The Couple with the White Bench

Hee...

Those who have read the Shoppaholic series will know how this title came about (In the book, Becky wants to be 'the Girl in the Pink Vespa Helmet')

Yesterday, we bought our first piece of furniture for our new home! It's also the first piece of furniture I have ever bought!

It's a beautiful foldable cream bench.

Maybe I will post a pic sometime.

Anyway, it was really nothing short of a miracle, so I must share!

On Sunday night, we went down to Ikea to scour every nook and cranny and write down all the stuff that potentially would be great in our new home. We are planning to wait until the August sale and get in one fell swoop! =D

That's when we saw the lovely benchy.

However, as it was under As-Is, you have to take it immediately (no storage provided, and delivery is $40). So we thought, nvm lah, since it won't fit in the car, and we don't know how it will fit into our home, let's forget about it...

But that night, and the next morning, I kept thinking about it! And visualizing how it could fit into our living room. And, really, the more I thought about it, the more right it felt. As in, I could really see it fitting in! =D Somemore because it's display piece, so it was being sold at 30% off!

So I emailed Mel, and he said he also had been thinking about it, and liked it too. Haha! so...

That evening after work, Mel came over and had very quick van orientation to ForeRunner van. Then we drove down to Tampines Ikea (where we saw the bench).

BUT...

As we walked excitedly towards the As-Is area... there was NO BENCH!

ARGHHHHHH

We walked all round the area, but no, no bench =(

We asked the sales guy and he told us it had been SOLD?!?!

Oh no...

We were both so disappointed, esp after all the trouble it had taken to get oriented to the van and to drive across the island.

But not his fault lah.

THEN...

Mel happened to take a peek into the storeroom next to the As-Is area. AND GUESS WHAT??? The Bench was there!!!

We asked the sales guy about it. He finally told us it had been reserved by a Manager in Ikea.

Oh.

We tried to get him to give it to us anyway, telling him how much we liked it and all... and he was VERY NICE about it, but said no, cannot.

Sigh

So we looked for the bench section, thinking if we really liked it that much, maybe we should just get a new one. BUT IT WAS SOLD OUT!


Not just that. It was summer collection, so no more stock coming in!

Bother.

So we went to Customer Service Counter to ask them to call Alexandra branch to see if there got.

There also out of stock.

I tell you... my face fell like a limp rag.

=(

As we were going to walk out of the store, we decided... Aiya, just give it another try lah.

So we went back to the poor sale guy and asked him again. He was kind of laughing at us I think, cos he had seen us circling the area for almost an hour. Finally he said... ok he will check with the Manager. So... he rang up this Manager, and told him how much we liked the bench, and that we really would like to have it.

And the Manager said YES!!!

Hee...

i was kind of jumping for joy! Melvyn was a lot more calm and composed about it.

haha...

So anyway, that's how we got our White Bench. I'm sure that I will never forget this memorable experience in getting our first piece of furniture. And I will definitely share this story with my kids in future.

And just so you know, the very nice guy that helped us is called Hatif. If you're in Ikea, do watch out for him, and flash him a BIG smile on our behalf! =)