Passion: IKEA
Swedish porn
[PB Rage / Flickr]
From Kobe to Kiev to Kuwait City, IKEA is making Swedish the world’s second language. Each day more than one million shoppers are trying to master the umlaut, if only to request a Poäng armchair, Mysa Lätt quilt, or a Bankäs coffee table. IKEA afficianados lobby to get a big blue box in their neighborhood, camp outside on the eve of grand openings, and have been trampled in the mad rush for $150.00 gift certificates. IKEA has more imitators than Ingmar Bergman, and more rabid fans than ABBA.
IKEAmania has come to occupy an impressive chunk of cyperspace where design mavens laud the chain’s new fabric designs, environmentalists extol the stores’ green practices and foodies critique IKEA’s $0.99 cafeteria breakfast. To many devotees, having their work celebrated on ikeahacker carries more cachet than winning a Nobel prize. The popularity of the aforementioned blog, in which IKEA pieces are remixed, is a testament to the brand’s enduring power. Clearly the masses have drunk the lingonberry Kool-Aid, but why? The blogger behind Blinkit offers a convincing rationale:
Room by room, section by section, IKEA’s walk of the good but affordable life lays out a vision of comfort, orderliness and economy untainted with ostentation or crassness. Sofas neatly turn into beds, kitchen tables fold harmoniously into walls and magazines are tucked nicely into the side pockets of desks. Bedrooms, offices, kitchens and whole apartment suites dressed from floor to ceiling in IKEA ware are portrayed as reflections of the perfect platonic form of ideal domestic living.
Blinkit, Sunday Reflection: 10 stages of IKEA, Blinkit, November 28, 2004
The IKEA manual mime
[Wolfgang Koser / Flickr]
The ideal that IKEA holds forth can be realized with a couple hundred dollars and a little elbow grease. And that may be why the passion for IKEA runs so deep; it is a passion born of considerable pain — lugging the flat pack from store shelves, wedging it into the car, hefting it into the home, sitting before mounds of hardware and slabs of wood, and following 50 pages of wordless instructions to wrest the Markör sideboard to life — often to find that the drawers don’t fit.
What insight do you have into the perfervid passion for IKEA? When was your first IKEA experience? Does your passion run to such extremes that you look forward to returning a houseware? Or assembling one? Do have an allen wrench in your pocket or purse? File your IKEA hopes, dreams and realites here.
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May 15th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
i understand that the ikea catalogue rivals the bible as the most published document of all time…whoa
May 15th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
reposted from elsewhere earlier, after someone questioned the merit of this topic:
IKEA is important. It’s possibly the first company to properly do all of the “artsy†(by some people’s definition, not mine) big M Modernist furniture design while maintaining cost effective production that many can afford. It’s what the high-minded Bauhaus attempted and failed in the 20s. Bauhaus Wassily replicas cost a mini fortune as furniture fetish objects, but they were manufactured with available industrial tubes, leather, and rubber intended for a utilitarian populace. IKEA is a global industrial arts-movement in itself.
Whether or not people like Sears, their catalogs and mail order system changed the country. IKEA is a contemporary heir. It’s preferable to Walmart if nothing else. Target wouldn’t be the design-centric force it is today without trying to compete with IKEA.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Chelsea, how did the Flickr photo above with the title “Ikea daydreams” in the original get the caption “Swedish porn” here. Where did such an association come from and is it really necessary?
May 16th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I understand that IKEA furnishing look cleaner, more stylish and less expensive than other modern furniture offerings, but I’ve seem some of it in action. A friend of mine bought 50¢ coffee mugs. They were all broken within a week. Another bought bedroom furniture. It was wobbling and falling apart within a year. Once in place it feels cheap. Like a hollow door. Every time you use it you you miss the weight and the sound of solidity. I worry that this is disposable furniture. I know that Sears and Target may be just as poor in quality, but we don’t see those furnishings as desirable. They’re what you have to get because you can’t afford better. Not what you aspire to. If people aspire to IKEA are we settling for an ever greater disposable society? Does that offset the environmental benefits of the company’s production processes?
Can anyone attest as to how long these pieces maintain their aesthetic, much less function?
May 16th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
allison
when i lived in washington dc in the eighties, i bought ikea furniture..it was pretty good. kept away from the particle board stuff.
the next generation @ 4-6 years later was so poorly constructed that it wasn’t until last year when we bought a bunk bed that i had been back. so far so good.
if they could keep to their original vision they would be most adequate. when they go too far with the “value engineering” of their products they aren’t worth it. how can you tell?
May 16th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
IKEA takes us all one step closer to that brave new world where all the furniture is the same, everyone acts and thinks alike, and no one questions how and where their objects are made so long as it is cheap and looks good. While they may try to set themselves apart, they are close cousins of KMart, WallMart, Target, et al.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:36 am
“. A friend of mine bought 50¢ coffee mugs. They were all broken within a week. Another bought bedroom furniture. It was wobbling and falling apart within a year. Once in place it feels cheap. Like a hollow door. Every time you use it you you miss the weight and the sound of solidity. I worry that this is disposable furniture.”
you have bad luck. most of their stuff is half decent. i’ve had some kitchenware and stuff like french press coffee pots that have lasted for years. their lamps and cheap flourescent lights are also good quality, my desks and shelves have also worn pretty well. just choose the stuff that is made of wood or mdf. there is some stuff with plastic doors i would avoid. but generally the prices are good and quality and style is superior to walmart/target cheap stuff. and some of their stuff is cleverly designed.
one big thing i like about ikea is they were behind compact fluorescents long before they were popular. back in 2000 when the emeryville store opened i was surprised to see how many of their lamps were designed to be used with the new bulbs. combined with cheap small lamps this made multi source cf lighting very affordable. and they had tons of cheap bulbs on sale too, with much more variety in wattage and bulb size than most other stores. i think they probably subsidized the bulbs back then because they were basically what they cost now whereas a panasonic bulb at frys cost about 7+ dollars back then. they were also decent quality with good color temperature compared to some cheaper bulbs at the time. they also had compact fluorescents in most of the display lamps. to this day if you go into a lowes you will notice most of their display lamps are still using incandescents and designed to use them. rather dissapointing so many years on.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Where else can you feast on swedish meatballs?
May 18th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Twenty years ago I worked in retail furniture sales and witnessed the first arrival of imported furniture (Universal out of Taiwan). Since then a lot has happened in the furniture business. American manufacturers of high-quality, high-cost traditionally made furniture (Century, Thomasville, Baker, Henredon, etc) have either been edged out of the market, cheapened their product, or both. And the first tentative wave of imports has become a flood. IKEA is just a manifestation of a larger phenomenon. I have been in the moving (relocation/removal) business for 17 years, and am very aware that incomes are stagnant for 60 percent of the American public, that mobility has not decreased, and that (with less home entertaining) the status value of expensive furniture has decreased. In short, young people want something that will last for a few years and then expire (or collapse), and is cheap. Since they meet their friends outside the house, no one cares about such a lowly topic as furniture. The status items are plasma TV v. normal TV, etc. The sofa doesn’t even count! It’s no surprise that in a world of transience, where computers come and go in a couple of years, the expectations for furniture do the same. And also people are less and less concerned with durability, and more and more concerned with temporary utility and ‘flash’. IKEA is simply a sign of the times… we live in a world of image and first impression, and one can see it on TV, in film, and in the political arena. Sic transit gloria mundi.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Interestingly enough, I just got back from Ikea where my blood pressure must have shot up 30 points. I walked out in disgust, forgetting that last time I swore I would never go back again. Surly if not stupid personnel, for the most part. God forbid you are elderly and get lost. My feet are killing me from being sent from one department to another because no-one knows where anything is..if indeed you can find someone to help.
