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Don’t say it, you’ve thought about it: I cannot buy a sofa without trying it out first
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Estimated reading time
6 Minutes

Don’t say it, you’ve thought about it: I cannot buy a sofa without trying it out first

The time has come and you can't drag it out any longer: you need to buy a new sofa. You had already sensed it while you were lying watching a film the other night – you kept sliding on a lumpy cushion back into the same uncomfortable position. However, choosing a new sofa cannot be put off any further, since when last weekend you painted the walls of your living room white and instantly your sofa didn’t seem as shiny and in such good condition as it used to be.

No stress: it’ll be a piece of cake. The main thing is to try it out.

The hunt is off to a rocky start

All week you’ve been trying to leave the office at a decent time and you finally manage to do that on Thursday. You head to the shopping mall they’ve told you about, hoping to find the sofa of your dreams and at the same time buy glasses for those barrique reds you like to bring out every time your wine connoisseur friends come to dine.

You get there, park and a shop assistant pulls the shutters down on your nose with a grin. I’m sorry, today the shop shuts at seven, not at half past seven. You’re dismayed but you don’t give up: you can't come back tomorrow but you can on Saturday. You’ll be luckier then.

Mike WilsonMike Wilson

Saturday is here. You’ve turned down different weekend getaway offers. You’ve stayed in the city to look for a new sofa and this is precisely what you’ll do: I’ll see you at dinner. Full of good intentions you take the car and park it at the mall. You go in, nobody stops you, you’ve succeeded this time: finally you find yourself in front of... a human blockade. Not a sofa in sight.

“I wasn’t expecting all these people”

the road to Woodstockthe road to Woodstock

I wasn’t expecting all these people – you say smiling at your better half who has come with you this time. And when you get to the sofa display, you realise that the designs on offer are not as many as you thought. You take a look, you sit down, you lie down. They feel comfortable, but neither of you is convinced.

After having sat for twenty six minutes on a floral sofa with quilted cushions and fabric ruffles, a shop assistant shows up as guaranteed. You’d like to know more about the sofa opposite you, where an elderly couple has been sitting still for half an hour, but because you’re rearranging the cushions after having got up, the shop assistant starts telling you about the sofa you were sitting on. So you learn that it’ll go really well in the living room, that it’ll solve all your back problems but in the meantime you’re better half has snuck off. Treachery!

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“We need to look it up on a computer”

Another quarter of an hour has passed, the sofa has become a sofa-bed and you’re holding the floral pattern swatches, while the shop assistant gets his breath you bashfully ask him about the sofa in front, the one you like a little better. It’s the last one, maybe it has even been discontinued, maybe you have to order it, we need to look it up on a computer.

As soon as the shop assistant turns round to his desk, you stealthily walk away and quickly sneak out to the car park. You unlock your car from afar, quickly get in, shut the door and turn the engine on. Finally you feel safe again. But you’ve forgotten to buy the glasses for those barrique reds. And you’ve even left your better half behind in the shop.

When your better half joins you in the car park twenty minutes later, while you start the car you remember that you’d planned to visit another shop, another shopping mall, another sofa display. But this idea doesn’t seem so tempting any more and you start smiling again only when you confess to each other that you would really prefer just to go home.

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Returning to your old sofa

And there, at home, at the back of your living room, there’s your old faded sofa waiting for you. You sit on its lumpy cushions – better this sofa than the one with the floral pattern and raw fabric ruffles – and you laugh while your better half asks: how long do you reckon those two oldies had been sitting on the sofa?

As you take your iPad from the coffee table she says: why don’t we take a look at that home design site your sister is always talking about? You’re not too convinced but Google shows you an ad of a sofa just like the one with the two oldies, not bad. It almost seems as if Google can read your mind. (Google can really read your mind).

And in the meantime you’re clicking on it.

Nikkos sofa by Bonaldo and Grasshopper lampNikkos sofa by Bonaldo and Grasshopper lamp

Could you fit a sofa into a basket?

Initially, you dread to think that you’ll be wasting more time on that site. There’s a vast choice on offer, but soon you realise that actually all the products have already been carefully selected and organised. And then you have filters. And there’s even a style different from the one you’d had envisaged, but which you both like a lot: the product sheet has all the relevant information and you can take the necessary measurements. Will it fit the other way around?

Under the pictures you can even find a link and several articles which illustrate the story of the brand and its manufacturing techniques, an interview with the designer and several tips on what you should take into account before purchasing a sofa. Sure, no one has guaranteed than it’ll resolve all your back problems, but it’ll do all the same for now.

So, you decide to put the sofa into the basket. It’s not like taking it to the check-out: you don’t feel any obligation and you’ve got time to think matters over. You put the iPad away and get ready to enjoy the evening with the friends who’ve just come back from their getaway.

Did you get those chairs online?

During dinner you discover that actually everyone is buying online: you neighbour has bought the Kartell chairs he has in his kitchen, as well as the glasses and plate set your using, your girlfriend the shoes she’s wearing and three new cushions while you went a second to the loo. She’s also claiming that you mother buys her detergents online. So why don’t you do it?

Back home, you pick up your iPad, you lie on the bed and go back to the by now familiar home design website. Your basket is still there with the new sofa still waiting for you. There’s even a small discount waiting in your email account because you’ve subscribed to the newsletter! And you also find out the website sells the glasses for the barrique reds, just like the ones you were looking for.

You add the glasses to your basket, you click twice for payment and you receive an email thanking you for the purchase: the order has been placed. Expected delivery in a few weeks. You’ve all the time in the world to enjoy several weekend getaways – and the last films on your old, uncomfortable, wonderful, sofa.

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