That's because every IKEA store is it's own warehouse. Everything you can see is the stock. There is only a small part where you can store stuff. So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it. It's basically a "convenience fee", because it's more expensive for IKEA to collect it for you then you collecting it. I'm not here to judge, though...
Also in Poland availability is different when I try to buy same thing online, check if it's present in local store, or order the same item to be picked up by myself from warehouse next to store.
It's even weirder! Sometimes I order things that are "present in my local store" with transportation, but the actual transportation is made from a central warehouse in different part of the country. So IKEA's "availability" is clearly a concept very different from what client might think.
> So, instead of you running around and picking stuff from the shelves, an employee has to do it.
Here warehouses are usually buildings next to the actual store. So in either case employee has to pick it up from warehouse, but with "pick up from warehouse yourself" option they don't need to transport it to the store next by. I still have to pay for that extra.
It's just weird.
IKEAs online experience is glossy but horribly non-functional, agreed :/ Had that experience in Sweden as well. There is simply no way to buy something which isn't in stock in the local warehouse either, their support actually told me to "try to buy it every day".
I went to the Ikea in Brooklyn back in November... in that store because of limited space they actually put up a tent in the parking garage for fulfillment. It just worked awkwardly.
Other than that, the magic of a place like Ikea is they source from a global market and make it magically appear. In 2020/2021, the magic is broken because global supply chains are broken. In my own business, I have about 18 people working on sourcing various commodities, where as in 2019 we had 4 doing the same job.
Does US stores also have the ability to pick items up from a warehouse next to their stores? Btw. how is this option also a paid one is beyond me.
This is unfortunate as they have a really cool offer of smart devices (lights, remotes, battery powered blinds, etc), which by default are not online (can be connected with things like google now but it's limited to local physical gate device by default). It's hard to actually buy all of these in one place, you have to hunt.