Oh, and if the computer says there is inventory, don’t count on it…. and my good mood turned sour. The waiting for furniture is endless. And please don’t complain because they’ll very nicly tell you you’re welcome to shop elsewhere…what I heard today. I’d rather and will do that and happily pay more if nothing than for the frustraion I can avoid, let alone the shoddy quality (if I dare use such a word) of their goods.
It is SO frustrating and then the stench of the food is nearly nauseating. If I wanted food, I’d go to a restaurant, especially one better than theirs. Out of sight, out of mind. All in all, a nasty experience.
Thanks for letting me vent. Ool-ommmm-m-m-m-mm…….
May 18th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
to be fair if their computer says it has something and their stockroom is basically on the floor as self serve they have no way of knowing if some customers just took the last one until they actually check out.
as for service, its low prices. minimum wage workers, you get what you pay for. i don’t hold it against wage slaves if they are not that well informed, its tough work with little pay and so low motivation. if you want service, go to an expensive store.
and there are maps around the store.
May 18th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Ikea recently opened a store in Massachusetts so I visited it and honestly I couldn’t figure out what all the excitement was about. Everything there is priced cheap and gave the impression that you got what you paid for. Can anyone explain what this whole fetish is with Ikea?
May 18th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
plnelson, it is called signification. Otherwise you’ve just got some has-been part of nature that’s one step closer to garbage which you’ve had to put shadow work into to make functional.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
IKEA Japan (interesingly enough) has an English language website! http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeaNearYouView?storeId=25&catalogId=10103&langId=-33&StoreName=funabashi The Funabashi store is the second debut of IKEA in the Tokyo area. (They learned from their unsuccessful first entry that Japanese homes are VERY small, and that items that would sell in Europe or the US were not moving for that reason… as well as cultural issues and the original store location and the issue of getting the purchased furniture home…) Incidentally, the greater Tokyo metro area — with 38 million population — is approximately twice as big as the New York metropolitan area.
May 20th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I should preface this by saying that I am sitting at my Ikea desk. I bought it because I live in Moscow and all furniture here has suddenly gotten expensive, even the particle board stuff. That and I could take it home under my arm on a bus, and to boot it cost about 25 bucks or somewhere there about. So… Here in Moscow Ikea is a great option when finding quality is hard, and the prices for particle board crap are high.
As for design, the design “look” to the stuff may be good, but that’s only part of design. The other Ikea piece of furniture I have here is a set of shelves that can only have been designed to fall over. I mean, even my “C- in funny-book physics” instincts told me it was crap when I saw it. But it was $10 and I couldn’t even buy the wood (however low quality) for that, so I got it. Later I bought a bunch of L brackets and braced the hell of of it, and now it stands on it’s own with very little wiggle.
I also bought some house wares there: spoons, bowls, glasses, and they’re not bad, and cheap. Let’s not forget that Ikea isn’t just crappy entertainment centers, they have decent bedding, kitchen-ware, and their cool little Euro-kitchen selection is not found just everywhere in the world, even here, in Europe.
In conclusion, Ikea may be so-so, but this is from an American perspective where we can get the world’s greats goods, cheap, in almost any town. Some places in the world aren’t so luck, and Ikea serves a good purpose. And, the cafeteria is the only place in Russia where you can get free soda refills, how’s that for sophisticated?
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Hi Sidewalker,
I could have come up with a caption other than “Swedish Porn” but in a world where “gastroporn” and “time porn” are tossed about it seemed like the natural caption to write. I also got some inspiration from the photo’s original caption: “No more lonely nights… because the catalog has arrived! I’ll turn it’s pages all night long…”
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
About Swedish porn: Lets not forget the imortal words of Iggy Pop, in his song 5′ 1″ “I wish life could be – Swedish Magazines.” Maybe not what he had in mind, but in the world we live in today where Alice Cooper is a born again golf pro, and Mick Jaggar is a kinght, why not look at it in a new light.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:22 am
Funny you should mention sheets, Marc McElroy. I don’ understand the way people buy sheets. They are so flimsy and wear out so easily. Cheap is not cheap is you have to pay that 10, 20 or more times. And where are all those worn out sheets going?
Last year, I gave up looking for sheets in stores and bought a set of linen/hemp sheets. When they got here, I felt so relieved. They reminded me of the sheets my grandmother had. Real sheets. Solid to sleep under. I know they’ll be with me for a lifetime. They are an intimate friend that I don’t have to throw in the trash or turn into rags.
Can’t imagine buying sheets from IKEA.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:25 am
I guess I feel the same way about the furniture. If you don’t like to focus on furniture, then buy stuff that lasts a lifetime. You don’t ever have to go furniture shopping again.
I can’t say that my household sofa purchase meets that standard. But, then again, I wasn’t the only one involved in the purchasing process. I’m feeling very strongly these days about buying for life. We simply throw too much stuff away needlessly.
May 23rd, 2007 at 4:05 am
Chelsea,
Thanks for the explanation, I think. My questions above came from my twofold concern. The first is editorial license. Is it ethical for a show like ROS to pervert the intentions of an individual whose picture you borrow for your own purposes (I am assuming without her or his consent–please correct me if I am wrong and the person agreed to the caption.) The second is the signification involved. Why go for the most naturalized and trite association (Asian girl on bed, dreamy look, magazine, “no more lonely night” caption = porn)?
Why not Global Fetishism?, which at least hints at commodity fetishism of which Marx theorized and the now global character of Ikea. Or better yet, the original, which would let the viewer draw associations by themselves.
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 am
Sidewalker,
Every photo that we use on the site we download from flickr, and we use only images that are Creative-Commons licensed. We also email that photographer to let him/her know that his/her photo is on the site. PB Rage has yet to object to the caption.
Now, does anyone out there share my enthusiasm for IKEA’s textiles?
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 am
Thanks, Chelsea, for your explanation. Though I still stand by my second objection.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:15 am
First it was putting away our trays and garbage at MacDonald’s and all the copycat fast food joints, then it was pumping our own gas and bagging our own groceries. Now it is screwing and gluing together our own interiors. What’s next, working the saws? First we pay for a service and then have to add shadow work (Ivan Illich; 1981), or unremunerated work, to have it completed. There is nothing convenient or interesting about this. In addition, this allows business operations to reduce the number of staff, which harms fellow workers.
How can anyone be passionate about such a system?
