"Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture": IKEA As Bad As Wal-Mart

Salon:

My mother still owns, and uses, the same vacuum cleaner she bought early in her marriage, just after World War II. She still lives in the house my father -- not a carpenter by trade, but an electrician -- built in the early 1950s with the help of his brothers, a small but sturdy Cape Cod-style dwelling with hardwood floors and solid wood doors that close with a hearty, satisfying clunk (as opposed to the echoey click of hollow-core doors). Today the idea of anything -- a household appliance, a piece of furniture, a house -- being built to last is almost laughable. When your vacuum cleaner stops sucking, you most likely haul it out to the curb and trek to Target or a big-box home-goods store to replace it. Even if you could readily find someone to repair it, the trouble and the cost would be prohibitive. If you need a bookcase, there's always IKEA: Sure, you'd prefer to buy a sturdily built hardwood version that doesn't buckle under the weight of actual books, but who has extra dough to spend on stuff like that? The IKEA bookcase is good enough, for now if not forever.

Read the whole story: Salon

Comments

[SwingingFromCenter]

BTW: This article also fails to mention that IKEA is a non-profit organization and is also the largest charitable contributor IN THE WORLD.

Nuff said. I don't buy their furniture or products, but to equate IKEA to Wal-Mart is ludicrous.

[NilesCrane]

aw, your cute honey, but its not the most charity contributor in the world...th­e largest charitable contributor in the world is warren buffet, when he gave 40 billion to the largest private charity in the world, the bill and melinda gates foundation­....

ikea, has never given anywhere close to 40 billion dollars to charity..

[Waltfl]

You are wrong. even though it is little known, the $ 36 Billion IKEA foundation beats gates/buffet by about 3-4 Billion $.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-fact-sheet.aspx

Here is the donor and Ikea owner Kamprad:

http://dorakristina.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/ikea.jpg

[mdlawyer2]

The Waltons are the world's worst robber barons. The Kamprads don't stuff their pockets in plain view like the Waltons, but they do squirrel away more than a fair share through franchise and licensing fees. The Kamprads aren't quite ready for sainthood, but they are Mother Theresa-like compared to the Waltons.

[SwingingFromCenter]

This "article" is nothing but sensationalism, hearsay, and conjecture to the extreme. Furthermore, it's equating IKEA to Wal-Mart based on LOGGING. People aren't usually anti Wal-Mart based on logging--people are anti-Wal-Mart based on their employment and working conditions.

Garbage piece.

[jekyll]

I find this article outright laughable. The Left, which represents the wealthiest people in society, can't stand the poor unless they are on the state payroll and enlisted in its army of crime. Why else the hate campaign against Wal-Mart, which has done more for the poor than all the non-profit charitable programs put together, and certainly more than welfare? And now this.... IKEA, the progressives' favorite (and one of mine too), is a problem because it also promotes the idea of low prices. Stepha.nie Zac.harek of Salon, which caters to the wealthy Left, in reviewing a new anti-poor book, longs for the days of expensive, detailed craftsmanship. How horrible that cheap goods are available to society. IKEA, she says, is "as bad as Wal-Mart." Outright hypocrisy!!

[mick7191]

You're a joke.

[jekyll]

Wow...what a great rebuttal.

[monty]

The quality of Ikea furniture is mostly crap, I know because I've bought a lot of it over the years. But I think most people know that the $30 Ikea bookshelf they are buying will fall apart in a few years. It's all made of sawdust, not wood. But, for $30, they can easily just throw out the broken one and buy another new, cheap bookcase later. Never mind that for $200 they could have bought a solid wood bookcase that would have lasted for 20 years instead of 2.

Thanks to all the companies who have secretly created products with a limited life to ensure you will always need to replace it, we live in a disposable society. Everything from chairs to cars to appliances are disposable. The waste is monumental, however, because someone somewhere is making loads of cash doing this, it's just going to continue to get worse, not better.

[NilesCrane]

exactly...­you are buying a 30 dollar shelf, if you honestly think its going to last more than a year or two, your delusional­....

its so sad too...we as a society value time over everything, so instead of waiting a couple days for a heavy wood cabinet to be made, like we did in the old days, we go to a store, spend 15 minutes putting it together and count down until we need a new one...

[wired]

I have "Ivar" shelving which are more than a decade old. They're still holding my heavy books.

[NilesCrane]

I dont buy my furniture from Ikea, because it really is crap...i mean cute crap, but for college kids and men going through divorces, i guess its ok...

I only buy plates, bowls, candles, cups, and the occasional glass object from Ikea....an­ything else is kinda, eh...I do like to pretend im still in college when I go into the little makeshift apartments they create...

[JBS]

I don't buy anything from Ikea ... or from Walmart, K-mart or Target ... if I can avoid it. It's not a morality thing really, it's 'cause I'm a tight-wad and I don't like spending money on stuff that ain't gonna' last.

