ikea people

The other day we went to one of the two IKEA's in the area of Barcelona. The one we went to is situated in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, around 30 minutes by bus from Plaza Catalunya. L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is the second largest city (yes, it is considered as a city even though it feels more like a suburb) in Catalonia. More than 250 000 people live here and it is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. About 25 % of the inhabitants are born outside of Spain. Many South Americans live here, mainly from Ecuador. 

We did not only go to IKEA to have a cheap meal of Swedish meatballs (not very tasty, to be truthful!) but also to talk to the people standing outside of IKEA offering to deliver your furniture to your home. 

When you enter IKEA there are  few men hanging around and hand out their cards with their names and phone numbers. They offer to deliver your things immediately to a pretty low cost. For going to Barcelona centre they charge you around 20-30 euros. You can also go with them in the car if you want to. 

Of course IKEA also has its own service. 

And it is more or less the same price. The difference is that if you choose IKEA you will have to wait for your things and they can neither guarantee when they will show up on your doorstep, nor do they offer you a lift home.

Obviously IKEA is not very happy about the people outside offering a better service than the company itself and according to some of the workers, IKEA is trying to work against them. But of course there is a free market and there is really not much they can do. 

The people that work here are mainly from Ecuador and some other South American countries. They have left their homes to find a better life in Spain and to be able to give their families, who often are left in their home countries, a better life. The ones we talked to claimed that they did have work permits in Spain and all their papers in order but that it was very hard for them to find other jobs right now due to the crisis. They do get paid cash in hand though and we are not sure if these companies are legal, paying taxes etc.

We talked to these guys from Ecuador for a while. They told us that they were sitting in this park area in front of IKEA all day waiting for costumers, along with around 45-50 of their fellow transport workers. Between them they have an internal queue system and most days they do one delivery each and then go home. This means that they make about 25 euros a day - if they get to deliver. 

A couple of times a week, sometimes everyday, the police arrives and the delivery men get fined because they leave their cars where they are not supposed to. We asked why they did not park at the costumer parking instead but they said that if they did the security guards from IKEA would come out and ask them to leave. They also told us that IKEA and the police are collaborating to get rid of them. The fine is approximately 200 euro. As we were sitting on the bench, watching the police-car pull up next to the paked vans, one guy said "first fine of the day".

The van is not allowed to pull over next to the IKEA exit doors. Security gards as well as the police are never far away and because of this the whole process of putting the things in the van, jump in, start the engine and leave is really quick, and a few guys always work together to get the goods in the van as fast as possible. 

Ernesto Fernando was a little bit of a secretive man but he did tell us that he has lived 10 years in Barcelona and is in love with the city (especially its beautiful women).  He did not want us to photograph his face as there is some people in his home country Ecuador that don't know that he is alive (?) . He refused to give us any further details on this subject... However, according to Ernesto working as a delivery man outside IKEA is not a bad job at all and that you actually do make quite a lot of money (which is a contrary to what everyone else was telling us). Himself is sending 1400 euros home every month (not every one in Ecuador is considering him being dead apparently...)

This is Milton Rivera from Colombia. Milton thinks that it is a shame that IKEA uses monopoly and does not accept other companies to operate with the transports. As we don't have the opinion of IKEA (trying to reach them at the moment) we don't really know how it all works...We would like to know: What can IKEA really do about this? What is their main opinion? Are these companies illegal or not? Does IKEA collaborate with the police to get rid of these people?