I spent the morning out at IKEA waiting for the front doors to finally swing open. Talk about Yellow (and blue) Fever . . . People camped out starting on MONDAY to get inside . . . the first 100 people in got free furniture . . . then several hundred after that got goodies like IKEA logo beach balls, gift cards . . . .

I will say this, as someone who has camped out for a few things in my life (including student tickets to the Civil War Football Game) the people at IKEA had control over their line. People were given numbers when they arrived at the campsite and if you were out of line for more than ten minutes, it was to the back with you. No cases of one person holding a spot for thirty people . . . . very civilized, very contained . . .

The parking lot was a party in the hours leading up to doors open. A ski team did acrobatics on trampolines, music and dancers performed . . . . definitely stirred up the excitement.

Then, the coups de gras . . . instead of cutting a ribbon . . . Mayor Tom Potter helped saw a LOG in half (old Sweedish custom, supposedly gives the new business good luck) . . . don't tell anyone, but they couldn't cut the wood . . . the store manager had to snap it in half with his hands . . .

When we finally got to the point where customers got to go inside I took a stroll through the line . . . It wrapped halfway around the massive building (if you haven't seen it, it's about the size of a Costco or Wal Mart or Target . . . ) and that line was three or four deep the whole way . . . several THOUSAND people all waiting to check out the store . . . .