"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.

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Comments

[FortuneTeller]

Moving a solid wood Thomasville bedroom set cross country was cost prohibitive so I had to leave it behind. Solid wood pieces are nice if you can afford them and never have to move them. I wish I had the Ikea optionmwhen I had bookcases made from bricks & boards and my coffee table consisted of a wood wire spool discarded by the utility company. A shabby wood-framed sofa and chair that would have been good as new with $1200 to reupholster the set completed my living room. Sometimes the stuff left at the curb is there for a reason. It's too heavy and too expensive to refurbish.

[Simon Leufstedt]

IKEA is just fine and their furnitures last for years - even when I am using REAL books!

But hey, don't trust me. Because I am from Sweden and my whole apartment consists of IKEA furnitures­.. So I guess that doesn't make me objective or such. ;)

[wayofpeace]

i am an american designer and can tell you that i've been buying IKEA for years and ALL i've bought--from toys to beds--are well-design and -made and are holding up well, too!

[chedet]

I love ikea. I love beautiful and modern furniture and I don't own a lot of money. So ikea serves me well.

[funkalicious]

The biggest problem with IKEA is not the raping of woodlands or making disposable affordable stylish cookie cutter crap with weird names.

The biggest lie is that the Swedish giant is run as a nonprofit. If they were subject to Sweden's onerous tax laws they would fail to exist. Let's see what happens when the lush who runs the company has his liver explode from too much aquavit. Creating competition with a company that is structured as a nonprofit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA
in their homeland makes it extremely difficult for Americans to compete on a level playing field.

[samjung23]

Worst article...­ever.

[SeanOcali]

The ikea critique is some serious straw grasping.

[batspaul]

The writer of the article reduces the book's arguments against IKEA to three charges:
1) Its advertising implies that home furnishings need not be heirlooms, yet IKEA gives its products "personal" names, encouraging attachment. This, to the writer , is hypocrisy. Big freakin' deal.
2) IKEA is contributing to the devaluation of craftsmanship by designing factory-produced flat-pack furniture I can assemble myself, thereby reducing costs. But I (perhaps perversely) enjoy assembling the items, am intrigued by understanding the construction of the chair I am sitting on, and appreciate the brilliant design that anticipates and answers the challenges of assembly. And this gives me room in my budget to pay for other craftsmanship that means more to me (technology, restaurants, live performance).
3) IKEA probably doesn't employ enough inspectors to insure that their timber is properly sourced. Um, okay. But that's not the same as showing that the timber isn't properly sourced. Do that, and I bet they'll fix it.
IKEA's genius, to me, is that they realized that simplicity can cost less. Just because something is inexpensive, it doesn't have to be tacky, out-dated, or ugly. I love that store.

[polkadotpoodle]

I moved a couple of years ago and recycled furniture I'd lived with 20+ years. What I found when I decided to replace stuff was in my area (Louisville, KY) there are hordes of used furniture stores. There are high end antiques, yes but there are also numerous places selling well constructed furniture. I suppose my position on this from a consumers point of view is to reuse what is available. Ikea doesn't sell electronic­s....or appliances­....the only reason I'd ever go to a Walmart would be to use the bathroom. There are no set answers to the "market" in which we live however a behavioral change in consumption and the need to consume might be in order. There is more to life than a 60" flat screen tveeeeeeeeee!

[lessbs]

I just received a quote for a built-in desk and storage system to replace about $600 worth of Ikea equivalent furniture. This cabinet shop does nice work (not exceptional) and put together a design for about $7000 installed. I'm guessing that the $7000 quote is less than half the cost that it would be if built at the quality Stephanie thinks we should all be buying. It must be nice to be at Stephanie's income level--a $100,000 kitchen remodel would be low-end and paid for out of petty cash. When the average household income has been on a steady decline for years, how is buying "quality" going to work?

[Dolphinfan65]

I don't know were you live at in the country, that you need 7000, worth of furniture. If i were you, I would look on-line, to find places like THE DUMP, in our area, that specializes in buying going out of business furniture,Rugs, you name it. The prices are incredible, up to 70% off marked prices!!
I think her point was, WE, Not the COMMERCIALS, we see, need to shop around and find the best deals, not let the companies, tell us this is the best deals.

[seehowtheyrun]

It's hard to find good quality things for less money. All the big box stores are bad. So , maybe doing with a little less particle board and other c.rap, save up and buy better pieces that will last longer would be a good thing to do. Antique stores, salvage yards, estate sales are all good resources and I have also found some good things on line: wooden bookcases, shoe racks, made and sourced in the US, and they're reasonably priced. They were easy to assemble, there is no particle board, and they look fine.

http://www.shelfexpressions.com/html/

I also found beautiful wool blankets, made in the US from US wool as the result of a quick internet search.

http://www.faribaultmills.com/default.asp

Just because IKEA markets to a hip crowd doesn't make it any better than Walmart, Target, etal.
For the people sticking up for the big boxes, please keep in mind that the more we buy cheap stuff made elsewhere, the more jobs we lose here.