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I am passionate about IKEA. I’m a big fan of efficiency. Many of their designs use materials that reduce cost, and the markets dictate that solid wood is too expensive. So their designs make use of materials made from pieces / parts from the larger lumberyard, for example. I imagine that much of the sawdust and wood chips 40 years ago were not used or re-used as efficiently. Isn’t efficiency a virtue as the human population dominates our planet? Especially when many people in the world cannot afford more expensive goods. IKEA offers clever and functional design at a fair price. Our home has a few IKEA furniture items (newer and older) that have lasted quite well.
I’m also a big fan of quality. If we want higher quality furniture for our home, we plan our budget accordingly and shop elsewhere.
On design – I recently brought my mom to IKEA for her first time and she was enchanted with the experience. She valued the difference in aesthetic design and clever engineering. There are no stores in her neck of the woods that offer that. IKEA’s growth is evidence that they provide value to customers.
There was a great article in BusinessWeek that explored the IKEA trend as well as their business model. I found IKEA’s pursuit of modular homes fascinating. If you have the chance, check it out (you need a subscription):
BusinessWeek
Nov 14, 2005
“How the Swedish Retailer became a global cult brand”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_46/b3959001.htm?chan=search
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Sidewalker says First it was putting away our trays and garbage at MacDonald’s and all the copycat fast food joints, then it was pumping our own gas and bagging our own groceries. Now it is screwing and gluing together our own interiors. What’s next, working the saws? First we pay for a service and then have to add shadow work (Ivan Illich; 1981), or unremunerated work, to have it completed. There is nothing convenient or interesting about this. In addition, this allows business operations to reduce the number of staff, which harms fellow workers.
You left out the hottest trend in retail sales – self-checkout. Everyplace from Home Depot to Shaws Supermarkets is cutting back on cash registers and creating self-checkout stations where you don’t just bag your items you scan them, too.
Also I read recently that several fast food outfits, including McDonald’s, are working on totally automated fast-food restaurants – no counterhelp needed. just one or two people to tend the robots, I guess.
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
“IKEA’s growth is evidence that they provide value to customers.”
Not necessarily. This would not pass the test of logic.
Beyond that, I guess we have to ask how we assess value.
Previously sawdust, etc. was allowed to compost or be used as mulch. I’m not sure removing this from the ecological stream and keeping the materials in the consumer stream is ecologically sound. I get that it creates more income for the lumber mill.
I think we need to be careful about assessing value based on a larger system than the individual or even just humans.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Hey Allison, I’d love a solid oak roll top desk instead of my Ikea desk, but I came up about $1000 short. I needed a desk, I needed to carry it home on the Metro, it needed to be cheap. Ikea fulfilled my need. It’s a desk, it has a flat top and four legs, and it seems to stand on its own rather well.
As for sheets, I must also explain that I live in the world’s most expensive third world city: Moscow. The sheets in Ikea are better then in the Russian shops, even if they don’t pass your quality test, and their cheap, so once again I buy the best product available to me at the best price. Outside of the US this is a big concern for, well, most of the world. Ikea also provides excellent customer service, which is also very hard to find here.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love fine furniture. I even own some back in the USA, mostly inherited I have to admit, I don’t earn enough money to spend much on the finer things. I agree that something well made can last generations, and it in the end “worth” it, but Ikea provides a version of Chinese made “crap” that is of a higher quality, and that is high practicality. Ikea provides “crap” with a bit of style, for affordable prices, in a modern sales environment. And keep in mind that the alternative to buying Ikea “crap” isn’t buying something nice, it’s often instead of buying some other “crap.” Which unfortunately is the case with me.
I don’t want to become known as the guy who defends Ikea, in gerneral I think maybe it’s a bad sign, or rather I wish it weren’t necessary for me to shop there. And before you say it, I know it’s not “necessary.” I used to work in a high-end woodworking shop, if I went out and bought all the right tools, materials, and spent hours and hours I could in fact build myself a better desk, but life is short and all I really wanted was somewhere top put my laptop and printer, $20 + 2 hours + two Metro rides (@ 60 cents each) = mission accomplished, and I was able to move on to more important things, like, um.. talking on the open source website about my $20 Ikea desk.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
“IKEA’s growth is evidence that they provide value to customers.â€
Not necessarily. This would not pass the test of logic.
Could you elaborate? Where does it fail logically?
Value is subjective. What’s valuable for you may not be valuable for me. I value cold weather and snowy winters. Other people value longer growing seasons and more beach days. That’s why markets exist. People go to market to trade with other people and a good deal occurs when both parties are satisfied. But markets would not be possible if everything had the same value for everyone.
If I’m wealthy then an extra $1000 has relatively little value to me. But if the paint on my porch is peeling then having my porch painted has lots of value to me. If someone else is a little short of cash and has a rent payment due then $1000 may have a great deal of value to him, and if he can wield a paintbrush then he has value to me. So maybe we can come to a deal.
The point is that only meI and that other guy – and no one else – can determine the value of those factors or of the resulting transaction.
Only the customer can decide what’s valuable to them. I may not be able to perceive the value in cheap household goods you have to assemble yourself, but neither do I see the value in sitting on the couch eating junk food and watching American Idle on TV or having a really great dress for the prom, but other people are just enraptured by those things.
May 25th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
PL: You’re in luck, I’m an experienced painter, and I could use $1000, where’s the porch at?
Value is subjective, but that doesn’t stop people from subjecting us to their very subjective opinions.
People are hung up on the “assemble yourself” aspect in this discussion. I think it’s a good thing, not just because I know which end of a screwdriver to hold on to, but it makes the items easy to transport, thus bringing the cost down, and easier to transport home after you perchase, no SUV required. It also makes some of their items modular, and in my case allowed me to make modifications to the item to make it function better then intended.
Sidewalker: I think people should pick up after themselves at McDonalds, for that matter anywhere you make a mess, and pumping your own gas subjects YOU to the carcinogious fumes that are produced by the process, and not someone who takes the job only because he lacks other opportunities. In short, I believe the “do it yourself” trend isn’t that wrong.
May 26th, 2007 at 3:48 am
“IKEA’s growth is evidence that they provide value to customers.â€
The reason this statement would fail the logic test is that it denies that there are any other possibilities for why IKEA could be growing. It may not be value. It may be lack of choice. Marc McElroy’s story could be an example of that. Not perfect, because he is talking relative value, but from a disempowered position. A company could grow because it has goons out threatening everybody who doesn’t buy from them. Not that this is happening, it’s just that it’s not a foregone conclusion that increased sales equals proof of the provision of value.
This is a common fallacy in the faith of markets. People don’t make decisions without emotion. Or based in sound reason. Economic theories often assume that people will spend their money wisely – or in their own best interest. Hisotry proves that this is not true. Stress and desperation throw off the market-driven models, but no one acknowledges that or constructs a new model based on this real life feedback. And people with good or services to sell even feed off of it, pushing people further into self-destructive behaviors. I don’t have answers about how you go about it, but a truly equitable economic system would build in some way of “punishing” or disincentivising (is that a word?) people who profit when others are harmed via their business activities. This concept that when someone is running a business, she has no accountability for how her profit generation impacts others is absurd. Our comfort level with the suffering of others is appalling.
