IKEA - Emeryville

After years of clever marketing, and now, the developments of Flatpack homes, IKEA has turned more into a lifestyle than a furniture retailer. IKEA has mastered the art of aspirational shopping. If you buy one of their MDF shelf units, you too could live the contemporary modern lifestyle showcased in the sample apartments set up in the giant shops, complete with the square footage. They're sort of like showhomes without ceilings, except there are two problems:

1) The sample apartments don't have ceilings or doors, so they look much bigger than your own home of comparable square footage.

2) The fake apartments are built around the standard-sized IKEA furniture, creating a custom built-in look.

Unfortunately, most houses don't come in IKEA standard sizes. Perhaps the flat pack houses do?

Tiger - Hammersmith

Tiger is stocked with random knick knacks, toiletries and kitchenware that could be found at Big Lots, but they seem nicer here, probably because of the quirky Scandinavian merchandising. Just like IKEA, shoppers wend their way through a maze of beautifully displayed wares. Instead of furniture, the products are note pads, kitchen towels, small toys and household items sold at bargain basement prices.


41-42 Kings Mall, King Street
Hammersmith, London W6