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Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

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Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not particularly difficult but nor is it particularly fun. I certainly don't plan to assemble the furniture for my next apartment myself.

But is that because you'll pay someone to assemble similar furniture, or because you'll buy better furniture that isn't just IKEA flat-packs?

I came to the same conclusion as morgante, next time I'd rather pay for assembly instead of doing it for myself for a whole weekend.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#152
post #113
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)

Agreed. I'm not sure where the misconception of their furniture being difficult to build comes from. In my experience their instructions are unambiguous and well-designed.

Ikea furniture and instructions are Lego of the furniture world. Anyone with half a brain and some patience can assemble it.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#153
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.

That is strange. Even as a Swede I would probably value a Billy more if it came pre assambled, so I was not made actively aware of low quality materials and holes drilled in not-quite-the-right places. Maybe a cultural thing. I always got the impression IKEA is more respected in other countries, while in Sweden it is seen as cheap furniture owned by everyone.

It is cheap, and it do not hold up well - but that is why it is cheap.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, lots of stores are removing self-checkouts nowadays. They tend to be a lot slower than cashiers, lead to more theft, and few people like to use them anyway.

One of those frustrating problems that's already solved, but in pieces too widely scattered to do anyone any good.

Well, automated checkout with RFID tags is nowadays a viable solution, and first stores are deploying it.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be that they have mostly saturated in the markets where they think they are competitive.

i doubt it. i think america is just huge, and that they can't responsibly expand too fast. remember, ikea is expanding globally. on my last vacation, i saw an ikea identical to the one by my house in california, in southern germany. that's really sort of unprecedented at the scale of an ikea store.

> remember, ikea is expanding globally

And they're expanding mainly with their own money. They're a family-owned company without outside investors. Ingvar Kamprad is pretty economically conservative.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#156
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)

I seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.

The phenomenon has actually been the subject of a couple of studies, it has been dubbed "The Ikea effect"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#157
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.

That is strange. Even as a Swede I would probably value a Billy more if it came pre assambled, so I was not made actively aware of low quality materials and holes drilled in not-quite-the-right places. Maybe a cultural thing. I always got the impression IKEA is more respected in other countries, while in Sweden it is seen as cheap furniture owned by everyone.

I think it's certainly seen as cheap elsewhere, but usually of better quality than comparably cheap furniture.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#158
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea why? I've never seen a store add them and then remove them.

Actually, lots of stores are removing self-checkouts nowadays. They tend to be a lot slower than cashiers, lead to more theft, and few people like to use them anyway.

Huh, that's surprising. Two of the three supermarkets near me have phased out cashiers almost entirely.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#159
post #113
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)

Agreed. I'm not sure where the misconception of their furniture being difficult to build comes from. In my experience their instructions are unambiguous and well-designed.

From 30 years ago.

Seriously, at that time the instructions came in gibberish with extremely weird illustrations and you were usually wondering why you had surplus screws.

The design of IKEA furniture at that time was, let's just say, a lot more rustic too.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem in the logistics industry as a whole. Nobody owns anything and everybody has a subcontractor.

We have a concept here in Denmark, which directly translated would be "total contractor", which is a person who manages all the different contractors, schedules when they show up and do their work, handles any problems that arise during the project, and all the billing goes through him, so you get a single invoice at the end. I imagine every country has a similar concept, I'm just not aware of the name in English.

In (US) English it's "general contractor".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_contractor

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