Ikea... is it really a treasure trove of Happiness?

This was my mission. I had heard the talk. There were whispers in dark alleys of the greatness that is Ikea, but I was ever skeptical. It's not so much that I keep my glass half-empty, but it's hard to rationalize my can of coke as being half-full when it's this humid outside. My love of coke and pathetic attempts at being clever aside, I made the journey to the furniture superstore this morning. Ryan and Sarah accompanied me (or did I accompany them?) The sheer size of the store lived up to the hype. We spent a solid hour and a half-2 hours walking through the place. The way they have it set up is such that you have to practically walk through the entire store in order to see an exit. Ok, so maybe there are some shortcuts, but who's counting? From a marketing/advertising standpoint the idea is genious. Do the prices confirm this intelligence? Well, yes and no. I was informed, by voices both far and wide, that the real greatness behind Ikea was in its prices. Cheaper furniture sounds good, right? Wrong. I won't sit here and pretend to be Christopher Lowell, but the prices seemed to be just as ridiculous there as they are everywhere else. To be fair I don't go out and price king-size beds at different outlets, but I know a good price from a bad price. I saw a couple of chairs I liked (there was one really comfortable chair that Ryan and I thought would make good "gaming" chairs), and I saw a computer desk at <$100 that would work well once I move. To their credit they do have extraordinary prices on smaller items, such as hangers, shades, toolsets, pillows, sheets, shelves, etc. Ryan picked up a couple of down-feather pillows and some bamboo shades for his bathroom, and spent <$50. However, their "main" itembase was no less cheaper then any other "super-mega-colossal-one-of-a-kind-BLOWOUT-warehouse". Oh well, hopefully someone with better tastes in decor will come along and put me in my place. After all, I am a guy. What did you expect?