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

391–400 of 622 posts

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

#391

Post by jordache »

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…

Anecdotal I know, but I've compared furniture from Ikea to equivalently cheap stuff from big box stores like target. The equivalent furniture from Target going through the same use cases as the furniture from Ikea - The Target ones are easily several times worse than the Ikea ones, in terms of build quality, safety potentials, etc...

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

#392

Post by ashtonkem »

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…

Their habit of using illegally harvested wood is a good reason to hate them.

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

#393

Post by ashtonkem »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #325
hiq wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never understood why people hate IKEA. Did you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA#Criticisms ? There seems to be many reasons to dislike the company, even as a happy customer. One thing that stuck with me is this: "The IKEA group has a complex corporate structure, which members of the European Parliament have alleged was designed to avoid over €1 billion in tax payments over the 2009–2014 period." It seems e…

That’s a problem of unnecessarily complicated tax laws.

IKEA also has a will to abuse them to a degree that their peers don’t, and we should judge them as less ethical for it.

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

#394

Post by [deleted] »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #325
hiq wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never understood why people hate IKEA. Did you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA#Criticisms ? There seems to be many reasons to dislike the company, even as a happy customer. One thing that stuck with me is this: "The IKEA group has a complex corporate structure, which members of the European Parliament have alleged was designed to avoid over €1 billion in tax payments over the 2009–2014 period." It seems e…

That’s a problem of unnecessarily complicated tax laws.

[deleted]

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

#395

Post by Spooky23 »

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 have alot of IKEA stuff, the quality complaints are mostly inaccurate IMO. If you buy mid-priced furniture from a big box furniture store, it costs more and very marginally much better. It does move better assembled though.

High quality furniture requires skilled labor and is very expensive.

I would say that having built an Ikea kitchen and dealing with a few relatively minor issues, their customer support sucks. The employees are great, but the friction in getting to them is awful. Maybe the NY/NJ/CT Ikeas are worse with this.

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

#398

Post by ashtonkem »

dalbasal wrote: post #346
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 think IKEA represents plastic consumerism to people. A lot of people feel alienated from the modern world and IKEA registers as fake and therefore alienating. Mass produced, cheap culture with a copy in every house. The best criticisms of these kinds of "problems" are in pop art, as opposed to rational discourse. Fight Club is the canonical example. The film picks IKEA to symbolize the enemy and justification for s…

Hand crafted furniture often has more value because the types of jointery used are more durable over time. A dovetail joined drawer will last much longer than one put together via plastic screws, but it’s also requires much more expensive materials and labor.

Oh, and hardwood furniture is often lighter ironically. MDF is really heavy.

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

#399

Post by jeffrallen »

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'm not as sure that Ikea's manufacturing employees are paid a living wage as I am for Lego. Externalities count, all of them.

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

#400

Post by ashtonkem »

philjohn wrote: post #300
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 all depends on what you buy there. I fitted two IKEA kitchens to past homes I lived in, 14 and 17 years ago. Not professionally fitted either, I did the hard work. I found the properties had both recently been sold and had a look at the listings - both of the kitchens were still doing great. The kitchen I fitted had solid oak door frames with a veneered panel, Quaker style if you will, with standard chipboard cabi…

IKEA cabinets are usually considered one of the best things they make. Plastic layered MDF works really well for cabinetry for whatever reason.

Even most woodworkers seem to actually recommend Ikea cabinets, even if they despise the rest of their products.

Post reply on HN