May 26th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Marc, I don’t mean to sound judgmental of your purchase. We are all driven by immediate circumstances and a complex set of heirarchical needs. I’m expressing ideals – which I don’t always live up to myself – and pointing out the destructive cycles we get into – which we can only improve if we can begin by acknowledging. And, with thoughts of George Jetson, I am wishing that we could get off this crazy thing……
By the way, I also like to assemble things myself. I find some kind of cathartic satisfaction in it. I also support the idea of doing for yourself what you can. Sustainability comes from doing what you can and truly valuing the efforts of those who can do what you can’t.
In an inequitable system of compensation, though, I can see how it is of service to the greater community for you to pay people for things you might be able to do yourself simply because you can pay. It’s a way of sharing the wealth. (This is why I hired a maid when I worked in Brasil.) The problem is when we undervalue this labor because, since it is something we can do for ourselves, we don’t want to pay top dollar to get it done. Then we create a market of undervalued people. It seems difficult for us to embrace, en masse, that anyone who works an honest day’s work deserves to be paid a decent living wage. (Would any of our legislators be able to live on the minimum wage?) As soon as we start paying someone less than what we would be willing to accept for pay we start to create an abusive system that creates desperate people who start to make unwise decisions and feed a destructive economic cycle. Those who manage success in this system will deem the system fair. And since they have all the resources to command the power, that perception will never be effectively challenged. Our sense of how much things should cost has been so skewed for so long because industries and household thrived for so long – and some still do – on slave labor. We’ve never come to terms with the true cost – human and environmental – of consumption. To do so would require some really radical shifts that are nearly unfathomable, so we don’t try to fathom it at all. I’m as guilty as the next person.
From my perspective, far too many of us are willing to say that we have a perfectly fine social and economic system in the U.S. A few brilliant people came up with the Constitution and a few more developed an economic theory that works “better than anything else.” At one time, knocking back a quart of whiskey was the best way of enduring a surgery. Should we have stopped considering whether we could come up with something better still?
May 26th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Marc McElroy, I don’t think I have elaborated my point well enough. I am not against people doing things for themselves, if they are reaping the rewards of their own effort and a business is not extracting surplus value from that work. The examples I suggested and the one plnelson mentioned are the latter. To increase profits, labour costs are reduced as some production activities are pushed onto the customer. You can read some kind of virtue into this, but to me it is just part of the corporate disciplining we suffer. As a worker, I must accept the behavioural makeover as long as it is not abusive labour practice, but as a customer, why need I act like a trained circus animal?
May 26th, 2007 at 8:56 am
plneson, come on! Values are subjective? So wants and desires are not created through marketing? Labour is not priced according to societal values and exchange rates? The price of commodities are not tied to input costs? What about all that objective data you always talk about? Groups of people don’t determine value based on that? Can we not calculate disposable income and determine, objectively, what $1,000 means to a low-income person or a billionaire?
This is not to say someone who cannot afford a well-made desk will not be satisfied with a desk of any kind. Though the fact that the value of their labour is not determined by themselves (subjectively) means they have to make do with something cheaper, they have to lug it home by themselves and then put in shadow work to complete the production process.
I am not saying personal valuation does not play a role, but just as we do not make meaning freely in a pre-signified language community, we live in a world pre-valued.
So I would rather say, (the obvious) that IKEA’s growth is evidence they have found a way to increase surplus value.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Hi.
I’m planning a new kitchen and have been researching Consumer Reports and other reputable sites most of this morning.
IKEA’s name kept popping up, but with no info as to the composition of the cupboards they offered. Finally I found the info I wanted on Wikipedia–one of my favorite sources.
IKEA’s kitchen cupboards, in fact all their furniture, is made of PARTICLE BOARD-that’s how IKEA makes their product so cheaply. And even though particle board is strong, it’s highly absorbant, so I’m not so sure it’s the best choice for a kitchen, especially in a humid place like Florida.
Hope this information helps others. It sure helped me. No price is low enough when the product offered might eventually swell or warp in service.
Babs
May 26th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I find the dialogue pretty interesting. IKEA has become the representation for how a corporate / capitalist structure does not further socialism. It sounds like “the man is keeping us down.”
I think the improvement of society is an important topic, and I am interested specifically in improving the quality of life within the bottom 40% income bracket. But is IKEA the place to start? Wouldn’t education be a better place? IKEA didn’t create the system. In fact IKEA is headquarted in a pretty socialist country, Sweden. I find it strange that this company is so quickly targeted for societal frustrations. Why/how is this company supposed to change our social structure?
I seems that the heart of this conversation, and probably a separate show, would encourage a dialogue about applying the benefitis of socialism and capitalism. Neither are perfect and each has tradeoffs. In my mind, it is hard to find the balance between encouraging/inspiring people to make better decisions for themselves, and rewarding those who do so intrinsically. Education and opportunity do not create ambition, they merely enable it. History suggests that the creation of wealth is the most effective way to increase the standard of living for a community. Wealth creation is driven by people who take action, not by “the man” or “big government.”
I believe ambition and initiative have more to do with innate temperment than education. How do you change a society’s distribution of personalities? How do you increase the trust fund kid’s ambition who gets ahead despite mediocre talent? How do you change the kid from the projects who could apply her talent but is ambivilent? How is it that some people display a lot of ambition despite their circumstances? I don’t mean for these examples to apply in all cases. I mention stereotypical examples to elicit thinking. It seems to me that the human distribution of personalities is pretty constant throughout time. Does socialism or capitalism change this? Of the two, which increases the quality of life of the community more?
Off the IKEA topic, but that is kind of my point.
May 26th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
For those who replied to my comments, thanks, and I do get your points I just wanted to bring some more points to the discussion. Like I said, I have enough exerience in the architectural wood working world to know Ikea’s kitchens are crap, but it beats eating on the floor. My biggest point is in most cases the alternative to buying Ikea’s crap is buying something nice, it’s buying someone else’s crapier crap. As far as someone mentioning Comsumer Reports ratings, don’t believe ANYTHING they print, not even the date on the cover. I only have to refer you to their “beer” issue, to see that they put too much emphasis on price and don’t evaluate quality well enough. I think Milwalkee’s Best came in first in that issue.
The joke’s on America anyway, the Chinese are making better and better products, cheaper, everyday, and increasingly without us. Soon our passion for cheap things will put us out of business. Atleast the manufacturing business.
As far as doing it yourself, I am rather a do it yourself-er. I have a lot of friends who are repairmen and tradesmen, and I wish I could pay them to to do the work for me, but I just don’t have the money. For most do it yourself-ers I think this is the case. If anyone here happened to see me on the Northbound side of 495, on the coldest day of winter 2006, trying to cobble my muffler back onto my 1982 Mercedes Diesel on my way back from my crappy paying job at a here to be nameless prestigous prep school in ANDOVER… then you can understand my do it yourself spirit properly. Whew… well that’s a bit off topic… but… What I mean to say is: I don’t think twice about screwing my Ikea desk together, just because I’m used to it, but I can understand how it might put some people off.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
I’m personally not a big fan of IKEA (as a matter of personal taste), but I think it’s only fair to give the devil his due, and I think choice is always good, even when it’s not choice I would personally make.
