As you may have guessed, there's a few key differences between IKEAs in the United States and the ones in Europe. I recently had the opportunity to visit a location on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

In addition to the incredibly cheap Bavarian brand lager in the cafe, I spotted something else...


...something at least 10 - 25% more sinister....


...something that would never fly at the IKEA out by the Portland Airport.

That's right, calf-skin rugs. What you see here is an entire bin full of them. 50 or so, by my estimate. That's a lot of dead baby cows, all right.

IKEA calls them koldbys. At first, I figured they must be fakes but, as the tag explains, they're the real deal, right down to the branding marks and other imperfections.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. The PDX location not only has koldbys in stock, it has *89* of them.

Labels: anipals, travels