By the time I arrived at 11.30 we'd already taken more than our previous busiest day ever. By 15.00 that figure had doubled and it had doubled again by 19.30. When I left at 20.30 (with 3 and a half hours to go) the car park still looked like a bank holiday Monday and customers were still arriving. It looks like even the most bullish estimates will fall short of the eventual total by more than 100%.
Amazingly, I never saw any serious incidents of the ranting customer variety though there must surely have been a few. I suspect most people knew what it would be like and came prepared to put up with the inevitable delays.
In truth (to give myself and the 500 others involved a well-deserved pat on the back) it was an organisational triumph.
Yesterday, to celebrate the 21st birthday of Ikea's first UK store, all the stores were open from 6am 'til midnight and discounted all prices by 21% with even more spectacular results than had been envisaged. Edinburgh sold more in one day than in a good week.
There's a rather special staff discount coming up. The only trouble with that is that you have to spend money to save money but if you're in the market for a new kitchen anyway...