Re: The IKEA phenomenon
See posts by jkom51 at http://davesgarden.com/place/t/679824/ for a good rundown on the pros and cons of IKEA in kitchens. “They are the best choice in frameless considering the value.”
Re: Particleboard
Yes, IKEA uses particleboard, but then so do most manufacturers of reasonably affordable furniture. There are different grades of particleboard, just as there are different grades of other materials, and IKEA particleboard is higher grade than much of the rest. IKEA also uses MDF where appropriate (e.g., http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10103&storeId=12&langId=-1&productId=83950), and other materials as well. As for using particleboard in kitchens, if your kitchen is wet enough for good quality particleboard to break down, then you probably wouldn’t do much better with any wood product short of expensive (and hard to find) marine plywood. Fix the leaks and keep your kitchen dry.
Re: IKEA environmentalism
See “IKEA, A Natural Step Case Study, February 1998″ by by Heidi Owens, Ph.D., for the Oregon Natural Step Network at http://www.ortns.org/documents/IKEA.PDF, which I found impressive.
Re: “Swedish porn” caption
Count me as someone that finds the caption inappropriate (and unworthy of ROS).
May 27th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Chelsea, you didn’t mention it, but I’m wondering if the Fight Club was somewhere in your mind. Here is a line from the script.
And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5
Actually, there are are some similarities between Ikea and porn:
1) Global reach
2) Use of cheaper labour from poorer countries (exploitative)
3) Cheap variant
4) Reflexivity of one’s desire
5) Atomization
This could be said for a lot of consumer products, though.
May 27th, 2007 at 11:56 am
The list of these similarities could be applied to any major corporation that vends household merchandise. The difference is IKEA uses modern and tasteful design in their cheap products. Or you can buy the Italian brands and pay 5-10 times as much for a better quality product that looks almost the same. For most of us it is an easy choice.
May 27th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Allison saysa: The reason this statement would fail the logic test is that it denies that there are any other possibilities for why IKEA could be growing. It may not be value. It may be lack of choice. Marc McElroy’s story could be an example of that.
Why does lack of choice contradict value? The VALUE of Ikea to him was apparently that it was better than any of his alternatives. That’s a legitimate kind of value.
. . .
This is a common fallacy in the faith of markets. People don’t make decisions without emotion.
So what? Emotional satisfaction is value, too. If someone was choosing between two products with identical performance, reliability, customer-service, etc, but one of those products was “cool” or “hot” or whatever adjective designates that owning it denotes that you’re hip, then the prospect of that might give the owners more emotional satisfaction, and therefore justify their willingness to pay a higher price for it.
May 27th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Values are subjective? So wants and desires are not created through marketing? Labour is not priced according to societal values and exchange rates?
The fact that labour is priced according to societal values and exchange rates is evidence that value IS subjective. There is no OBJECTIVE way to say whether Daisuke Matsuzaka is worth $52 million to the Red Sox or their fans. Numbers such as $3 million (what he was making in Japan). $38 million (what the Mets offered) , etc, are all based on subjective judgements. Likewise, Red Sox fans will decide whether the ticket price they pay is subjectively worth the entertainment value they get for their money.
And so what if “wants and desires are created through marketing”? People like to be “cool” so if they are convinced that owning an iPhone or wearing the latest fashions makes them “cool” then that gives them more pleasure and that pleasure is worth money to them.
Though the fact that the value of their labour is not determined by themselves (subjectively) means they have to make do with something cheaper
THEY may subjectively value their labour at, say, $20/hour. An employer might subjectively value it at $12/hour. But the bottom line is that there is no way to objectively “prove” what the correct valuation of anything is. If the worker thinks his labor is being undervalued he can withhold it. If he’s right then the employer will have a labor shortage and will have to increase his offer. As I said, differences of opinion about value is why we have markets (including labour markets).
May 27th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
As for using particleboard in kitchens, if your kitchen is wet enough for good quality particleboard to break down, then you probably wouldn’t do much better with any wood product short of expensive (and hard to find) marine plywood. Fix the leaks and keep your kitchen dry.
I agree about using marine plywood. I disagree about the leaks. Kitchens are INHERENTLY humid even without any leaks. Running water, washing dishes, boiling and simmering things, wiping off counters, etc, dumps prodigious amounts of moisture in the air! My wife and I are avid cooks so we almost always have something on the boil or simmering or being stirred. And because we’re fanatical about food safety we’re always washing off fruits and vegetables, and cleaning off counters and food preparation surfaces.
My theory is that we have a whole generation of people now who are so used to fast food, processed food, or eating out, that they have no idea what a real kitchen in constant use is really like.
May 28th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Hmmm… I went to Ikea once, about 5 years ago- and they had an apple bin (about 1cu. yd) full of compact fluorescents, near the checkout counter. I bought about 10 of them (I think they run at around 12 watts), put the first one in my garage when I got home, and turned it on. It’s still on… part of a personal test. The others are all installed, too (but aren’t left on). They were $.79 each, when equivalent bulbs ran about $3.-$5. each. I liked the designs of tables & modular furniture… reminded me of the fishing boat I’d lived on, once. It was pleasant (if a bit huge). I don’t need it- but I’m glad it’s there- at least as an alternative to Goodwill, etc.
My vote is to encourage some “do it yourself” in most arenas, where possible, because I think that things like subsistence and local interdependence & self-sufficiency are part of the solution to the “consumer lifestyle” (& all its ads, packaging, “throwaway” mentality, etc). So, doing some gluing & screwing isn’t daunting. (Those wobbly bookshelves can be tightened up with a sheet of doorskin or sheet metal, eg siding, etc screwed to the back- & they still ‘snug up’ to a wall.)
Re ..” Kitchens are INHERENTLY humid even without any leaks. Running water, washing dishes, boiling and simmering things, wiping off counters, etc, dumps prodigious amounts of moisture in the air!” (plnelson)
Maybe in your climate/ housing situation… but not here, in the Great Northwet. We cook all the time (though not as much as when the kids were here)- and can, too- but it’s never, um, drippy at all. I’ve worked in comm’l kitchens- bakeries, too- and the only places that are as wet as your situation sounds are dishwasher stations (which tend to be mostly appointed in stainless steel). We don’t have an air hood over the stove, anymore, either (it got relocated to the glass studio). The cookstove, woodstove, & the heat exchanger on the back of the fridge seem to keep it dry… (& most of the windows face South- that might help, too…)
Re the picture caption (“Swedish porn”)- I think you can do better (but have nothing more clever to offer). ^..^
May 28th, 2007 at 5:37 am
RE: Swedish porn: I’m so glad it’s been so contriversial! Lighten up. You may think porn is dirty, but the word itself is not. It transforms this innocent picture and innocent idea and gives it a darker power. Let me be the first to say hurray for Swedish porn, and to all of you who can’t take a joke, lighten up.
