They are, however, only the last of many. What you find on entering Ikea is, perhaps, the most fiendishly clever, ruthlessly targeted concept in the whole history of selling. The stores don’t have a bed department over here, and a kitchen shop over there. That sort of simplicity would be far too easy for the customers to suss out, and use to their advantage. Instead, Ikea takes you on a journey along a winding blue path past lots of things that you didn’t know you needed until you saw them – towels, saucepans, measuring spoons – all enticingly displayed in baskets and racks, at prices so low it seems insane not to buy them. And if, in the process, you miss what you are actually looking for, you have to follow the path again, collecting even more stuff. And so it goes on, until you stagger out with a trolley stacked high, and you understand why Ikea is the biggest retailer of its kind in the world.