I'm no Ikea fan, not by a long shot, but if they built it, I would go. Just not anytime soon after it was built. :rolleyes: :D I think Portland would benefit from having one though.

that is, um, wow, some Ikea fanfare eh?

I used to work for the IKEA in Burbank and let me tell you when they train you you have to learn every bloody line of furniture they carry (You have manuals from every department that you fill in by HAND) and you learn about that while in America we love a bargain the U.S IKEA's are not the cultural lifestyle phenomenon that it is in Europe. (Hey, in Europe you have to PICK UP YOUR OWN COUCH from the wherehouse unlike here where it is brought out to you.) One great thing is if you work at IKEA they tell you that hey, the customer needs to do some work too. (I had people try to bribe me when I was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant to go down to the self serve wherehouse and pick up their furniture for them.)

These news stories don't even surprise me since I have heard so many horror stories about their grand openings. I heard that when they opened the Emeryville story in Nor Cal, more than half the staff quit by the end of the first day because they said people were nuts in there!!! I heard stories from some of the Burbank people who had to fly up there to help cover the store that people were hostile, they got attacked in the parking lot, there were fist fights on the wherehouse floor over boxes of furniture and even a girl I worked with got spit on by a customer because they didn't have the unit she wanted in stock.... WTF?????!!!!!

Jesus christ. Again? Though Ikea's comment that they "never could have predicted" this happening was careless and stupid, I blame the morons who are willing to stab someone over some chitty particle board furniture. Those are the people that should be charged with murder, not the business who simply opened a store. Honestly...what is wrong with people? It's like when I see people lined up at Costco gas 10 deep at each pump to save 2 cents over the gas station an 1/8 of a mile away. I don't get it. Well I guess it's not exactly the same, but its retarted either way.