May 28th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Have been pondering the IKEA phenom over the last few days and woud like to posit the following;
1. “Modernization” has resulted in a populace that is extremely specialized relative to, arbitrarily, 150 years ago. At that time, people had to be largely self sufficient, and as a result held a much deeper understanding of a broader range of skills, i.e. carpentry, cooking, agriculture/husbandry, etc. As one would expect, as society evolved to require a more specialized work force, the breadth of knowledge on a broad range of subjects has decreased. Today, most Gen Xrs are unable to complete even basic household maintenance, but might be financial wizards, computer geniuses, etc.
2. The American and increasingly generically “western” culture emphasizes form over function, an attitude that is reinforced from cradle to grave through increasingly sophisticated branding campaigns. I quote a friend of mine who works for a telecommunication company who, when asked why phone companies devote less time to figuring out how to deliver television to a 2-inch screen and more time trying to improve the dependability and quality of phone calls, replied “consumers don’t by phones or select carriers based upon quality of phone service, there is no competitive advantage in providing better phone serviceâ€
3. Companies used to develop name recognition by providing quality products at a valuable price (not necessarily the cheapest price). The resulting “brandâ€, i.e. Thomasville, RCA, Hasselbald were dependent upon providing a quality product to consumers who, due to their broader knowledge base, recognized and appreciated this quality. Purchases were carefully considered on the basis of need and product quality, with the expectation that the purchased good would be used for an extended period of time. Today, brand names have nothing to do with quality. The product is secondary to the image, with brand name recognition the result of marketing efforts. This is effective because the majority of the populace does not necessarily recognize quality, or worse yet equates quality with features/functions/price.
IKEA, and other similar companies, are simply exploiting the end result of this evolution from the production of quality goods (and services) resulting in respected brand names, to brand names being the critical factor with the quality of the goods a secondary consideration. IKEA furniture is nice enough, they have good designers. However, IKEA furniture is not designed to last for a lifetime, it’s intended to be disposed of and replaced periodically. The population recognizes IKEA as a unique brand, known for low prices and interesting design, and purchases the products without considering how long those products are likely to last. IKEA is good at promoting “perceived†quality, as opposed to actual quality (the stuff looks good, so it must BE of good quality).
On another note, I find it awkward that IKEA promotes their environmentally sensitive approach, yet a better environmental approach is to manufacture higher quality products that last for a lifetime, don’t need replacement, and can be easily repaired if necessary. However, this requires a consumer market that is sophisticated and motivated enough to look for, and purchase these materials.
In the interest of public disclosure, I own some IKEA furniture. It was what I could afford when I graduated from university. However, now my wife and I are slowly replacing each of these “disposable†items with quality items that should last the rest of our lives.
May 28th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Allison discussed workers’ wages. To make it a bit more applicable to this show, does anyone have any clue where IKEA sits on that line? Is it on of the “Best companies to work for” list as well as the green business one? Is it a Walmart story of no benefits and workers getting trapped in stores?
ROS should contact an editor from Ready Made magazine on the IKEA hacking angle. Published for those people taking the DIY phenomenom on a budget with a bent on recycling and adapting existing materials… like IKEA shelving which you can pick up on craigslist for $5 as people move and trade up. Whatever the market is doing, consumers want to get its hands dirty if just slightly, hence the umpteen cable TV championing DIY-nes (DIY, H&G, Food, This Old House knockoffs, etc…) channels for those who can afford them and want to get out of the cubicle and “make” something. Or, paint a new gloss on it.
http://readymademag.com/
Assembling IKEA furniture is a false sense of accomplishment, the same cheap glitter of assertion you get at self checkout, but considering no one MAKES anything anymore in the USA it is an improvement to the alternatives. Rather than outfit my life in IKEA, my hunt for quality furniture on such a pathetic budget has actually prompted me to have and want less furniture in general, which is a good thing in my book. Less things to house less stuff. If you wish to fight an anti-crap consumerist battle, better to not buy new furniture at all. However, this requires you to learn to appreciate well built antiques and used things. Scuffs “have a story” as Rebecca Pidgeon’s character said in “State and Main.” The ghosts in my furniture give me more value than plywood pegs.
re: “Swedish Porn”
seems ROS needs to do some show on porn and its stigmas, advocates, and detractors just on the number of comments about a caption.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Maybe in your climate/ housing situation… but not here, in the Great Northwet. We cook all the time (though not as much as when the kids were here)- and can, too- but it’s never, um, drippy at all. I’ve worked in comm’l kitchens- bakeries, too- and the only places that are as wet as your situation sounds are dishwasher stations (which tend to be mostly appointed in stainless steel).
I forgot about the dishwasher. That thing is running all the time and it has these vents on the fron that emit steam. We had a party here over the weekend and someone was telling us he had TWO diswashers, side by side, so they don’t have to put dishes away. I wish I had the room!
BTW re: “The Great Northwet” does anyone know where that stereotype came from? It’s really persistent. The company I work for has an office near Seattle and anytime one of their people arrive here (Boston area) on a rainy day someone notes that they “brought their weather with them”.
Trouble is: it’s not true Seattle’s average rainfall is 37 inches/yr. Boston is 43 inches/yr. (source: NOAA) . It’s like the way everyone calls Chicago “the windy city”. We get more wind than they do, too. Allegedly Chicago got that moniker as a joke about their politicians. I wonder if Seattle’s rep for rain also started off as some sort of metaphor. Lots of places get more rain than Seattle – since this discussion started off referencing Florida, Miami’s average is 62 inches/yr.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Today, most Gen Xrs are unable to complete even basic household maintenance, but might be financial wizards, computer geniuses, etc.
I’ve always wondered why this is.
The fact is that the average workweek in the US is less than 40 hours, whereas in the 19th century it approached 80 hours. So even these financial and computer geniuses have a lot more spare time to replace light switches or learn to use a table saw.
Anyway, speaking as a computer professional, I don’t think the demands of learning the latest programming languages and software design methodologies interfere with learning a few basic skills.
My opinion is that the problem is TV. The average American adult spends 30 hours a week, and the average American child spends over 40 hours glued to the idiot box.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
On another note, I find it awkward that IKEA promotes their environmentally sensitive approach, yet a better environmental approach is to manufacture higher quality products that last for a lifetime, don’t need replacement, and can be easily repaired if necessary.
Greenwashing is everywhere. For is promoting their hybrid Explorer as “green”, in ads featuring Kermit the frog, who was forced to go into acting after a car parts factory destroyed his childhood habitat.
Recently I saw Subaru promoting how environmentally friendly their new US car factory is. They know which side their bread is buttered on: Subaru cars are popular among liberals (full confession: I drive a Forester) and are the preferred way to drive out from Cambridge, Seattle, or Berkeley to the countryside when the urge to hug a tree becomes overwhelming. But the fact is that they don’t get very good mileage – the old 2.5L boxer that has been the mainstay of the brand is in desperate need of a remake, and Subaru’s last remake of it – adding a turbocharger – dramatically REDUCED its fuel economy. If Subaru REALLY wanted to help the environment they could engineer a more efficient car and engine package to add just a few extra MPG’s.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Dear ROS: When you get my donation, please use it to fix your website to give it a preview/edit feature like most modern discussion forum websites! Subaru isn’t the only outfit that needs to upgrade its technology.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Put a hygrometer in your kitchen, and I think you’ll be surprised to find that the air stays pretty dry even with all your boiling and simmering, etc. Except in a few naturally humid areas, the typical home in the USA is quite dry, and it takes serious humidifying to make much of a difference. Unless you seal off your kitchen, any increase in water vapor will rapidly dissipate into the rest of the house.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
better to not buy new furniture at all. However, this requires you to learn to appreciate well built antiques and used things. Scuffs “have a story†as Rebecca Pidgeon’s character said in “State and Main.†The ghosts in my furniture give me more value than plywood pegs.
