Apparently the free IKEA ferry that goes from Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan to the great big box store in Red Hook is a very, very popular ride.

It’s amazing that it took a big box store to get some new transportation to MTA-starved Red Hook. There are also big, air conditioned shuttle buses that leave from Fourth Avenue and 9th in Park Slope, Smith and 9th Street in Carroll Gardens and Court Street in Brooklyn Heights.

IKEA is now hand-stamping customers so that they get first dibs on the ferry ride back to the city. The New York Post had this to say:

The ferry service offered by Brooklyn’s new IKEA to and from lower
Manhattan is so red hot that the Swedish home-furniture giant this week
quietly began hand-stamping customers to ensure they get first crack at
the free boat rides.

The move has Red Hook residents fuming, some telling the Post
yesterday they were denied service or forced to miss rides to
Manhattan’s Pier 11 because they didn’t shop in the new superstore,
which opened on the Brooklyn waterfront last month.

To get city approval to open its first Big Apple store, IKEA agreed
to fund the service and even offer it to non-customers to help ease the
burden of extra traffic the store would bring.

But resident Brian Sietz said his daughter was "harassed" and
stopped from getting on the ferry in Red Hook because she was not
stamped and that three of his neighbors "had similar accounts."

IKEA spokesman Joseph Roth said the free service is "still open to
everyone" — provided there is room on board. The general public, he
said, can board if there’s still room after the customers get on.

  He also said "you don’t have to buy anything to be stamped."