IKEA is a weird place.  When you go to IKEA, you don't just run in and get something quick.  You spend several hours there.  And that's how they get ya.  It's laid out like a maze.  When you walk in, you don't see registers or an exit.  You see the first line of products, which is usually something like couches and other living room things.  Then you follow the magic arrows that point you to the supposed exit.  But in reality, these arrows point you to the next line of products.  This same pattern continues for hours, even days, until you finally hit a set of stairs.  You think, "Thank God.  There's an exit and we're just about to reach it."  And then you realize it's the same pattern as before, except you're on a different floor.  So you walk through another endless maze of products and furniture until you finally come to the end.  And it's really the end. 

But how does IKEA benefit from this sadistic game?  They go to sleep at night with the knowledge that you've walked past just about every product they make.  You're pretty much guaranteed to have looked at, and perhaps bought, just about everything in the whole entire store.  So even if a person came to "just buy a couch", chances are they bought something else. 

And by the way, the Swedish billionaire who owns IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, drives a 13-year-old Volvo station wagon.  I just thought that was kinda cool, even though he has a lot of my (and my friends') money. #business