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Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#51

Post by icebraining »

paganel wrote: post #18
jacquesm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fortunately it really isn't. It is ok, mostly single use stuff that seems to be cheap but that is actually quite expensive if you take into account the material costs and the production quality. Even so, their sticker price and economies of scale put almost everybody competing with them out of business.

It’s ok looking furniture at decent prices if you’re just a little bit careful when picking stuff from them. They’re the perfect company for very mobile clients, such as myself, as I’ve been moving houses at an average at one every 2-3 years for the past 15 years, it would have been even more economically bad for me had I invested in furniture meant to last 30 to 50 years (compared to Ikea’s 5-to-10 years) but for wh…

Before disposable stuff, people bought used furniture and then re-sold it when they moved. It was less convenient, but certainly not 2-3 times more expensive, since good furniture holds its value.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#52

Post by Retric »

afriend4lyfe wrote: post #38

"In the later years of his life, Mr Kamprad had faced questions over his past links to the Nazis." It's crazy how he ran Ikea for over 70 years but a quarter of the article deals with his ties to Nazis. Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life, so I suppose the attention to it may not be unwarranted. But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. "Yout…

I think it's important to realize mistakes 10+ million people make are far from character defining.

All governments do good and bad things and it's important to judge them in that context. What separated the Italian fascists from the German fascists was not necessarily obvious at the time. Further, while history reasonably judges German connections harsher, that's filtered through both bias and information people simply did not have.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#53

Post by coldtea »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #31

Moving from a country with no Ikea to a country with Ikea has been a paradigm shift for me, and I'm not sure it's entirely a good one. It used to be that if I wanted furniture, I'd go to the second hand store, and look for some used furniture that fitted my purpose. If I couldn't find something that worked, then I'd look online, and then failing that, I'd buy it new. I found some real gems at the second hand store. A…

>A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later

So? Furniture of any quality can be found at second hand stores. From one of a kind expensive pieces to el cheapo ready to break stuff and everything in between.

That said, there's nothing much that can hurt a properly done desk. I have IKEA desks I use for 10 and 15 years now, and other than a few dents I've caused them, are perfectly fine.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#54

Post by ahartmetz »

jacquesm wrote: post #10
5_minutes wrote: post #3

Nice trivia: he actually started with delivering self-made furniture on his bike in his local town.

I'll bet that was the highest quality stuff Ikea ever produced. I was in a store for recycled stuff a week ago or so looking for a typewriter and some old comic books for my kids and it struck me that none of the furniture they was made by Ikea. That translates into there being a direct path to the landfill from Ikea.

Ikea has more and less cheap furniture. The longer life stuff is generally made of solid wood or plywood and its quality is just fine. Ikea never just throws a product together, which also applies to the cheap ones.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#55

Post by seanmcdirmid »

coldtea wrote: post #49
afriend4lyfe wrote: post #38

"In the later years of his life, Mr Kamprad had faced questions over his past links to the Nazis." It's crazy how he ran Ikea for over 70 years but a quarter of the article deals with his ties to Nazis. Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life, so I suppose the attention to it may not be unwarranted. But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. "Yout…

> But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. Going with the tide? I doubt if the Nazis had won there would have been any shifts in perspective.

Wouldn’t that be true of most people? Being a rebel, even against an overtly oppressive regime, is not a light undertaking.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#56

Post by antirez »

WisNorCan wrote: post #45

Europe has less of a philanthropic tradition than the United States. For example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes. Jeff Bezos is now making plans for his philanthropy. This happens in Europe too, but is less common. I was looking to see if there were any specific plans for Mr. Kamprad’s wealth, but unfortunately did not see anything.

It's less common to accumulate very big fortunes because in general there is much more redistribution of wealth and much higher taxes (so also as you accumulate you share a big amount with society). See for instance tipping in the US vs no tips but places paying a more fair amount of money to waiters in Europe. A different model.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#58

Post by brndnmtthws »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #55
coldtea wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. Going with the tide? I doubt if the Nazis had won there would have been any shifts in perspective.

Wouldn’t that be true of most people? Being a rebel, even against an overtly oppressive regime, is not a light undertaking.

It is indeed true; the winners always earn the privilege of defining morality and rewriting history to their liking.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#59

Post by rsynnott »

vq wrote: post #15
marban wrote: post #8

And thanks for the Köttbullar. "It's difficult to do business with someone on an empty stomach."

IKEA is actually a köttbullar and lingonsylts (lingonberry jam) distribution system so that us Smålänningar can get our fix almost anywhere in the world.

Last time I was in the one in Dublin, the TVs in the cafe area were literally showing a propaganda film about lingonberries.

Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

#60

Post by toomanybeersies »

coldtea wrote: post #53
toomanybeersies wrote: post #31

Moving from a country with no Ikea to a country with Ikea has been a paradigm shift for me, and I'm not sure it's entirely a good one. It used to be that if I wanted furniture, I'd go to the second hand store, and look for some used furniture that fitted my purpose. If I couldn't find something that worked, then I'd look online, and then failing that, I'd buy it new. I found some real gems at the second hand store. A…

> A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later So? Furniture of any quality can be found at second hand stores. From one of a kind expensive pieces to el cheapo ready to break stuff and everything in between. That said, there's nothing much that can hurt a properly done desk. I have IKEA desks I use for 10 and 15 years now, and other than a few dents I've caused them, are perfectly fine.

I don't mean to insinuate that Ikea has bad quality stuff, quite the opposite.

Instead of getting second hand stuff, it's easier for me to just get new stuff from Ikea. But what's happening to all the second hand stuff that I would've bought? Does it all just go into the landfill? Because that's a waste.

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