Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

goodnewsnetwork.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 622 posts

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#311

Post by saalweachter »

wycy wrote: post #287
chrisseaton wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the junk food of furniture. Produced at scale with poor materials, satisfies people's immediate need, locations are functional and service is fast. But don't you want something more substantial and created with more craft? You probably don't need more than one adult bed in a lifetime, for example. I've got furniture that's been in use hundreds of years.

No. I have several pieces of Ikea furniture that've survived multiple moves and are still rock solid. It's light, cheap, and sturdy. I don't care if my furniture has craft or history.

Honestly a lot of the furniture I've purchased one or two steps up from IKEA ended up being thoroughly underwhelming.

Based on my survey of what's available on the market, you have to go up nearly two orders of magnitude on price from IKEA to find solid wood furniture that feels like it has the craftsmanship to be an heirloom. And at those prices, it's not only more than most people can afford, it's more than most people who can are willing to spend.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#312

Post by adolph »

etempleton wrote: post #288
nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

I like IKEA furniture for what it is. It is thoughtfully designed, afordable and usually very easy to assemble. However, their US customer service is essentially non exsistent. I had items delivered damaged and could not get in touch with anyone. I eventually gave up as the effort was not worth it.

As frustrating as that is (and I’ve had my share of it to know), if I turn the feeling upside down, maybe there is an iron triangle of cost, error rate and customer service responsiveness. If the price attraction rate is higher than the customer losses represented by product error times the fix error rate, then you win. If the error rate is pushed too far or the customer service white gloved, then costs must be higher.

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

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#314

Post by istjohn »

candu wrote: post #303
nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. To me, this belongs in the same bucket as any number of tax avoidance schemes that ensure wealthy individuals pay far lower tax rates than the average person, and that large corporations pay effectively nothing. If they're able to provide great customer service - well, good on them, but I'd much rather the public purse have the…

Wow, that is sketchy. Here's more info on IKEA's tax evasion scheme: https://www.fastcompany.com/3035734/ikea-is-a-nonprofit-and-...

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#316

Post by leokennis »

itsnot2020 wrote: post #291
nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

It did used to last a lifetime though, my parents bought some items in the 1970s which they still use today (stools, shelves and the odd table), it still looks good as well.

IKEA has several “tranches” of cheap furniture.

Some of it is solely designed to hit a price point (“a $10 chair”) and is made of cheap plywood, cheaply connected.

Some of it is more the “can we pick some low hanging design fruit, apply massive scale, and create a decent chair for 20% of the price it would normally cost” variety. That furniture normally lasts a long time.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#317

Post by melling »

nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

Fight Club effect?

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/4dl14d/what_does_fi...

https://youtu.be/C0xBX4xF3rs

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#318

Post by Ygg2 »

nom wrote: post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

I bought an IKEA desk and tried to assemble it myself. Between the poor wood quality, bad paint job, hard to connect components and painful assembly process, I gave up and got a refund.

I asked a friend of a friend that's a carpenter and he made way better desk for same amount of money.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#319

Post by bpicolo »

chpatrick wrote: post #296
itsnot2020 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did used to last a lifetime though, my parents bought some items in the 1970s which they still use today (stools, shelves and the odd table), it still looks good as well.

They still have hardwood furniture though. No one's forcing anyone to buy the cheap plywood ones.

What hard wood do they have other than the basic acacia pieces?

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#320

Post by jcims »

glenneroo wrote: post #269
detritus wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? You'd likely not need IraqWarII levels of commitment - just a few enthusiastically-delivered missives at 1100kph to get the message across. A few loitering drones and a few dozen more missiles might actually be a highly efficient use of resources. I'm not sure where 'intelligence' comes into play here, beyond condescension of an idea you evidently disagree with.

Apologies I didn't mean to be derogatory. I was just a little bit surprised at the bravado-military mentality that surfaced on a tech forum. To clarify, there are so many issues here I don't even know where to begin, just some quickies off the top of my head: - the most obvious was mentioned already: forest fires, when missiles explode in a forest you are trying to protect, things tend to burn and fire tends to sprea…

It was mostly tongue in cheek but it would be interesting to see how the public reacts to such a declaration. If actually implemented I am fairly confident that countermeasures could be taken to avoid casualties and collateral damage, but historically those things get pretty slippery over time.
Post reply on HN