Steak & Shake, Benningans (RIP), Ruby Tuesday, Olive Garden, Chili's, Applebee's, Friday's... yuck. IKEA's a welcome break.

Girlfriend is the office manager of the local Ikea, sadly I see the food all too often.

Al tho I get a morning koffee and cinacrack bun en gratis on mornings I drop her off. (beats the timmys line)

The breakfast is actually not bad, considering its only $2.

You lucky americans get the same food for a much lower price than we have in IKEA's proud homeland, Sweden.. :mad:

A bit OT but, the CEO of IKEA Sweden has no education, and started by working as a cashier at IKEA and then worked her way up. Isn't that pretty unusual, in a big company like this?

Generally, yes. I do know though that the previous SVP of UPS in charge of their USA operations (the majority of their business) started with them as a part time truck loader...

UPS historically has promoted much of their management from the ranks of their delivery drivers.

-Brian

Click here for our food blog about IKEA, includes planespotting at EWR.

edit: I'm trying to include this photo, can someone tell me how to imbed the actual image rather than just the url? http://offthebroiler.files.wordpress...6/IMG_5576.JPg

That is interesting! But considering she's pretty young (around 40 I think), and the education-level is generally higher now than 10y ago (I assume..), it's quite a interesting thing.

I suppose this must be very convenient for the company?

I just had a big mess of IKEA meatballs for dinner! I don't eat them at the restaurant, because the place in general makes me insane, but if I HAVE to pick something up there, I always stop by the little market by the exit and pick up a couple bags of frozen ones (and the chocolate cookies, which are great). You can get six big portions from a 6€ bag. And they're really good.

I thought I was the only person who lunched at Ikea to watch the planes! Yeah, I need to get a life. :)

Part of the IKEA culture seems to be a rather anti-academic stance. "Räknenissar", "Counting Gnomes", Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA founder) calls the economists that want to tell him how to run his business. He himself has only a two-year business program in high school to fall back on.

IKEA sells some berry (lingon?) preserves to die for.... (and at a reasonable price).

Yep, IKEA puts close to zero value on a degree. While Target in the US will not hire anyone or promote them to Store Manager level without a degree, at IKEA it is almost a burden! They are very selective on their tuition reimbursement program. They prefer their own training courses. They have gotten top rankings from US training organizations, but I think that was based on number of classes and hours of attendence and not the real value of the course. EVERY IKEA class includes a group of people making a collage. Yes, pictures with paste, not a degree!

I live in Shanghai now and sometimes do the same thing. Can't beat the price for Swedish meatballs and fries (sometimes I just go for a hotdog instead- that's cheap too).

As I am in Shanghai ofte, where would the local IKEA be located? Not so interested in their meatballs but the herring and other seafood would do it for me.

I'm in Shanghai every few weeks, and have never noticed the Ikea (for the UK element on here, I know where the B&Q is!).

I've eaten in Ikea in Warrington & Wednesbury UK, Heerlen Holland and Logan Aus.
Food is pretty much the same in all of those - cheaply priced, good "stick to your ribs" kind of food, from a 1Euro breakfast to a Au$3 meatball and potato portion.
Don't go expecting gourmet food and you won't be disappointed :p