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At one minute past midnight, Ikea's new store opened in north London, and managers expected that around 2,000 bargain-hunters would quietly file in. The special offers were amazing – in addition to the £45 leather sofas, a double bed frame was available for only £30 between 3am and 8am. Thousands of shoppers had been lured by bargains, but Ikea did not predict that up to 6,000 people would attack the new store, which resulted in a frightening crush. A lot of people turned up just before midnight. They pushed their way into the crowd and started queuing at different parts. The staff just could not handle it. There were crush injuries and people suffering from shock from the pushing and shoving. After police, along with nine ambulances and an emergency control vehicle had arrived, six people were taken to hospital.

Ikea's UK deputy country manager John Olie told the next day: "We planned everything according to what we expected – we just couldn't predict what happened. If we had known this would happen, we would have had other measures in place. But we were totally shocked and overwhelmed by the number of visitors that we had. We are really, really sorry. We've taken all the offers off sale and won't have any more offers at all".

There has been much talk about consumer greed in the case of the Ikea riot, about the depravity of people crushing one another for a £45 sofa. But there is less talk about Ikea's greed, and in particular about the way in which this giant manipulates its customer's emotions, sending them into ever more hysterical cycles of rage and frustration.

Ikea has been one of the most stunning business successes of recent years, with its flat-pack furniture selling in huge numbers. The company, founded more than 60 years ago in a village in southern Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad, then just 17 years old, now has stores in 29 countries across the world. But despite its prosperous activity, the company has a strong image of a poor customer service provider. You can look on Ikea's website, but you cannot purchase anything on it. You cannot purchase over the telephone either. You cannot ring up and add to your existing order; you must visit the store again. If you go to an Ikea store by car, you must resign yourself to a couple of hours in a tailback. If you go to an Ikea store by public transport, you must resign yourself to being stung by the store's furniture delivery service. When you're inside an Ikea store, you must come to terms with a near permanent state of bewilderment: shelves stacked with flat brown boxes labeled with random codes and names; a yellow road which takes you through bedrooms when all you wanted was some kitchen handles. And then, when your emotional temperature is rising you face with Ikea's version of customer care – an underpaid teenager, who'll tell you they're out of stock.

A few years back, an Ikea TV advertising campaign came close to their attitude to customer care. The company pretty much confessed to not having enough staff in its stores, boasting that this attitude to retail kept prices so low. It's true that Ikea's prices are almost unfeasibly low. There really is nowhere else in the UK you can buy a sofa for £200, but improving the experience of its customers doesn't inevitably mean a stark rise in prices – that's a management choice, which relates directly to profit margins. It could change the way it runs its business – spend a few million less on marketing, and a few million more on staff - and begin to take some responsibility for the people.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14