Ikea gives new meaning to a 'one-stop-shop'. I have been there a few times and always see new products that catch my eye. Recently my family and I moved house and it was one of the first places we went for new furniture. Seriously, one could furnish a whole house from that one store.

Huge store, great value. Staff are helpful. You can spend all day there looking at home wares, bedding, new kit kitchens and furniture. Amazing range, great value and almost everything is flat packed.

Great value non stop. Their storage items are so practical. Although you have to put it together yourself they have every easy to follow instructions. Why not stop for a $1 hot dog on the way out! Everyone I need for my place esp all the kids stuff where you wouldn't want to spend too much.

love love love ikea !!! can spend hours in there shopping but noticed that you can a similar thing like can opener , pizza cutter , glasses and other little stuff from the chinese shop for just 2 bucks .. so thats a waste .. Their artificial plants are very exp for no reason.. But i still love ikea and still shop there ...

Approximate cost: $400.00

Shopping at Ikea always takes ages - the place is so large and designed to lead you through every section. While there are lots of excellent products on display, they aren't always in stock and it's incredibly frustrating to spend ages searching and comparing furniture to decide and then discover that it's out of stock. It's hard to get hold of a customer service representative in the pick up area. I do like the downstairs area with all the kitchen furniture, textiles etc. - always good value and you can pick your items off the shelf then and there. As a parent, I found the lifts very small and difficult to get in and out of especially when so many other parents are also in the same situation. I was disappointed with the baby change/feeding room on offer - very small and the chair was uncomfortable. The "Baby Oasis" in the food court was positioned right next to the industrial kitchen, making it a noisy disturbing place to breastfeed. Again, the chair was uncomfortable and unsuited to breastfeeding. Perhaps Ikea needs to ask the Australian Breastfeeding Association for advice on what sort of facilities they should provide for mothers and babies. After all, families are probably their biggest customer base so they should provide comfortable and suitable facilities for parents. Having said all this, I will continue to shop at Ikea because the products are well priced and you can take your time trying before you buy without being hassled by salespeople like you would be in a regular furniture/homewares shop. Another positive for Ikea is that you get free parking if you make a purchase at Ikea, so that's another saving. It's also easy to park and load up once you've made your purchase. There are self service counters if you want to do it yourself - something that I like doing for a few items (like in Safeway).

Approximate cost: $depends on the item you are buying

I cannot go to Melbourne without visiting this store. I love that I can browse through everything and that half way through I can stop for a yummy sanga and a coffe to get me through the next half of the store!

Who doesn't love Ikea? Their well designed, affordable products are so great! It's great for the home, office and is so reasonably priced. I buy all sorts of things there, chairs, lamps, crockery - love it :)

still the first port of call even though our budget is no longer rock bottom. Fantastic cabinets (add more fasteners and glue) cupboards (the same) and sit them on an aluminum rail for the wall if there will be a lot of weight. There is the necessity to check things out in the box before you leave.. Never mind the stuff looks good and its cheap

Approximate cost: $fairly cheap

Good design for the price. Ikea works well if you are prepared to add in extra glue and screws and brackets. Saves on tradie costs. Shopping is not so much fun if you want to try and modify the average combinations. Our pieces have stood up reasonably well even though some are nearly 20 years old. We always have other ways of securing wall loads than the standard Ikea methods. A great resource for Melbourne

Approximate cost: $low

We found the staff hopeless on a Saturday. They were rude and unhelpful and more interested in chatting amongst themselves. I lined up for 20 minutes to put my son in the creche only to be told to go to the back of the line because I didn't fill in the form that another girl had told me not to worry about. I lined up again for 10 minutes only to be told there were no more places available..all up wasted 30 minutes waiting in line. When loading our purchases into the car at the loading bay there were staff everywhere chatting amongst themselves ignoring all the people struggling to lift heavy boxes...my husband ended up helping some old ladies load their furniture while they watched and laughed!!! The service was SHOCKING!!!!