IKEA Belfast — Local services in Belfast

IKEA... A visit to IKEA, Belfast, its not the "event" that they would have you believe. Admittedly, most products appear well-designed and are definitely functional, but it is expensive. Staff are usually well-informed and very helpful but I don't think there's enough of them. Situated in Holywood Exchange, a trip to the store really requires a car journey - forget the bus ( you could never hope to carry onto public transport anything substantial! ).

For items on display, there is good information and the majority of them are easily

I have to say that proceeding round the various sections inside always gives me one big concern - I am a wheelchair user and every time I visit the IKEA store, I can't help noticing that I am completely surrounded by a great deal of highly-inflammable material, trapped inside what is in effect a windowless building. No doubt IKEA's safety procedures and systems have met local planning and fire safety regulations, but in the event of a fire emergency where I might find myself in a self-contained smoke, fume and flame-filled environment* filled with ( panicking? ) people, I'm not convinced that by the time the fire service arrived, set up and began operations that we would not have had another "Grenfell Tower" in the making!**

As I said previously, I use a wheelchair when visiting the store and I notice every time that, with the narrow aisles, able-bodied shoppers with their minds on other things have a tendency to not notice you. Consequently, one is forced to utter a few "watch out"s, "excuse me"s and "be careful"s on your journey and this is particularly the case when there are young children present.

Checkout is the bit that I dislike the most, though. It appears that the minimum of staff are deployed to the checkouts leading to very long, slow queues ( even in quiet periods! ) and the self-checkouts are a definite no-no with the "card only" lanes being particularly problematic. With the amount of security in the checkout area, too, I get the impression that IKEA has suffered significantly at some point from theft - an impression gained from noticing the staff ( polite, helpful, unsmiling and definitely examining everything and everyone! ). This impression is further reinforced by having the barriers at the unused checkouts closed so that if I have nothing to pay for but want to go on through and wait for my partner to pay for items, I can only do so with great difficulty or else I'm forced to sit in the queue also. Personally, I find this quite offputting.

Now, I've written quite a bit about the negative aspects of a trip to IKEA. Just to prove that it's not all "doom and gloom" allow me end on a positive note - let me say that if you like bland ( which includes the café menu ), come along... it's the place for you!

The fire scape routes are clearly marked, but I wondered how obvious they would be in the event, and would they even be accessible given that they are surrounded by so much flammable material? ** Even though these concerns would affect disabled shoppers, they could conceivably be applicable to the...

Being a regular shopper at IKEA Belfast and in retail management myself I would like to add a review of the store. In general, the store meets 90% of my requirements and does so in an efficient and friendly manner, with the remaining 10% being issues with the voucher/code offer systems and food court. Staff have always been friendly and courteous and try to do their best each and every time. The store location is on the money, the shop floors are always well maintained and product placement excellent with staff nearby to assist if need be. As for the food court, there are a few cleanliness issues. Yes parents and adults should do more to TRY and ensure that they tidy up after themselves for what is a very low cost/high value canteen style system and NOT treat it like a free for all play park. But, IKEA should also keep on top of the cleanliness of the area, in particular the table surfaces. If the area cant be maintained due to its vastness, then reduce it in size by cordoning off an area to work on, them opening it up once clean etc... The voucher system has issues, in that sometimes I have found out at the checkout that an offer is running and that I have to go to the info desk for the relevant voucher and re-queue again to purchase. Yes, its good that I've been informed about the discount and appreciate it, but I would have liked to have received the discount/voucher info on the IKEA newsletter or at least when I check online for active vouchers/discounts available before I visit the store(which I aways do). All being said, I'm a happy IKEA shopper and cannot praise the Belfast store enough. Keep up...

Awful experience with IKEA Belfast! I ordered in store 2 products that were available in store,but they were heavy so I said to myself that I will better get them delivered and because at the last minute I decided to get the 3rd product that was a Bargain corner item. They told me I can’t add that to the order and pay it afterwards,I need to go and pay it to the till and then come back. I’ve done that and when I came back they gave me a manual screwdriver and told me to disassemble the product!!! Thing that they failed to tell me beforehand! I felt so humiliated! Anyway I went to a side and done it! After I went to get the order sorted for home delivery and that costed me £43 (yes,more than the delivery on the IKEA website) anyway at the time I ordered I was told and it was written on the receipt that I will receive the order the next day! (I live in Belfast) 2 days after I needed to contact the costumer service twice to see what is going on ,why I didn’t received my order! And I gave 2 stars because one of the girls from the costumer service was super helpful!! Among other things she gave my details to the Belfast store to contact me!

The Belfast store contacted me very late in the evening and told me that they couldn’t find the products that were available in store!!! They had just my bargain corner item!! And my products supposed to be delivered in 1-2 from now! So 3-4 days from my actual delivery date!! And this with a store order with the products being available in the store ,with £43 delivery and me living 19 minutes...