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Consumer madness

Mal_Adjusted

Mal_Adjusted

Justified & Ancient
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Chaos at Ikea opening

Press Association
Thursday February 10, 2005

Would-be bargain-hunters were crushed and suffered heat exhaustion last night as a crowd of thousands flocked to the opening of a new Ikea superstore. A man was stabbed in a separate incident nearby.

The north London furniture store was forced to close shortly after its midnight opening. Up to 6,000 people had flocked to the store, which was touting cut-price offers including a three-seater leather sofa for £45 until 3am and a double bed frame for £30 between 3am and 8am. Cars were abandoned on the roadside as bargain hunters tried to reach the store in time to secure bargains.

The new outlet in Edmonton, the biggest Ikea in England, was due to trade for a full 24 hours, but shut up shop within around half an hour after the "unforeseen volume of customers".

A spokeswoman said the decision to close was taken for the safety of customers and staff, and the store would remain shut until further notice.

Assistant Divisional Officer William Bird, of the London Fire Service, said: "It was extraordinary and to a certain extent unexpected.

"I have certainly not attended anything like this before."

Cars abandoned on main roads around the store had caused "severe congestion", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"That is part of the problem, but also that people were really trying to get into the store caused enormous problems," Mr Bird said.

"There were crush injuries and people suffering from shock from the pushing and shoving."

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said today that nine ambulances, one rapid response car, four officers and an emergency control vehicle were sent to the scene, following reports of crushing outside the store.

He added: "Six adult patients were treated and taken to hospital, three each to North Middlesex and Whipps Cross hospitals.

"Of these, one man had been stabbed and another patient was experiencing chest pains.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard confirmed a man in his 20s was stabbed in the area - not the store - at about 1.30am today.

She added: "His condition is described as stable, and not thought to be life-threatening."

She said earlier many people had abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the A406 (North Circular) and made their way to the store on foot, causing severe traffic difficulties.

In a statement this morning, an Ikea spokeswoman said the company was "deeply shocked, upset and concerned" at what had happened.

She said: "In the planning process prior to the launch of the new store Ikea Edmonton had direct liaison with the police and Enfield council.

"On the evening traffic management, crowd control and the emergency services were in place.

"However at 00.01am, the official time of opening, people outside of the controlled queue surged forward, causing a crush at the entrance to the store."

She said police had confirmed a number of injuries, with the stabbing occurring "off Ikea premises" in a separate incident.

She added: "Ikea are deeply shocked, upset and concerned at what occurred. Ikea take the safety and security of its customers and employees very seriously at all times.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1409738,00.html

mal
 
Shouldn't the headline for this be "6,000 people in North London have utterly worthless lives"?
 
Jolly Jack said:
Shouldn't the headline for this be "6,000 people in North London have utterly worthless lives"?
Click to expand...

:rofl:

Their stuff is nice, bit not THAT nice!!!!
 
Elffriend said:
Jolly Jack said:
Shouldn't the headline for this be "6,000 people in North London have utterly worthless lives"?
Click to expand...

:rofl:

Their stuff is nice, bit not THAT nice!!!!
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They do have nice hotdogs in their cafe.
 
True and very cheap. You can feed the kids - a hot dog AND an ice cream for less than a pound!!!
 
They've just had callers on BBC Radio London who'd been there. They reckon it was a combination of overhype and poor preparation by the store and blatant overreaction by the crowds.
There were people parking on the North Circular and even trying to cross this with kiddies in prams, there were people pushing over temporary fences.
And there was one employee who alleged that since punters had broken into the fire exits, the management pushed pallets to block the doors! :shock:

It sounds like a combination of maximum exploitation and minimum care by the company and just plain stupidity on behalf of the public. But how often could you buy a brand new sofa for £45?
 
one has to wonder at the sort of people who dont take one look at the crowds and say...oh well lets go somehwere else then!... they push on into danger and torment.... personaly i wont go to Asda if the car park looks a bit full... i sopose im not the "right stuff"
 
Three die in Saudi shop stampede


IKEA employees carry an injured man out of the furniture shop
A stampede of hundreds of shoppers in western Saudi Arabia has left at least three people crushed to death.
A Saudi man and a Pakistani man were among those killed, officials in the port city of Jeddah said.

The incident occurred after shoppers rushed into a branch of Ikea to claim a limited number of credit vouchers being offered to the public.

More than 8,000 people had gathered near the store for the $150 vouchers, some of them having camped overnight.

The nationality of the third person killed was not given. Sixteen people were injured.

Ikea opened its doors at 0900 local time (0600 GMT), one hour ahead of the allotted tine, because of the large numbers of people who had gathered outside the store.

One shopper among the crowd said barriers had broken and security guards were unable to cope. He likened the scene to crowds at a rock concert and said he'd never seen anything similar in the country before.

Saudi press reports said the vouchers offer was part of a major revamp of Ikea in Saudi Arabia, with two brand new stores opening simultaneously in Jeddah and the capital Riyadh.

Reports say the new showrooms have 200% more space than the old stores.
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Link

It appears to be catching!
 
it is all part of a conspiracy by the Swedish government using Ikea as a front....
 
A man died during a scrum at our local Lidl store a few years ago. There were hundreds of people queuing to get about a dozen satelite dishes. Total mayhem when the doors opened; children and elderly people pushed to ground and trampled on in the stampede. A man in his sixties collapsed with chest pains and died before the ambulance came. He did have a bad heart, but was generally in good health, only stressed by what happened. It was sad to read the inquest reports, as his wife gave evidence of him leaving to go to the shops and she never saw him alive again. Getting a bloody TV dish for £20 or a sofa for £45 seems pretty pathetic in comparison to someone's life.
 
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