Up to a point I agree. When I was a college student I bought an old WWI-era US army surplus solid oak desk. It was build like a tank in an era when tanks were just being invented and it weighed about as much. It had zillions of drawers and was indestructible. The problem was that it was so heavy it took a team of musclemen with names like “Bruno” and “Ivan the Tornado” to move it. In the end I ended up drilling it full of holes to accomodate all kinds of electronics and computer gear, and destroying the top of it with soldering iron burns and melted solder. Up to this point it had probably withstood the Kaiser’s bullets, but it was no match for me.
In principle it should be possible to make furniture out of strong lightweight high-tech materials, with modular designs, and that should ALSO last a lifetime, justifying its higher price.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
“it should be possible to make furniture out of strong lightweight high-tech materials, with modular designs, and that should ALSO last a lifetime, justifying its higher price”
It is, and exists now. Where it’s relatively simple, even for a novice, to differentiate quality wood from the cheap stuff or veneer it is difficult for a consumer to know which plastic will retain its structure and stay true over time. It’s the double edged blade of plastics and polymers. It’s difficult for consumers to tell without a lot of customer service facetime.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
i drive past an Ikea in New Haven pretty frequently, and have found it to be a sub-decent, but edible lunch that’s cheap and quick. You also need a fork to eat it and that counts. (you can’t eat pizza every day.)
May 31st, 2007 at 4:28 am
PL is right, great furniture is… um, great. Just like a great car is great. Let me introduce another analogy: I have a 1981 Mercedes diesel tank, I mean sedan, in really nice shape and I love it, or I come as close as you can to loving something that can’t love you back. Now a Ford focus is a piece of crap. Millions of people have bought the Ford Focus, because of its price, availability, warrantee, whatever the reason there are a lot. Now, I want to offer a ride home from the Junk Yard, in my 1981 Mercedes to any ROS bloggers who are currently driving a Ford Focus, in 3 years, in 5 years, whenever you send your car to the crusher, just let me know, my classic car will still be running on bio-diesel, and your $10,000 investment will be worth $45. I only ask that we spend the $45 they give you for the car on getting lunch somewhere on the way back.
THE POINT IS: Almost everyone sees the logic in being “practical” in buying a new, poorly made, corners cut car, which will fall apart in 5 years, so why shouldn’t you expect this behavior in buying a couch?
Also you should ask yourself, do you want to be sitting on the same couch 20 years from now?
Nothing lasts forever, nor should it.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:43 am
I would like to preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of IKEA. I even remember where I was when I heard a RUMOUR that IKEA was opening a store in my area. Since it’s opened, I have bought many things and am very happy with the quality.
I a lot of people seem hung up on the “disposable” issue. I am sensitive to the notion of not filling our landfills with items when we get tired of them but I would like to make two points.
One, after two kids and one puppy, our living room furnishings were in a pretty sad state. IKEA is a great resource for families. I don’t know of any other furniture company that provides inexpensive furnishings in a variety of styles with inexpensive covers that can be removed and laundered or replaced to refresh their look.
Two, and this is a very subjective opinion, I find some of their furniture to be very beautiful and some of it I don’t care for. It is the nature of humans to surround themselves with beauty, it makes them happy. Shouldn’t people, even those without a lot of money, be able to buy furniture that expresses their sense of style? I thought some of the comments implied that furniture should be utilitarian above all other attributes.
And finally, furniture changes with fashion just like clothes change with fashion. I have seen friend’s “built to last” expensive furniture look pretty dated 10 years later. If that doesn’t bother you, that’s great but in my experience, people regret their decisions later on. My afforementioned sad living room was country style which was all the rage when I bought it. I was very happy to see it go and replaced it with a retro 50′s modern look. 10-15 years from now, if I despise it, I can replace it without regretting the money I spent on it and it can go on to furnish my kids homes or someone else when I donate it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:06 am
Yikes! so much hyperventilating! Lighten up.
IKEA offers decently good design at a price that is affordable. I used to shop the IKEA store in Virginia. The crowds were a wonderful mix of people, with over half looking like recent immigrants. People who wanted good value in setting up a new life.
I was in Sweden as a student in the 60s when that country was relatively poor. As an apostate architecture student, one thing that impressed me was how even lower middle class people there-like friends-had nicely designed objects as part of their daily life…while inexpensive stuff in the USA generally looked like crap.
And I think that’s the scandinavian appeal of IKEA today: pretty good design for things in your daily life, generally quite sturdy and affordable. No, it’s not as high zoot as the stuff in Design Within Reach’s catalog, but then again it costs 1/3 the price.
I outfitted our offices several years ago with IKEA desks, file cabinets and chairs. Our conference chairs are simple, pleasing to the eye and cost $19. The desks are well made and elegant and cost under $200. The fabric on some of the office chairs does wear out in a year or two, but then again they cost $60 not $900 like an Aeron chair. We did two kitchens for under $6000 total; they get hard use and still look new.
IKEA brings good design to ordinary people who used to be offered stuff that looked like crap for the same price. For that I thank them.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
THE POINT IS: Almost everyone sees the logic in being “practical†in buying a new, poorly made, corners cut car, which will fall apart in 5 years, so why shouldn’t you expect this behavior in buying a couch?
I would have put logic in quotes, too, i.e., “logic”.
Cars are incredibly environmentally-expensive both to manufacture and dispose of. So from an environmental standoint it makes sense to impose that cost on the environment as infrequently as possible, i.e., make cars last as long as possible. The only quibble I have with your Mercedes is that it probably produces lost of pollution – both CO2 and other kinds – compared with more modern cars. Biofuel doesn’t really help much with that since most studies have found that the amount of fossil-fuel it takes to create an energy-equivalanet of biofuel does not produce a winning equation.
Anyway the same principle of manufacture and disposal applies to furnitur so it makes sense to make them last as long as possible.
Also you should ask yourself, do you want to be sitting on the same couch 20 years from now?
Why not? As long as it stays comfortable. Good design never goes out of style.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
IKEA has ‘nice lines’. The furniture is relatively affordable. That’s all to the good. When IKEA becomes an obsession, when it is one more reflection of our addictive consumerism, that’s not good.
They say that the ‘Founding Fathers’, many of them, knew that slavery should not go on, but swallowed that pill to establish independence, a viable linkage of 13 colonies. Some of them knew slavery could not be digested and would eventually have to be dealt with — they clearly were unable to.
Our lifestyle can’t go on. Many of us know that our ‘instant gratification’ and ‘more now’ mentality will have to be dealt with — and clearly we haven’t been able to. IKEA is a symbol of this, related as it is to our Real Estate wealth. Homeowner in the USA? Yo’ ‘landed wealth’ bro’! IKEA fills the space in decorator style.
