it was a very pleasant experience. the staff were friendly, cheerful and went out of their way to look after each customer.
every visit feels like a personal experience and makes me want to come back.

I absolutely love the variety of options available for every room of my house. The flat pack option generally means I can fit it in my car to take it home. However they need people to help you load heavy items into your car.

Ikea is great - not only in terms of cheap items but also a great shopping experience as you would go through a series of displays and its same as playing treasure hunt!!
One can really get great deals if you can keep an eye on their catalogues.

The Good points: The fun of looking around and choosing what you want. It's like a treasure hunt, finding the clues to where it is ( i.e: aisle 36, 16 D), getting your treasure (getting the item and paying for it), taking it on your ship (loading it into your car). The cheap prices of just about everything!

The Bad points: The crowd, on a busy day it can get ridiculous. Sometimes the item isn't in stock, which i know isn't the staff's fault but can get really irritating! You can't take the trolley to you vehicle and you have to wait to get a car spot in the loading zone.

The lack of staff is a big issue with these guys, some of the staff are friendly, some are downright fed up. I can hardly blame them, on the weekend, they're so busy it's not funny.

Whilst Ikea have great products at fabulous prices - this does not make up for the overall experience that the Richmond site entails. WHAT A PALAVA! To park, to shop, to get out, to get to the loading bay, to get goods...it's all just too hard. Let alone with babies - twins. I dread the thought of attempting an Ikea shop again. Need to be able to purchase on line...

Selected a wardrobe for $199. Flat pack wouldn't fit in the family car. Cost for home delivery to country Victoria = $900. Left it there and walked out - will not be going back.

Ikea Richmond is a great place to shop if you have heaps of time to kill. They have everything for your home there. I love browsing through the aisles, It's a great place to go for Inspiration and Ideas. Great Value too!

Went with a friend to buy a cushion for an indoor swing thing (LOL). The most frustrating thing I found was that lots of things are sold separately, i.e. one part was bought in one area, yet the other bits were kept miles away - we had to trudge through that massive store only to find they were out of stock!!!

Don't except any help on the weekends, but during the week they're not too bad. Ikea Richmond is huge, not as big as the ones I've been to overseas but plenty big enough. I had the experience of going with a friend and her kids last week and was pleasantly surprised at how child friendly it was. Throughout the kids section there were things to play with and places to crawl, the cafe also had cheap and tasty kids meals. We plopped the kids in front of the TV in the cafe and chatted for a few hours as they watched 'The Wizard of Oz'. With the free drink refills it was a cheap and easy day out.
A downside is the fact you can't take a trolley to your car, lucky there was two of us so I got the car with my friend waited and amazingly I didn't have to wait to pull into the pick up area. Two staffed lifted the heavy (35kg) box into the car for us (my friend being pregnant was a plus in this case) but seemed to help most people if needed. Parking is free with purchase so don't forget to get your ticket stamped. The furniture I've purchased from Ikea has always done the job and lasted the distance, although now it takes an hour to get there I don't just pop in and buy nick nacks like I did when it was in Moorabbin. Although a staff member did say they are building a store in Springvale in 2008, so here's hoping!

Approximate cost: $1