I went to the Ikea grand opening in Bolingbrook this morning.
Got there at 8:30 in time for the flag raising ceremony. I think they played Sweden's anthem. Had the first 3 people in line get gift certificates for $3000, $2000, and $1000. They had been in line for over a week, like since Oct 14 I think, sleeping in tents.
The first 100 people got a free $80 chair. (not me)
I have no idea how many people were there this morning, I'm bad with numbers....but a lot.
When I left they had closed out the parking lot and had police redirecting traffic to other lots where they were shipping them in on trolleys.
They had a line that snaked around outside, like the lines for a rollercoaster. I got a free Ikea frisbee and measuring tape. When we got through the front doors, they had a big crowd of Ikea employees hooting, hollering, cheering and clapping for everyone that came in.
I went upstairs and sat down with a 99 cent breakfast special. Ate the potatoes mostly.... I'm weird about scrambled eggs sometimes.
Walked around, it was like a casino, winding around, getting everyone directionally confused.
I jogged through mostly, picked up a bag of 100 tea lights for $2.99.
Everyone was buying stuff, a lot of big stuff too. The hot item seemed to be the 3 bedroom set for $299, tons of people were walking out with them. On the way out I went to the grocery section and sampled several cookies.


These shots are from yesterday, 1 day before the opening, already people camped out that were not the first 3 in line, so I guess they camped out for the $80 chair for free?








These are the first 3 people in line. The guy in the white t-shirt is the one who won the $3000 gift card. He is from Atlanta, and came here just for this.




This is the line I stood in.








Now I am leaving for a therapy appt in 30 min, then I have an informal interview in Oak Brook to set up a formal interview for a local company. And I had a phone interview yesterday for a job in the loop that went pretty well and they are setting up an interview with me on Tuesday. So hopefully something will pan out soon.