[JackNasty]

Ten years ago, I purchased walls full of IKEA bookshelves to store growing collection books and pottery. No one else in the US was selling simple, well designed, attractive shelves with a decent wood veneer and glass doors for a reasonable price. As a licensed architect, I have credentials to comment on the quality of the design.

My IKEA bookshelves have withstood the rigors of two moves and installations. They still hold books, lots of them, as effortlessly as they did when they were new, no buckling, no problems.

Ms. Stephanie Zacharek's notion that bookshelves need to be handcrafted, hardwood and expensive to be useful is ridiculous. Her comment implying that IKEA's bookshelves will buckle under the weight of "actual books" is libelous.

[Dolphinfan65]

I believe you are one , of a few, who have had a good experience at IKEA, but the truth is, you maybe so meticulous, that the so called bookshelves, are never in danger, of being moved the wrong way, or dropped and crack at a KEY point (somehow???).
I have brought things at Ikea a long time ago, most lasted as long as you didn't move them to much!!!or some how get wet!!! and that's the real problem with Ikea furniture. It's not that it doesn't last, it's that it can't be moved too much, or it weakens to the point, you can't even JERRY RIGGED IT any more.
I have had tables, desks, and all lasted until a move or two, a crack hear a crack there, next thing you know, your stuff on the floor and I'm not going to mention the lamps (that's everywhere). The only thing that really lasted and I gave a way was chest, it was cheap, you know the wooden exterior and the red velvet insides...­no chips, cracks, it was so big and heavy that i got tired of lugging it around and gave it away.
It's not IMPOSSIBLE to find things in IKEA that will last, but for me it's about your life style, if you move a lot, you need stable furniture that will last the test of time and movement!!! an most of Ikea furniture doesn't past that test.

[Mildmannered]

"The idea is that when global corporations squeeze labor in China and other developing nations, they're able to use the threat of low-wage competition to, as Shell puts it, "roll back decades of hard-won gains in wages, benefits, and dignified treatment for workers in the United States."

The Bush recession is having the same effect -- look for example at the GM workers or the California state employees.

(Maybe the lower wages in the U.S. will mean that we can reclaim some of our manufacturing work?)

[AxelDC]

What a ridiculous article! First of all, Walmart's major sin is NOT having low prices, it's that those low prices come from their market monopolizations, exploitation of their workforce, and forcing suppliers to abandon US factories and move to China. This article makes no attempt to bran IKEA with such bad behavior.

Apparently, IKEA's biggest sin is being affordable. Most people need furniture when they start their adult lives. Precious few 20-somethings have the money to go to Ethan Allen and buy the bedroom set that they will pass on to their grandkids.

I still have IKEA pieces that I bought over 10 years ago. They may not belong on Antique's Roadshow, but they have served me well, including my stylish bookcase with glass doors. It has held up under the weight of many books all these years. Meanwhile, the housewares that I bought their as as good as anything Crate & Barrel sells, but for about half the price.

And does Walmart make such good Swedish meatballs? I didn't think so.

IKEA may be utilitarian furniture, but if that's the best you can afford, it will last you long enough to be able to buy the Queen Anne the author thinks you deserve.

[Swedishgal]

Very interesting article and very true. Employees everywhere are getting squeezed and its hurt our economy. It's amazing how the supposedly intelligent can be so dumb. Economies are built from the bottom up. If the people on the bottom or in the middle don't have money then there is no economy because everybody is going under. I hear the lament of employers that they can find good help and this article is a very reason why they can't find good help. I think subconsciously employees are thinking they don't matter and they are disposable so why bust your ass for anybody. You can't have an economy of disposable stuff and not believe that it's not going to have some impact psychologically on the populace. Teachers starting from elementary on up through high school and college could stress the importance of the difference between disposable and craftsmanship in products and the hidden costs inherent in those products and then maybe we can turn things around.

[KMAz]

I don't shop IKEA for one simple reason, it is a nightmare for anyone with a physical limitation. Walking through IKEA is like hiking Southcoast Plaza in the OC, it's very large. And they don't provide a lot of shortcuts through their store because they want you to see all the merchandise.

[yesIcan]

South Coast Plaza was my hangout during my teenage mall rat days...lol­! You're right about how it has grown to be vast monolithic structure, but it is still an amazing place for those who are prepared for the hike. Besides, they still have the carousel that brings me back to my childhood. :-)

[pgurlatl]

I understand the pont of this story. But times have changed. Accept it and move on.