October 02, 2004
SWEDISH FURNITURE MASSACRE
An IKEA store opening in Jeddah turned violent last month:
Three men were killed and 16 injured in a stampede when thousands of people rushed to claim cash vouchers at the opening of an IKEA furniture showroom at its new location near the intersection of Tahlia and Sitteen streets here yesterday.
Many men, women and children fainted and some of them were trampled upon as the crowd of shoppers swelled just before the opening. The Red Crescent rushed some of the victims to the nearby King Fahd Hospital.
IKEA tried to play down the disaster ("IKEA management insisted that only two people were killed") and local IKEA executive vice president Amin Jamal pointed out the relative lack of deaths during another store opening in Riyadh:
"The Riyadh opening was without any problem, although we had made a similar offer of vouchers to shoppers. Maybe the Riyadh shoppers are more disciplined," he said.
“Excellent business” was nevertheless reported. Arab News correspondent Rasheed Abou-Alsamh had more:
A Saudi translator told me that his wife had been nagging him to take her to the opening so she could have a chance at getting one of the SR500 vouchers. He told her that he would give her SR2,000 to give up on the idea.
"Unfortunately for me, she took me up on my offer!" he said.
Here’s a survivor’s account:
"It was a stampede. I have never seen anything like it. You couldn’t reason with these people, they were out of control. I saw one woman lying on the ground; I couldn’t see her breathing ... I thought I was going to die."
Incredible.
UPDATE. I've got to pay more attention to publication dates. This story is from last month; I've made subsequent copy changes.
Posted by Tim Blair at October 2, 2004 08:07 PMMany years ago I did my washing at a coin laundry in what transpired to be a suburb of arabic immigrants. It was during the subsequent convalescent period in which I declared arabs to be "a bunch of ratbags", for reason of that previous (& only) ephiphany like experience with the race.
The story of the Riyadh & Jeddah shop openings may bring on flashbacks, *poor me*.
I went to the opening day of Ikea in Richmond (Vic). It was crowded but not excessively so. The local gay community has taken a liking to Ikea. Every third couple was same-sex (male).
Posted by: Walter Plinge at October 2, 2004 at 09:36 PMI don't wish to seem unsympathetic but it quotes like the following sound like some folfs don't wish to take responsibility for their own behavior. Tempted customers? Please...
“I believe that the company advertised offers that tempted customers to be there first,” said Turki. Red Crescent and hospital sources put the toll at three — two Saudis and a Yemeni. - from The Arab News
Posted by: zzx375 at October 2, 2004 at 11:10 PM
Death before dishonor*!
*And there's nothing more dishonorable than having to take a rain check on a $29 end table.
I should try to type at this time of day...folks not 'folfs'.
Posted by: zzx375 at October 2, 2004 at 11:15 PMI sincerely hope that IKEA doesn't end up shouldering any of the blame for this incident.
As a former retail employee, I have witnessed the parasitic behaviour of Middle Eastern customers when given access to "limited quantities, no rainchecks" sales.
Not unlike hundreds of maggots jockeying for position on a deer carcass.
This is definitely one Middle Eastern stereotype that is well-deserved.
They practice this sort of thing during pilgrimages.
Posted by: George at October 3, 2004 at 01:43 AMSo... now they've graduated from car swarms to ... um... furniture swarms?
Posted by: Rebecca at October 3, 2004 at 02:03 AMThey recently re-opened our IKEA store here in Houston, and the first customer in was going to get something like $10K in furniture, with the next few getting $5K, and so on. Something like that.
People camped out for days, if not weeks. Longer, I would think, than $10K in goodies was worth. Mind you, this was in August or September, when Houston is still damned hot and muggy.
No riots were reported.
Posted by: Angie Schultz at October 3, 2004 at 03:44 AMA Saudi translator told me that his wife had been nagging him to take her to the opening so she could have a chance at getting one of the SR500 vouchers. He told her that he would give her SR2,000 to give up on the idea."Unfortunately for me, she took me up on my offer!" he said.
If you lived anywhere but Saudi, you could have sent her there by herself, but no, you have have to escort her everywhere she goes because of your retarded religious police
"It was a stampede. I have never seen anything like it. You couldn’t reason with these people, they were out of control. I saw one woman lying on the ground; I couldn’t see her breathing ... I thought I was going to die."
That's probably because she was in a shapeless oll covering abaya. BTW, why didn't the Muttawa beat her senseless for being such a hussy and posing provocatively in public?
Posted by: Kevin at October 3, 2004 at 04:36 AMWhat a greatidea Ikea
perhaps they could consider expanding the scheme to say the Syrian and Iranian borders- with an arms fest combined, offer free dvds of the beheadings and have a great big birthday cake in the centre - convince them George Bush is going to pop out of the cake -all admitted to the store can be given a voucher and -----the prize- tell them they get first cut of the cake. lOCK THE DOORS -DRUM ROLL THE KNIFE PRESSES ON THE icing grenade and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.
Oh dear, knew I should not have taken that allergy tablet after teqila and red wine
Posted by: Rose at October 3, 2004 at 11:08 AMDamm. Imagine what will happen when they open up a Volvo dealership.
THose kooky Scandanavians
Posted by: Andy at October 3, 2004 at 11:43 AMSo, the Swedes are participating in the Global War On Terrorism now? I hadn't heard.
Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 3, 2004 at 11:48 AMOf course, the time for the injured to panic is when you see the interns coming at you with an Allen key, the instructions upside down, and a bewildered look on their face.
Posted by: Paul Wright at October 3, 2004 at 12:17 PM