Bröken Up By Ikea
“Two months into their
marriage, Andrew Motiwalla and his wife had only a futon mattress to
their name and an entire unfurnished house to decorate. And so the
blissful couple set out from New Rochelle to the 350,000-square-foot
Ikea in Elizabeth, N.J., eager to acquire the trappings of their new
life together.
But by the end of the day, Mr. Motiwalla had been reduced to a
cursing, furniture-throwing wreck in front of his new bride. While
trying to assemble the chairs they had lugged home, Mr. Motiwalla was
screaming in frustration – “I hate this! I hate this! I hate this!” -
while his wife pleaded for him to calm down. The couple had to hire a
carpenter to assemble the furniture for them. “There’s probably some
equivalent to road rage in the furniture world,” Mr. Motiwalla said
recently, “and I experienced that.”
Ikea offers good design, extremely low prices, and easy-to-navigate
stores. But there’s a catch: For couples, a trip to the megastore can
often wind up in a fight.”
Bröken Up By Ikea
By Ruth Graham
The New York Sun
Image: “Instead of a Divorce buy at Ikea” print ad by Forsman & Bodenfors 2001
