The closest Ikea is near Chicago, which is 365 miles away, which is 12 hours, roundtrip, not including the time I would spend in the store, and then loading/unloading. I'd like to avoid the flat $349 fee that Ikea has for any order over 70lbs/$200. I'm looking at spending $6-700, and would prefer not to pay a shipping fee that is more than half of the cost of the items themselves.
I've been looking at companies that claim to makes runs to the Chicago Ikeas every few weeks, and bring the orders back to St. Louis to be picked up by the buyer.
Midwest Modern, for example, although their website links don't appear to be functional. Does anyone have experience with these types of transactions, or have a better suggestion for getting a small-medium sized order to mid-Missouri. I live an hour and a half from St. Louis, and if I could get an order shipped anywhere within a couple hours drive, so I can pick it up, that'd be fine, too.
The order would consist, roughly, of:
Queen Malm bed (high)
Slats
Queen Malm bookshelf/headboard thing
Three-drawer Malm dresser
One or two of the small Malm 2-drawer chests.
It's not a large order. I'd also like the glass tops, which aren't available through Ikea online, but possibly other means?
