When we wrote about the dread that overcomes us before an IKEA trip, we got a lot of responses - some from fellow sufferers of Pre-Traumatic IKEA Syndrome, and others from people who look forward all month to a weekend at the megastore (Janel is a hard-core IKEA lover). Yesterday, we discovered another IKEA hater, Portland Trail Blazer Channing Frye. Click below to see what he has to say about it...

Writing about his summer vacation on his blog, Channing says: "I decided to start doing work around the house and let me tell you: If any man has never been to Ikea on a Saturday, please, I beg you for your own sanity, don’t go. It is a zoo. I’d never been inside that place and I hope never to go back. I’ll order what I need off the Internet catalog. It was pandemonium out there, but I survived. It was so funny. I never thought that a day full of shopping with my girl would be so tiring. I never go to Home Depot or Ikea or Bed, Bath n Beyond; it’s just not my thing."
Thanks to my basketball-obsessed husband, Steve, for sending me this link and giving me the idea for this post title when he told me, "See, NBA players hate going to IKEA, too."
Read more of Channing Frye's blog here.
Photos: ChanningFrye.com

Comments (18)
Stars- They're Just Like Us!
Sure do agree with his experience, but most IKEAists avoid the place on weekends unless they just want to get ideas or get alot of exercise.
I believe IKEA is especially bad for us guys since we don't read signs anyway and rely on our canny sense of direction to guide us through stores. This is fatal in IKEA since their floor layout at least in the Wash DC area is circular.
Seriously though, there is a lot there but you must do your home work before you go and go during the week day. You can use the Internet, but this won't work if you are looking for a new kitchen.
Now for Home Depot and Lowes. Please don't get me started on them.
Tom
http://www.millennialliving.com
I love IKEA but my apartment is starting to feel too much one of their showrooms I have so much of their stuff. Each trip there always leaves my boyfriend and me so harried we take several weeks break before going again. Instead of spending all day this Saturday at that madhouse, we're going to see the Mets / Dodgers game instead. Hope it doesn't rain!!!
If it rains, I'll get my raindate tix and work on paring down/decluttering my apartment instead.
** signed Ikea addict still fighting off compulsion to shop **
haha kellylc - that's my favorite section of the trashy mags i love to hate and hate that i love! because it is so ridiculous...
I take several year breaks before going again.
I was there very early last Sunday morning and bumped into Jason Bateman....well worth any Ikeaggravation that followed.
It's been so long since I went to IKEA on a weekend that I completely forgot it's so crazy. I went there recently on a Tuesday night an hour before closing, and was able to park close, and get in and out in 15 minutes. Now, if only they would stop rearranging the store between my (infrequent) visits.
We always go on Friday evening. There's nobody there and you can sail through. Last time we went, we took the our twin 1 yr. olds and ate our family dinner in the "restaurant". The kids loved it, and we got to talk. It was like a date. For married people with twins.
If you "dread" the trip to IKEA, then why go at all?
My bf had never been to Ikea and I had a short list of specific things I was looking for at the store. So, I convinced him that we needed to leave at 8 am to get to the store when they opened at 9 am to beat the Saturday crowd. We arrived at 8:45 am only to find out that they don't open until 10 am. Oops! But seriously, why don't they open earlier on the weekends? If they opened at 7 am, it would be a lot easier to beat the crowds!
Because sane people don't wake up before 9am on Saturdays.
Why is someone like Channing Frye shopping at Ikea? It makes no sense, he is like 6' 11" tall. Can he even find something that fits his build.
the benefits of being a stay at home mom -- going to IKEA at 10am on a Tuesday. ahhh!
I love IKEA's stuff and hate their stores! I feel like a rat in a maze - especially when I know where I want to go and get trapped in their two story yellow brick road traffic pattern set up. And the looks you get from the few store personnel when breaking out the pattern to get to your destination more quickly....
Go to the Schaumburg IL IKEA on Friday night, when only I and a few other (equally lame) people go, and you will practically have the place to yourself.
Go on Saturday and you're just asking for it.
Why the heck is a millionaire NBA player shopping at IKEA for knockdown furniture. Of course, he didn't enjoy the life us normal humans have to endure everyday. He could just call Johnathan Adler and have him come over and do the place. Cheap bas.... basketball player....
Everybody knows that you shouldn't go to Ikea on Saturdays, and if you have to, only early in the morning. But you can't expect NBA players to think that far.
i just go cuz their stuff fits well within my budget.
it's a love/hate relationship.