IKEA -Croydon

Came here to buy stuff in the beddings section. Wide selection of things. Ended up spending 45 mins choosing with a friend! :D
Then we decided to eat upstairs. OH MY GOD! Absolutely delicious! Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, fries (or chips), gravy, salad, cheesecake, etc. I bought more than I could eat BUT I tasted it all and ate most of it. £10 well spent! Highly recommend to try it. Did I say you can have refills? And fast food on the bottom floor including ice cream and milkshakes!

Initially, this place is the most exciting place on earth.
And then your three year old gets tired half way through, the toilets are about 3 miles away and you can’t move any faster because there are about 25 wide trolleys and toddlers weeping into the dragon plants and begging daddy for a pink lamp shade for the bathroom.
Anyway, never fear, we made it to the loo.
Then we had a lovely time. We had some meatballs in the café, there was loads of parking and its well laid out. I just wish to God there was a short cut out. You can’t just ‘pop in’ to ikea, you have to go through room after room after room of piles of stuff you don’t need and end up holding a bottle of non-​alcoholic pear fizz that suddenly looks cheap and nasty in the light of day.
We all know it’s a good laugh and great for a date, I just wish there was a way out.

Ikea; everyone’s favourite cheap-​but-​secretly-​expensive furniture and homewares store. This one in Croydon is easily accessible from public transport, (if you don’t mind getting two trains, a bus and then a tram…)
Product-​wise, it has everything you need, and more. You’ll go in looking for a wardrobe, and walk out with a wardrobe, a side table, some fake plants, a trolley-​full of assorted picture frames and a whole bunch of scented tea lights!
Customer service here is good, and the home delivery department are friendly and accommodating, although I asked for ‘same-​day’ delivery and waited in for it to arrive, only to receive a phone call saying they won’t make it until the morning. It’s a bit of a #FirstWorldProblem but a bit annoying never the less.

Crap furniture, crap delivery & crap service. It is totally true that you only get what you pay for, and in this instance it is very true. I can only say that my wife & I will never darken Ikea’s door again and I would recommend to anyone trying their kitchen service to do the same. Very disappointed.

I bought my kitchen furniture from here. It is more than great, good quality at reasonable price. If you go there be sure that you have at least 2 hours for shopping.

OK — Everyone knows what IKEA is about. Let me just give you my top tips:
Don’t think you’ll be in and out — not going to happen. You’re going to want to plan most of your day around a trip to IKEA, especially if you’re actually going to buy a bit of furniture.
Head to the exit first. Go and get yourself a hot dog and drink. 90p for a Veggie hot dog — bargain. If you keep the cup — you can refill it while you’re waiting in the cue at the end.
Go through the front, get a bag and head to the showroom first. This way you’ll spend your energy on the big bits of important furniture and it’s the fun bit pretending your living in other peoples houses, sitting on the loo, going to bed, playing chess etc.
This is then the time you need to head to the café and get a coffee or meatballs to refuel and discuss if you’re going for the HOL storage box or Ottoman style poof and if that red sofa really will fit into the living room.
By then you’ll pretty much be done with IKEA by the time you go through the marketplace and you wont impulse buy on those animal shaped coat-​hangers or that heart pillow.
When you’re heading through to the self-​service, don’t attempt to find your bits. Get your barings and head to Bargain corner — always good stuff there.
Collect your stuff and head to the check outs. IKEA bags are the best thing in the world, and they’re 40p. If you’ve kept your cup — top up your coke while waiting in the que.
Once you’ve paid, go and buy some random can of Sweedish Cider or chips and get gone.
PS — if a kid throws a handful of pencils at you — you have every right to tell them off and make them stand in the fake bathroom for a time out.

It seems odd that I’ve never reviewed this IKEA as I’ve been so many times over the years. That point aside, I do enjoy the place.
In the last year or so, they re-​did the layout and I find it less useful than the former design of the store. However, it’s your standard IKEA as far as the offerings go. Their delivery service is very good and the delivery/​mover guys are always helpful.
It gets 4 stars due to the utter convenience of the location along the Tramlink line. So easy to get to from Wimbledon station, which itself is easy to get to from lots of other places.

Best avoided on weekends, bank holidays, school holidays, any day with an ‘R’ in it and the whole of the spring and the summer.
It does get packed! Luckily it has a HUGE car park that could deal with most invasions. The last time I went was actually a Tuesday morning after a bank holiday and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t full to bursting and that I was able to move around without too much trouble.
The products vary wildly between very cheap and looking it, to surprisingly good quality, yet low prices. They are often frustratingly out of products that you have gone specifically to look for — I even checked the website before leaving and apparently they sold all 18 desks in the 20 minutes it took me to drive there…
Overall, good place to get cheap furniture and some handy house hold things, but don;t bank on the highest quality, or getting through the tills in under half an hour — make that 4 hours on a bank holiday Monday during the school holidays!

what is there not to love about ikea? on a rainy day i could spend hrs. i love the top floor for inspiration and the market place where u have every gadget or thingymibob possible, not sure what it is but i just have to have it. I can never leave empty handed. The restaurant serves up a cheap meal or the hot dog section on the ground floor is a cheap date. Finally you have the swedish shop that serves all things swedish food from gravy to meatballs, salmon to coffee. Avoid the sales as you will probably get crushed but its open late and not that full

The 3 minute walk from the tramlink makes this a true London IKEA. The convenient home delivery service gives people like me, who don’t own cars, an even better reason to shop stress free (remember though that the home delivery counter closes at 9PM). The extended hours (which is probably an Ikea thing anyway, not specific to Croydon) lets me get here after a full day’s work and shop without worrying about the closing hours.
Croydon Ikea has never disappointed me on inventory issues. My choice of furniture has always been in stock. Any furniture that needs to be brought out by the staff in the information counter near aisle 29 is done promptly which makes the whole experience quite positive.
Queues at the checkout counters are large but move fast, a double positive. Delivery is on the far left from checkout. Again, quick and efficient.
To conclude, I pick IKEA Croydon over IKEA Wembley.

