IKEA vs Tesco

Over the weekend we went to IKEA to pick up some home stuff like boxes to store spices for the kitchen, blankets, bed sheets and all that. Ikea stores are generally put on the highway or outskirts of the city to accommodate its retail - warehouse model and so our trip felt like a picnic outing than a shopping one. I must confess though that the Ikea here was a little disappointing, it wasn’t as huge and didn’t have much of the stuff that I wanted for reasonable rates. For e.g. the duvet covers I saw at Sainsbury and the ones at IKEA were at par so didn’t make much to hike from all that distance when I could get it in my neighbourhood itself. I did get a mega deal on the boxes for spices and felt happy about that.

During my MBA days we had a case study on IKEA an then later on during my onsite trip I had visited IKEA and felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of operations. That was the first time I had seen people liking something on display, checking the item code and then just before check out picking up the item from the warehouse section!!! It was a mind boggling sight for me. :)

I read up on IKEA a bit on the net and found out that IKEA stands for the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd, in Småland, South Sweden). That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? This company is the world’s largest furniture retailer with its strongest hold in Germany (44 stores).

Well enough of the IKEA Lesson. After coming back from it I was feeling like someone who had had only half his/her lunch even though they were really hungry….not fully satisfied. So the next day we went to the Tesco Extra nearby and that was like hitting gold. Not only did they have all the stuff I wanted but at wonderfully cheap rates and more importantly they had a section in vegetables and in general foods dedicated for us Indians……:) The vegetables were labeled as Mooli, Dhudhi, Okra Indian and there was atta, rice, ghee, all masalas and what not…….whoppeeeee!!! So much to Shaiwal’s dismay and to my wholehearted pleasure….i SHOPPED!!! :)

What I really liked about this store was that there was a wide variety yes but more than that in any category, Tesco stored premium, mid-market and low price range named as Finest, Tesco and Value. Awesome! One store for all segments.

Since I can’t help myself, an interesting info on Tesco, it’s got 6 store formats, the Tesco Extra which are hypermarkets, the Tesco superstores that’s large standard supermarkets, Tesco Metro that’s an ordinary sized supermarket, Tesco Express are the neighborhood convenience store meaning our Kirana store types and One stop stores which doesn’t bear the Tesco name on it and are the smallest stores. :)

By the way daylight savings have started so we are now only 4 and a half hour behind India, Shaiwal feels his sleeping time has reduced by one hour so he is kind of moping around!!! :(