What I found out buying things for my flat

• There's no storage room out the back, so if they've run out of the red lamps you just have to go and see if they've got them in another store.
• While there are a lot of commonalities between different stores of the same chain, each will also have its own unique things. So if you see the stone pot you've been looking for, you should buy it there and then because you may never find it in any other stores and if it goes out of stock here there's no guarantee it will ever come back in.
• When they tell you they'll have more bar stools in by Thursday, it's more a general expression of hope for the future.
• Fridges, coffee tables and beds get delivered on the exact day they told you they would (though you never know at what time), and you get a phonecall afterwards to ask how you found the service.
• There don't seem to be computer systems saying what's in stock at other stores - the shop assistants just say you'll have to go have a look... except that one time a shop assistant did look up red lamps for me, so maybe they do have them...
• Even if they do have such systems, there doesn't seem to be the option to reserve a red lamp.
• If a shop assistant very kindly says she'll put a doona aside for you while you sort out your credit card issue, she won't think to tell her colleague where she hid it before knocking off for the day and her colleague won't think to ask.
• Occasionally, when you are photographing tablecloths so you can work out later how they'd look in your house, the staff will come and tell you off - but usually they leave you be.
• Shop assistants (and staff generally) aren't distributed with a view to efficiency. There will be one guy run off his feet at the wood-cutting counter and groups of people hanging around in other parts of the store. 
• Sometimes these aimless-looking assistants will ask if you need help; sometimes not. Sometimes they'll hurry over to sticky-tape together the curtain poles you've been struggling with; sometimes not.
• The shop staff usually have very specific responsibilities - so the lady who just sold you a sofa and is now without customers can't step across and serve you as you stand waiting the return of the bed section lady (except that on this occasion she did!).
• While you do get the odd person who is across all the details of the microwaves, vacuum cleaners and kettles they have to sell, most of the time shop assistants can't answer basic questions about their products.
• No-one thinks you're weird or rude for carrying great armfuls of stuff on the train or through town or piling it all into a taxi. That's just the way it is if you don't have a car. 
• Sometimes people will take pity on you and let you return the curtain ties because you realised you didn't really need them or come out to your place to find a way to get the fridge through the kitchen door; and other times they'll stick closely to the rules and refuse to cut you a small bit of wood or exchange your fridge should it fail to make it through the door.