Ikea Shoppers Trapped In Car Park For Four Hours At New Reading Store

Ikea shoppers were trapped in a car park for four hours while trying to leave a newly opened store.

Customers beeped their horns and voiced their frustration on social media during the traffic jam in the multi-storey car park at the new Ikea in Reading, Berkshire, on Sunday.

One shopper tweeted that it was “easier to leave Europe than the Ikea Reading car park”.

The Reading store is the first Ikea to open in the UK for seven years and drew thousands of visitors.

Rory Firth, 40, a father-of-two from Maidenhead, Berkshire, said: “It was just bedlam.

“We were stuck for about an hour but a lot of people were stuck for upwards of three hours.

“We were on level one so we were quite lucky. I had my four-year-old and 10-month-old in the back seat so we were fortunate to get out when we did.”

Stacey Barber, 22, from Farnborough, Hampshire, said a three-hour delay had ruined her day’s shopping.

“We were stuck for three hours and we only went to return something,” she said.

“We didn’t get home till six so all the shops were shut and missed out on a whole afternoon.”

She said staff handed out bottles of water to waiting customers.

“After an hour everyone had enough. It was so hot and a bottle of water goes so far. People started arguing with staff saying ‘what is going on?’ and they had no answer.

“There were people with two or three kids in the car so they were getting more annoyed.

“People just kept beeping their cars to get attention but all we got was 'sorry for the delay’.”

The Ikea store’s manager, Johanna Heuren, said a “traffic management plan” would remain in place while they investigated the cause of the delays.

She said: “We can confirm that there was a delay with regards to customers exiting the Ikea Reading car park on Sunday afternoon.

“The number of visitors to the store was in line with the previous busy days during the opening weekend where our traffic management plan worked efficiently as planned.

“Our traffic management team responded to keep cars moving as quickly as possible and we’d like to thank customers for being patient and understanding of the situation.”

(Pictures: PA/Rex/Ikea)