Sticker Shock

Yesterday I met up with a couple of my oldest friends for a trip to bargain hunters' paradise: Ikea. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot say no to a visit to the store with the unpronouncible names and the delicious Sweedish meatballs. I can (and do) spend hours mulling over the kvorts and blatskiis, tossing the cheap napkins and candles into my cart willy-nilly like a kid in a candy shop. Cheap shopping Disneyland at its best.

I was alarmed to find that when I reached the checkout and heaved all of my spoovrits and flaaskims onto the conveyer belt that my tab reached an unthinkable $167! I didn't have that much crap, how could that be?? With the pressure of loading all of the tiny goodies into the cart (Ikea has given up bags, great for the environment but I wish I'd gotten the memo), I did not have time to think about what I was buying that could be costing so much.

It wasn't until the next morning that I thought to check my receipt and figure out what the hell I'd just purchased (for myself no less, not much Christmas shopping happening at Ikea). It turns out that one of my impulse buys was a memory foam pillow (the Gosa Lilja) cost an outrageous $59.99. I become the queen of cheap when I shop at this store. Anything over $9.99 does not make it into my cart. Imagine my horror at finding out that I had made such a rookie bargain-shopper error. I thought that I had grabbed its cheap counterpart, but alas no, and back to Ikea I headed to sheepishly return such a ridiculous and unnecessary buy. 


Lesson learned: make sure the Sweedish names match up to the tiny price label before throwing things in your oversized cart. Or maybe the lesson is to pay attention at the register instead of fantasizing about the meatballs that lie ahead in your future, and all the fun you might have with your lifetime supply of paper napkins.