My Ikea idea: as brilliant as the blue and yellow logo

The No. 3 spot is up for grabs, and it's worth $1,000.

I'm referring to the No. 3 spot in line outside Ikea in West Sacramento. With little more than a month to go before its March 1 opening, two guys (one from the East Coast, the other from the West) are the first two in line at the Swedish home furnishings giant's new store.

An Ikea spokesperson said these two customers break the United States records for pre-opening camp outs at an Ikea store. If these two customers succeed in spending 17 more days camped out in front of the mega store, they will receive $3,000 and $2,000 Ikea gift cards. According to the home furnishings retailer, these guys have no idea what they're getting.

I'm not going to ridicule these guys. I'm going to praise them highly. If I could take an entire month off work to camp under the stars snuggled beside the largest furniture retailer in the world, I would do it.

In FY 2005, Ikea sales were $18.3 billion globally and $2 billion in the United States.

Ikea secured itself as a cultural phenom ever so humbly in "Fight Club." Sure, Ed Norton blew up his high-rise furnished pad but it made us all want a yin-yang table just like his.

Ninety percent of the furniture in my home is made by Ikea and assembled by a gaggle of 20-somethings living on a tight budget. Here are the reasons to love Ikea:

• The box packaging of all furniture products saves consumers money. We have to put it together. This also saves the corporation the fuel cost in shipping the products all around the world.

• It's good to its employees. More than 10,000 U.S. "co-workers" get full medical/dental insurance, paid maternity/paternity leave, tuition assistance, mentoring, 401k match ... and a discount.

• Ikea uses renewable materials (such as bamboo, recycled plastic and rattan) for products.

• Several European stores use solar energy.

• It has phased out the use of controversial chemicals and plastics, such as PVC.

• Shopping at Ikea is an experience. Upstairs are the show rooms, downstairs you pick up the furnishings, linens, dining ware that you need.

• It has a child-care center and café with strange snacks and foods eaten by the Swedes.

Information about the Ikea West Sacramento celebration, giveaways and entertainment is at http://www.IKEA-usa.com.

Do you plan on making an Ikea trip for the March 1 grand opening? Give me a call at 881-1212 or e-mail bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com.

Michele Petee is the new Nevada JobConnect center manager.

She oversees the Carson City center location, its staff and operating budget, as well as all partner agencies and businesses that provide services through Nevada JobConnect.

Prior to joining Nevada JobConnect, Petee worked for the Golden Sierra Consortium in El Dorado County for nine years. She is an active member of the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and Northern Nevada Development Authority.

Nevada JobConnect is a statewide system launched in 2001 that connects businesses with job seekers at no cost through convenient, full-service locations throughout the state.

Nataliya Guintoli, of Century Clark Properties in Minden, recently returned from Las Vegas, where she completed a highly specialized course in residential real estate buyer sales strategies conducted by the Council of Residential Specialists of the National Association of Realtors.

This course is one in a series of professional education sequences required to qualify for the Certified Residential Specialist designation.

"The growing importance of negotiation as well as sales strategies in today's residential real estate market were addressed by the instructor in this course," Guintoli said. "The many and varied needs of the buyer, who is making what is probably the largest single purchase of a lifetime, is dealt with in this advanced course."

Contact Guintoli at 690-2537.

Debra Bacchi, of Gardnerville, was selected as a finalist for the U.S. Small Business Administration awards in the category of home-based business champion of the year for Nevada. Bacchi operates a pain treatment business called The Muscle Manipulators. Her treatment method is called myopathy, which blends physical and massage therapy.

The Nevada Hospital Association, a nonprofit organization, partnered with Recruiting Nevada to develop an online career center in an effort to solve Nevada's nursing shortage.

The career center will allow the Nevada Hospital Association to post top employment opportunities for all of its members on NVHA.net. All job postings will also appear on Recruiting Nevada's network of employment Web sites, including NVNurses.com, NVMedicalJobs.com and NVJobSearch.com.

The Nevada Hospital Association membership includes all of the acute care hospitals in Nevada.

-- Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.