So I am in bed reading a Book of 1227 facts, and I notice the following fact …
27 Million bibles are printed a year. Given it was around Christmas, I wondered who has a bible at home. Then read that this is compared to 208 Million Ikea catalogues, and I know we have two !!
Which was interesting as I went to IKEA on New Years Day, well it was the sales, I noticed how friendly they were to children. It was, as if children were welcomed as part of the shopping experience, a crèche and great interactive stuff around the store as well as a very child friendly restaurant. As a parent I find it surprising how many shops seem to see children as an inconvenience!
So in the restaurant I pondered the fact, from the same book, IKEA sell over 200 million meatballs a year, but they are soooo good! As I wandered round I noticed the beds and decided to have a sneaky look at the price of the bunkbed I had acquired (see my earlier blog Bunk Beds), and recalled a strange fact (you may have noticed that I enjoy collecting weird facts) that 1 in 10 children in Europe are conceived in an IKEA bed. Which makes me wonder, is that 1 in 10 in general or 1 in 10 of those actually conceived in a bed as opposed to a car, couch or kitchen table? Who works this stuff out?
Watching parents with their children shopping was really interesting. There were parents who had their own agenda and the child was going to fit in regardless, those who made the trip interesting for their children and engaged with them and then there was the mum or dad who looked like they had been given a child pumped full of E numbers and told to get them out of the house for an hour before the other parent went made!!
On my shopping trip I took in a number of stores and saw children with voucher cards, obviously Christmas presents, purchasing things. That got me wondering: A voucher never feels as special as someone making the actual effort to buy the game, book or CD, even if they don’t get it right. A sheet of paper printed out from Amazon doesn’t, in my opinion, feel like a present. But it is convenient … did you know the retail industry make over £ 70 Million a year in unclaimed vouchers?
I love facts, I love connections and observations – have a great week, I am off to do some more people watching.