I mainly shop thrift shops, yard sales, flea markets and consignment shops for home furnishings, utensils, tools and clothing. That's where you'll find a bookcase that lasts more than a couple of years.

Find the durable stuff that's been cast off by somebody else.

Mainly the article says to me that our consumption based society needs to be re-evaluated. There was a time when consumption kept American factories running and wages from those American factory jobs created the American middle class.

Now, all the consumer goods are made in China or other third world sweatshops and not only do they NOT sustain the American middle class, they're impoverishing the workers where-ever they're made, impoverishing workers where they're sold AND destroying the environment at an accelerating pace.

And in that, there's little difference whether you buy the throw away crap from an "enlightened" company like IKEA or from a rapacious one like Wal-Mart.

[MadHeart]

I think I'm in love! Even a recycled (thrift shop) piece with good bones that is repairable and can be restained or painted, and which reflects your own taste is better than mass-marketed "designer" style junk.

[Tom95134]

Another deceptive headline form HufPost. Even the article doesn't classify IKEA as bad as Wal-mart. IKEA makes reasonably good products and they do the job as long as you understand that you are not buying the top of a furniture line at discount prices.

I have three IKEA storage units (floor to ceiling shallow depth bookcases) on which I store CDs. They work just fine.

[MintysMom]

What economy does this author live in?

Lots of people can't afford to get nice looking furniture (including college students) were it not for IKEA. And if you take care, most of it will last a long while. They never claim to be the place where you buy something to pass on to your great grand kids. I don't know a single person who buys something with an eye toward doing anything other than keeping it forever or donating it when they're done with it. It's really an insult to people to assume that we all just run out to replace something when it breaks.

Yes, sure, we'd all love to own expensive well crafted furniture, much like we would like to wear well crafted clothing. It all costs more money than the average person can afford. If I want a pair of nightstands, I look in a catalog or magazine and find what I want if money were no object and then try to find something similar at IKEA or JC Penney online which is usually made in China. It angers me, yes. But designers expect to be paid for their talent. They generally don't market to Penney's. At least IKEA tries to offer original designs.

And here is the big difference: IKEA is conscious enough to respond to the allegations by making changes. Wal-Mart never will.

[AZdesertdog]

I think IKEA is the biggest scam on earth; the products come from exactly the same places stuff from WalMart comes from. of course, since we're talking IKEA, it's "exotic and charming", and the stuff from WalMart is "crap". I've always found a humorous analogy here between buyers of "better" import cars (they're more educated, you know), and those of us knuckledraggers who make every effort to buy American vehicles. we're horrified when we stuff in WalMart from India or Bangladesh ("those poor children"), but if it's at IKEA, it's screw the kids, and load me up.

where do we begin with the stupidity of IKEA? would it be the foot-thick, heavy fire doors that one must hold open manually, and hope you can push your shopping cart thru? would it be trying to get a shopping cart onto an escalator, to go upstairs to look at cheap, ugly, put-together funniture? who on earth would EVER design a store where you have to put a cart on an escalotor? or a thick, heavy fire door? who would design a store where the shopping flow only goes in one direction? if you forget something, it's time to start over. I feel like I've been put in a Far Side cartoon.

...and we know all Swedes subsist on a steady diet of meatballs and lingonberry jelly, right?

[Tazru]

wataputz

I was especially moved by your last line, however, the whole post was deserving.

[JolieN]

They have lots of junk made in China but also make good stuff for college students and young people who don't have a big house for heavy real wood furniture.

[aspizon]

Nonsense. I bought IKEA furniture 30 years ago and it still looks fine and and serve my needs. Just because it was inexpensive it doesn't have to be low-quality or disposable.

[latoussaint]

IKEA used to be okay, but they have joined the ship of fools and now they are appalling. IKEA in Emeryville, CA is on a sacred Indian burial mound. Reportedly paid off some hot shot Indian leaders. I can't stand the place. Like GM buying Volvo and the quality going downhill. Cheap furniture and products.

[JBS]

Thirty years ago, it was inexpensive rather than disposable. Times have changed.

[betty22]

best meatballs in the world....l­ove them

[neurolux]

Don't blame consumers for being unable to afford the luxury of craftsmanship. I enjoy Ikea and their tasty meatballs.

[betty22]

you are so right.....­..alot of our food come from other countrys..­....garlic from China....e­xtra....

[scottarino]

I have media shelves that don't buckle under the weight. My computer desk is very sturdy and if/when the wood top wears out, the metal frames will hold another piece I can put on myself if need be. If you buy light-weight shelves to hold heavy books, you're just not too smart (Ikea makes shelves MADE to hold heavy weight, they also make light weight shelving). This article is pointless.

[ticjlo]

Like everything, if it quits sucking you should trade it in.

[anothervoice]

Good try - too subtle.

[skippypicasso]

How about, "Like Jenny Sanford, if it quits, you should take a trip to Argentina for a replacement sucker."