I once was talking to a firefighter who was saying that these days house/apartment fires burn hotter and much more rapidly. Why? Because of cheap furniture (materials and construction). He didn’t have kind things to say about IKEA.
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
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Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#112Nice 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.
You didn’t see anything from ikea because the ikea stuff got bought as soon as they put it on the floor.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#113I read the news in an IKEA sofa wrapped in an IKEA blanket resting my head on an IKEA cushion watching TV on an IKEA bench. He truly built a startup that changed the world.
"I am Jack's living room"
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#114I once was talking to a firefighter who was saying that these days house/apartment fires burn hotter and much more rapidly. Why? Because of cheap furniture (materials and construction). He didn’t have kind things to say about IKEA.
Considering that the number of house fires are down between 30% - 50% in the developed world, I say we call it break even.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#115Moving 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…
On another take, the amount of IKEA furniture I've assembled over the years has instilled some basic sense of design and structure which has aided my in building my own outdoor furniture. IKEA is, effectively, a DIY store and you aren't limited to the pieces they package together. You can really be creative with it.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#116What a great entrepreneur and product guy. Kamprad should be very proud of what he built. Not many business owners today start from the aspect of frugality like he did. IKEA is a place that targets everyone but is priced at middle class or lower levels unlike most products today. That goes back to his roots. Mr Kamprad was renowned for his devotion to frugality, reportedly driving an old Volvo and travelling by econo…
Some of the "frugality" stuff is just image - he also had a Porsche, lived in a very nice property in Switzerland for 40 years, and also owned a French vineyard (although he forced IKEA to sell the wine from the latter so he may have actually made money off of that one...)
Give people cheap stuff, pretend to be one of them and they won't question anything you do. Seem like he invented the modern tech company decades early.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Actually the real reason people throw it away is because it's inexpensive. Is it worth selling my $20 Ikea table? In the grand scheme, probably not. It's not worth as much because it's not as expensive to begin with. Some of it is certainly crap but a lot of the tables and shelves and whatnot are quite nice, but it doesn't mean you're going to get a lot of money for it second hand.
What I notice with Ikea stuff is that you are more likely just to give it away. I was at a party a few years ago and the host said they were sick of a cheap Ikea table. I consulted the wife and we ended up taking it with us. I notice that people will give away the cheap stuff rather than trying to sell it. Still have the table BTW.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#118What a great entrepreneur and product guy. Kamprad should be very proud of what he built. Not many business owners today start from the aspect of frugality like he did. IKEA is a place that targets everyone but is priced at middle class or lower levels unlike most products today. That goes back to his roots. Mr Kamprad was renowned for his devotion to frugality, reportedly driving an old Volvo and travelling by econo…
Some of the "frugality" stuff is just image - he also had a Porsche, lived in a very nice property in Switzerland for 40 years, and also owned a French vineyard (although he forced IKEA to sell the wine from the latter so he may have actually made money off of that one...)
As far as sports cars go, you can get a reliable Porsche that will last you a very long time. Not necessarily wasteful if you want good performance out of a car.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Most of the times when you rent you don't have the actual time to sell the furniture that you bought, because the "finding a new place and moving right in"-period is pretty short. Plus, you kind of need your bed, your chairs and your table until the day when you're actually moving out, so if you were the one who had actually bought them and there's not enough space for them in the new place then your only solution is to leave them behind.
Re: Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But wouldn't this cheaper Ikea furniture just translate to even cheaper second hand Ikea furniture? I can't imagine a way to keep furniture prices high enough to pressure people into engaging in the second hand market. The last time I wanted to get rid of something very cheap I posted it online for people to pick it up for free. A few days later it was gone.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I recently saw an IKEA lamp selling for £10 in a second hand furniture store. The same lamp sells for £6 new in IKEA!