Had a great Monday night in here recently. Got here about 7pm with the gang, we went straight to the canteen and had approx 76 meatballs with a can of pear cider. Cheeky apple/​cinnamon pie too. What’s not to love?
Then proceeded to find all the bits and pieces we needed, as well as hoard of things we didn’t, and managed to wedge said purchases and 3 people into a Ford Fiesta. Made for an interesting/​illegal drive home, but it was a successful mission.
Would I go here on a weekend or a bank holiday? Obviously not. Choose your time wisely, pick out your items online before you go and shoe as many meatballs as you can down you.
Well played, Sweden. Well played.

When you walk in here you start picking things up straight away and the fact you have to walk all the way through the maze to get to the tills is very clever. So you will always spend more then you planned to.
Ikea have everything you could possibly want but not afford to decorate your home.
When I go it is almost like I am having a day out because it is so big! There is loads of parking and its free, plus it is close to the local tramline, although you might have to pay double fair to fit your new wardrobe on!

Great size, great facilities accessible and useful!
Watch out for masses of kids if you go on a Sunday, but with great openin hours you may not need to. Thumbs up for the café and Swedish-​food market too!

I hate to admit it but I love IKEA hot dog’s. I don’t think there is any meat in there at all but they are just sooooo good. And to make matter worse they are 50p. 50p! Nothing in London is 50p.
Hmmm Meatball.

Coming up with a star rating for a place with which you enjoy a love-​hate relationship is difficult. I love IKEA’s cheap products. My house is basically kitted out by this place and it has lasted admirably. I just hate the Croydon store. Seriously, everything about it annoys me.
Firstly, they never seem to have what I want and I have to go back at a later date. Once I had to drive to the Brent store to get a chest of drawers I needed badly. Secondly, it’s full of people just hanging out, clogging up the showroom and being a general pain in the bum. Just eat your meatballs and leave, you parasites. Thirdly, it’s too small for the number of people who use it. Even at 10 in the evening, it is just too rammed.
With the window shoppers, and the latest phenomenon, the IKEA tourist, where our friends from across the North Sea take advantage of lower prices AND a good exchange rate to buy themselves a Billy and a couple of Malm storage units in a birch veneer, it’s just makes the whole place unbearable.
If I could stand the drive, I’d go to the flagship store in Brent which is about double the size with the same number of customers, until I move out of South East London, I guess I’ll have to put up with this place.

I absolutely love this IKEA. It’s got a great ballpark for you to leave your kids in (I haven’t been leaving kids there; rather, I was left there as a kid and seem to remember it being the funnest thing EVER) and obviously the meatballs are legendary.
Good adequate car parking. And a word for those turret like structures — the Purley Way’s answer to the Twin Towers. Iconic.

Meatballs in the canteen are the number 1 reason to make the trek to Croydon.
p.s the shop is alright too

Some people love to hate Ikea, complaining about the mazelike qualities of the upper level and the panicky scrum of the warehouse area. If you avoid peak times it’s actually not that bad (though getting lost on the upper level seems to be a special talent of mine whatever the time of day), but a bit of queuing is a small price to pay for such great choices and prices.
No, you won’t find a one-​off piece here to create a talking point at your next soirée, but for someone like me who just wants affordable, functional furniture for my flat Ikea is always the best bet, with great kitchenware and homeware departments and even the opportunity to treat yourself to a Mr Whippy ice cream on the way out. Sold!

So what better way to spend New Year’s Day than wandering around a legendary London shopping destination — IKEA in Croydon?
I’m not sure about other people’s experiences of shopping at IKEA but I was expecting a 2 or 3 star experience based on previous visits. However, it turned out to be a bit of a roller coaster experience.
Arrived to find that most of south London were probably still in bed or unaware that IKEA was opening on New Year’s Day. Found a parking space close to the entrance/​exit rather than the usual overspill car park spot a mile away. Up to 4 stars
Nice to have space and time to browse amongst the huge selection of furniture, kitchens and small goods. Sis and I found the chest of drawers we were looking for.
Went to the collection point to look for the items we were looking for to find it empty. Down to 3 stars.
Spoke to lady at collection counter who checked and was very efficient in telling us that it would be 10 – 15 minutes to bring more out from the store room. Up to 4 stars.
45 minutes later and no sign of the goods. Down to 3 stars.
Lady who spoke to us personally brought goods out with profuse apology. No queues at checkout (yes, really!!) and a cashier with a free till came to find us and take us over to his till. Back up to 4 stars.
If only all visits to IKEA could be like this

It shows what a wise and classy place Unilocal in London is when Ikea Croydon still hasn’t been reviewed. I have to ask, where does everyone else get their ropey furniture for the spare rooms or budget baking trays? Am I missing something.
Well Ikea is Ikea. This is a big one (not that I have ever seen a small one). The best thing about this one is that it is relatively easy to get to on foot as the Tramlink runs directly there. This has meant I can buy all manner of clutter I intend to immediately replace with beautiful and sleek designer furniture but will probably remain with me until I die.
Price — £assemble yourself