Get Your Family Membership Card Today!

Have you become an IKEA family member yet?  You can fill out an application at one of the little ATM like machines in the store.  It's quick and easy and doesn't cost you a cent. In fact, it will save you money.  IKEA Family Members get an e-mail update of what's on sale, and some of those special prices are just for them. That includes the foods at the restaurant. You just show your card to get the discounts.  And if you are an IKEA Family Member your beverages are always free.
Today we had Haddock and Fries for $4.99 with our tea and coffee free.  After touring the store we went back for some Chocolate Truffle Cake for $1.49, and once again the tea and coffee were free.  And you can refill the beverages to your heart's content. So, if you happen to have someone who doesn't want to walk all over the building while you shop, they can sit there and wait for you. 
Heck, you can't even get a donut and a coffee at Tim Horton's for $1.49! Take a moment and fill out that application!

It's All in the Family

Today we finally made it to the new IKEA store, in Ottawa.  It's huge.  It's got one floor of display rooms and another floor where you might as well get yourself a cart because you ARE going to pick up items as you walk through. Then you go through the warehouse area, where you can locate some of the things you spotted in the displays, and get those there.  The tags on the items in the display areas tell you what isle and section to look in when you get to the warehouse.  We didn't see any of the order forms like they used to have in the old store, so we wrote the numbers down on a piece of paper we happened to have with us. Do come prepared! 

After many years of visiting the old IKEA, and never once being able to get into the restaurant there, we finally got to eat IKEA food.  It's cheap and plentiful.  Hubby said his meatballs and mashed potato meal wasn't as hot as he would have liked, but he said it was good.  I had a huge mandarin salad with a chicken breast. Marvelous meal for the price, but the chicken, which is proudly advertised on the table displays as being organic, was rather tasteless.  A good dose of salt helped that a bit. 

I found this machine when I entered the store that would issue a free IKEA Family Membership Card.  Being like most kids I know, I just had to push the buttons.  I ended up with a nice orange credit card sized card with a code that needed to be scanned in.  After that I was all set to enjoy the benefits of being a Family Member. One was that there are certain promotions that are just for Family Members.  I apparently didn't choose any of those items today.  Another benefit is that you get your coffee and tea for free if you present your card when paying for your meal.  We not only got our beverages for free, but found you could get refills too. We enjoyed this benefit both with our meals and again later when we went back for an afternoon snack.  At that time I had a slice of apple strudel cake, and hubby had a chocolate truffle bar.  Both came with whipped cream.  We're thinking this might just be a great place to go, even when we don't have any plans to shop the store.  Actually, nobody should ever have any trouble dragging their men to this store. They can sit and  drink a few cups of coffee while you shop, or even have beer with lunch if they want.  I can't think of another store where you can get a beer!

On the way out I checked out another food area.  It seems you can get hot dogs and cinnamon buns and coffee there too, but it's more of a grab and go place. There are lots of other packaged  foods available too.  They even had baskets with samples of bits of cookies.  I tasted one that had vanilla cream filling with an apple jelly glaze.  Ha.  As if I had not had enough to eat already, I had to bring some of those home. But hey, I certainly did get my exercise walking around that place, and quite honestly, I didn't see it all. 

We will be going back!