491–500 of 622 posts
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This is a joke, right?
I'm half-serious. It wouldn't be the first minefield that acts as a nature reserve, e.g. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39821956 or https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/06/living-i...
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I consider IKEA to be more or less the ideal home shoppping experience. Some things are picked up along the way, larger things are grabbed at the end. The way they're laid out maximizes usable showroom space, while allowing for entire rooms to be built, with every part showing something you could buy. For anyone looking to furnish their place at a good quality/price, it's the first place I'd think of.
The way they're laid out maximizes the amount of time it takes to get through them by the "natural" path, making customers repeatedly make the decision not to buy things, thereby wearing down their willpower until they get to the end and can load up their cart with trinkets they didn't need when they showed up.
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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.
Great carpentry is valuable because people like it, because it's beautiful, maybe because it's impressive. The table will hold the dinner just fine without quality joinery.
11,000 hectares is 45 km²
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's not Ikea that people hate, it's Ikea customers. People like to think of the moment they upgrades from Ikea furniture to something else as a life milestone where they ascend to another social class, and once they have done that they get to look down on the classes that buy Ikea furniture. Sure, there's a whole list of supposed justifications, but most people's "upgrade" furniture is the same mass-produced crap, b…
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> Ikea is making furniture, something people really need. Why they have to explain themselves for doing something useful? What should they use to produce furniture? Would plastic be any better? Iron? Stone? Unfortunately we live in a world where virtue signaling is more important than actual virtues and winning arguments is more important than actual winning. Yes this is a PR thing and will help to create a positive…
> _Note: A tree is useful and carbon negative only if it is growing a tree in forest that has stopped growing is mostly useless for offsetting carbon,_ Don't trees grow till they die?
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An interesting proposition! In 2008, I was on my own for the first time. I had to furnish my first apartment into livability. A family friend gave me a $300 gift card to IKEA. That gift got me a fully functional one-bedroom apartment that I could never have afforded at the time. Now, as a well-paid adult advanced in my career, I can afford to buy high-quality things. I do this knowing full well that I'm buying status…
Sure, nice things usually cost a premium. But used, secondhand stuff can be affordable too. There should be an economy of downcycling that allows for more affordable stuff, too. I just don't think that IKEA is that. Case in point. When I moved in 2013 I had a ~$1500 dining table that I had paid $800 for. Due to the abruptness of my move, I ended up selling it on Craigslist for something like $200. Keep an eye out for…
for a lot of us city dwellers, that already makes it unaffordable.
I think the Buy Nothing movement is really accelerating this trend of trying to connect people to drive the recycling community. Don't throw out old furniture, your local Buy Nothing group will be full of people happy to rehome it.
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> Phoebe thinks she has an antique apothecary table. You can smell the history of opium and medicinal brews. Turns out it's IKEA. Off the top of my head, I think it was Pottery Barn, not IKEA.
oops.
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This is an issue caused by the European Parliament. I'm sure if they want to stop this behaviour they could write some laws.
Afaik they can't. The European Commission can. Which is not elected.