Wish I'd Thought of That

Do you ever hear of something and in your head you think "That's BRILLIANT! I wish I had thought of that!". Well, reading the paper one day I saw an article that made me slap my head and say it.

William Crozer and his wife, Carrie Mauriello Crozer, started a personal shopping service, buying exclusively at Ikea. As you know, Las Vegas has no Ikea. None. This is a terrible, terrible thing. So the Crozer's will go to So Cal and shop at Ikea for you and bring the stuff back. You look through the Ikea catalog and they do all the hard work. They will even help with delivery and assembly.

Now, I can hear you saying, "But Shae, doesn't Ikea ship?" and the answer is, "Well, yes Loyal Readers, they do." But, and this is where the "Ahhh" moment comes in, Ikea gets to choose the shipping method and pricing. For example, when I moved home, I needed an armoire and I found a beautiful one at Ikea. It was perfect, both functional and attractive. And at only $169, it was also within my budget. So I went online to order it when I noticed that there was no shipping section to tell me how much shipping would be. Because Ikea gets to choose whether they ship UPS or Common Carrier. Now UPS rates are somewhat reasonable but the common carrier rates (and this is what they use for almost all furniture because it weighs more than 70 pounds) is ridiculous. So to ship my $169 armoire was going to cost me $407. That's right, the shipping charges were more than double the cost of the item. Now, to have the Crozer's company (Modern LV) bring it back for me would cost around $50. (For orders from $61-$1500 the shipping charge is 29%). See why they are brilliant?

The other reason why the Crozer's are providing such a valuable service is that not all items that you can buy in store are available for purchase online. For example, I love the swedish meatballs at Ikea. LOVE them. I brought back a bag of the frozen meatballs and several packets of the cream sauce mix. And when I ran out of meatballs, I learned how to make my own and (if I do say so myself) they are even better than Ikea's. (Probably because they are fresh, not frozen.) But I can't get the sauce right, much to my consternation. But Ikea doesn't sell the sauce packets online, only in store. And while I have been known to drive out of my way to pick up an ingredient, four hours is excessive, even for me. But now, I can have the Crozer's pick me up some. Excuse me, while I wipe the tears of joy from my face.

Now, I will say that the Crozer's need some help with their blog (hmm, perhaps a barter system could be worked out for my writing services in exchange for some Graddasas sauce packets?) and I think they really need to get the word out there (hence, this column to benefit both them and you Loyal Readers, especially those of you in Las Vegas with an Ikea need) because their service is sooooo wonderful. They are heading to Ikea next on Monday, January 19th so look at the online catalog and send them your wish list. I am getting some sauce packets, some lingonberries and perhaps some other items (alas, the armoire of my dreams is no longer available). It isn't the same as shopping at Ikea, but it's the next best thing to being there!