(I want to go home, but it’s been re-done by a set designer.)
June 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
ok, “logic” will do, I agree, because I was being ironic.
Secondly, pnelson, please don’t take any offence in my willingness to debate your arguments, too many people take this stuff personally. I’ve read your writings here and I think you’re a well informed interesting person.
Having said that… I don’t know if you get your biodiesel info from, Exxon or BP, but post a link here and educate me. I’m not talking about ethanol I’m talking about biodiesel. The bio-diesel I use is made from recycled vegetable oil. Even if I was using petro diesel it still pollutes less then a new gasoline SUV, check out this link, http://www.stealthtdi.com/Emissions.html
But… this is all off point, sorry… I know when I said “do you want to be sitting on the same couch 20 years from now?” it was very subjective, and a bit rhetorical, but I bet many would answer differently then you. Americans in general are all about throwing perfectly good things away to buy new ones. If anyone has any unwanted, or broken Ikea stuff, just send it to me! You’ll also have to know how to write in Cyrillic to address it, but I’ll be back in the US sometime this summer.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:32 am
In regards to kitchens: I installed, (no, make that HAD installed) an IKEA kithchen in a remodel. The cabinets were of very good quality, the doors solid wood, the cabinets MDF, which is standard for almost all manufacturers. The glass front doors were solid, the pull out shelves were wonderful and the hardware (extra) I picked out was very nice. It was the best kitchen I ever put together and I miss it mightily. The carpenter did a very nice job and did some nice customizing.
Now, the downside, you have to know your kitchen down to the last centimeter. You spend hours pouring over the cabinet dimensions, trying to make things fit. You try to get all the extra pieces you need to order. Because…..the ‘specialists’ at the store, aren’t. They’ve had the crash course in kitchen design. We finally got all the pieces ordered after 3 trips. The first was a bust because we hadn’t made an ‘appointment’ and you can’t find a phone number for IKEA anywhere. The second and third appt’s. were because we needed more measurements.
And then…..drum roll….. the stuff was COMING FROM SWEDEN, on the slow boat.(I’m in CA) 8.5 weeks later pieces arrived. Not all the pieces.(you are required to check all the boxes at the store and open them immediately at home to check again), we had about 18 boxes. Another 2 weeks, call them up(15-30 mins) and they’d never heard of the re-order of the missing parts of the kitchen. Then they started trickling in, piece by piece. The phone waits were intermible, every new employee was surprised at my phone calls and I never talked to the same person, even though I had a ‘personal designer’.
That was the part that I don’t think I can do again.
The kitchen, however, was beautiful and functional. And extremely reasonable. I saved about 15,000$, and I priced the Box Stores (HD, Lowes), too.
And since I thought, foolishly, that the experience was a flook (sp?), I bought a loveseat, got a queen sofa bed, bought a bed, got no bed rails. This time I was >300 miles from the store and they delivered. The sofa, I kept.
I get tense just thinking about it.
June 15th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Re ..”Biofuel doesn’t really help much with that since most studies have found that the amount of fossil-fuel it takes to create an energy-equivalanet of biofuel does not produce a winning equation..”-
Hey, whaddaya mean? That oil made FRENCH FRIES before it hauled someone’s butt down the highway… gotta be worth SOMEthing extra…
..”And since I thought, foolishly, that the experience was a flook (sp?)..”-
It is, I believe, “fleuque”… unless you’re referring to the barb on an anchor, or a bit of whale’s tail… (Oh- & my favorite- from Webster’s olde “New Collegiate”:” an accidentally successful stroke at billiards or pool; hence, any accidental stroke of luck”.) Too bad about the love-seat… but you didn’t really need it- right?
Re- source of “The Great Northwet”: quite likely it’s a trope, desirous of meme status, promulgated by the James G. Blaine Society, in its heyday… ^..^
June 20th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
any probable guests for the show yet? interior designers? ikea hackers? green living/manufacturing folks? official ikea talking head?
maybe one of these folks, prominent industrial design blog:
http://core77.com/
June 20th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Howdy,
Boy am I ever late to this conversation.
Rahbuhbuh, thanks for suggesting the design blog. I’ll check it out.
As for guests I have a couple of ideas: Grant McCracken, who I think of as the real Malcom Gladwell, and Elen Lewis, author of Great Ikea. I did contact Jules, the woman behind the blog Ikea Hacker. She lives in Singapore so it would be hard to have her on live but I’ve asked her if she is willing to record a phone conversation, which we would play during the broadcast. I also have fantasies of taking my recording equipment on the Ikea shuttle, which transports Ikeaphiles rom Port Authority Station to the Ikea in Elizabeth, NJ. It would be an opportunity to collect some great tape for the show.
I love Ikea to bits but I’ll save my frothing for a future entry.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:44 pm
nytimes.com’s art director Khoi Vinh on visiting Ikea:
“Too much design is just stifling, though. When everything has been measured, planned, optimized and aestheticized within an inch of its life, it begins to weigh down with the invisible tonnage of oppression. Ikea makes me go haywire because there’s almost nothing about the experience that doesn’t feel artificial.”
http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0618_the_complete.php
July 4th, 2007 at 5:47 am
I live near Sydney, Australia. We recently furnished just about an entire house with Ikea. Getting it all together was hard work (picture me and my husband pulling THREE heavily laden truck trolleys between us, with a small baby and preschooler in tow), getting it to our home was not too bad (we paid for delivery which was worth it for as much stuff as we bought). Assembling it was THE WORST- mostly because I had to do it alone, with kids around. Nevertheless, it’s all nice, solid furniture. I like the clean lines, etc. With kids in the family, it’s appropriate furnishing- but I wouldn’t call it shaky or poorly designed. I should also mention that I find nice, simple furniture almost impossible to find here- unless you are willing to pay something crazy like $2000 AUD for a coffee table.
July 11th, 2007 at 6:33 am
I’m from Sweden and just feel that I need to give a short account of how we see IKEA here “at home”…
When I grew up we lived a couple of km’s from an IKEA store, and our home was almost completely furnished from IKEA. Back in the 80′s there was often missing screws and other smaller detail, but as it was never a problem to get them replaced at the store and the store was just a walk with the dog away, we didn’t mind…
Today the missing-screw-problem is almost gone, in my experience, and me and my girlfriend have bought almost all our furniture at IKEA, including a complete (but rather small) kitchen. As chance would have it, we live just a few km’s from (a completely different) IKEA store now as well…
Anyway – all our (upper?) midclass IT-professional friends (in their 30′s) have IKEA as their main source of new furniture… It’s cheap, it’s easy to transport back home, it’s really not that complicated to assembly, and it’s good looking! And the quality is mostly very good. I have a desk (ok – solid wood with steel legs) that’s been with me for about 12 years, and a bookshelf (not solid wood) that’s been around for almost as long…
I can understand the frustration when something doesn’t fit , or some parts are missing, if you live hundreds of miles away from the store, but – at least in Sweden – IKEA ALWAYS helps you fix it and replaces all damaged parts without question.
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