Quick trip round Ikea, then 4hrs to leave its car park

By SHOPPING on Sundays can be stressful enough – but it took customers at Britain’s latest Ikea up to four hours just to leave afterwards.

Temperatures soared, tempers flared and police were called as hundreds of motorists became boxed in by in traffic gridlock at the furnishings superstore in Reading.

Staff handed out trolleys full of bottled water to angry families stuck in its four-storey car park, with one shopper saying it was “easier to leave Europe”.

Peter Coe posted pictures of the chaos and tweeted he was “stuck for 4 hours trying to get OUT of the car park! Nightmare!”.

While shopper Stacey Barber, 22, of Farnborough, Hants, said: “We were stuck for three hours and we only went to return something. We didn’t get home till 6pm.”

The Berkshire store opened last Thursday, the first new UK branch of the Swedish furniture giant for seven years, and some customers queued for 27 hours to be the first in.

But many waited until Sunday to visit and by 1pm a Twitter user was already reporting problems: “Dreadful issue with getting out of the carpark!! Have moved 8 feet in 15mins.”

Ashlee Conway, another stuck shopper, added online: “According to staff an accident caused issues with traffic which made the entrance and exit very congested. Police weren’t letting anybody into Ikea for some time to allow people to exit the car park.”

Ikea branch manager Johanna Heuren said a “traffic management plan” would remain in place while the cause of Sunday’s delays was investigated.

She added: “Our traffic management team responded to keep cars moving as quickly as possible and we’d like to thank customers for being patient.”

Several people were injured when 6,000 shoppers crowded into the opening of the Ikea store in Edmonton, north London in 2005, forcing it to close temporarily.