35 Free Couches, 350 Reporters
Before dawn yesterday morning a small group of fans of affordable Swedish design (read: people without jobs) began camping out in front of the Ikea in Red Hook. Why? The home furnishings chain is giving out an Ektorp sofa to the first 35 in line when the store officially opens tomorrow morning. Sleeping in a tent for two days to earn a couch hardly makes much financial sense—with a retail price of $399, they'll collect about $8.31 in free couch for every hour they spend on line—and when you factor in the inconveniences (Porta Potty snafus, the hours of hand-wringing assembly time), you're talking about a fairly costly piece of "free" furniture that's liable to break the first time you sit on it. That might explain why there are as many reporters on the scene as people waiting on line, which might also make this the most cost-effective marketing gimmick in Ikea history.