The other day I needed a 'spice mill' like the one I had bought in Munich at IKEA.
An excursion to the largest IKEA department store in the world - a world with 300 stores in 44 countries - was a given. The free shuttle bus from Stockholm Center drove me in 30 minutes to the front door at Kungens Kurva. It is not only the largest but the first IKEA store - built 1965 in the round form inspired by the Guggenheim museum in New York.
IKEA's policy is to see all customers as visitors and therefore a friendly "Hello, so nice of you to come for a visit" is printed in eye level on the glass entrance doors.
Grab a yellow bag and start collecting! The round building is a challenge even for visitors with good orientation. It took me 30 minutes to find a spice mill and 20 minutes to come to the cash register so I could catch the next shuttle back to the Stockholm downtown. At home the instructions - in 26 languages - were another proof of the world wide success of the Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad.
