Ikea

[anjxed]

I don't have an IKEA in my country, so when I went to Hong Kong which has an IKEA... and it was awesome. Is IKEA considered good quality items though? Spent about 90 dollars worth of items that we need like pots and pans.

[Murk]

I don't have an IKEA in my country, so when I went to Hong Kong which has an IKEA... and it was awesome. Is IKEA considered good quality items though? Spent about 90 dollars worth of items that we need like pots and pans.

IKEA is decent quality. It won't last you decades, but it doesn't cost much either. As far as I know, it's considered alright but bland, so perfect for those who are just starting out their own household (such as students or newly formed families) and used often for bungalow or vacation residences.

[anjxed]

If it can last at least a year, it's ok for me. My place has good stuff but they are very expensive. They don't sell decent stuff at a decent price. It's always decent stuff at a high price.

[GolemsVoice]

In Germany Ikea is considered a cheap brand, but allright. Price over quality, all in all.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I don't have an IKEA in my country, so when I went to Hong Kong which has an IKEA... and it was awesome. Is IKEA considered good quality items though? Spent about 90 dollars worth of items that we need like pots and pans.

Best way to think of IKEA is "clothes retailer, but for furniture". If you buy a shirt in a Prêt-à-Porter (i.e. any regular clothes shop), it won't fit as nicely nor last as long as if you go to a tailor and get yourself a bespoke shirt. But it will cost a fraction, and therefore the value/cost ratio is very much in its favour.

As to reliability, I have been using IKEA for general furniture of my home for a good ten years now, and they have shown no more wear and tear than far more expensive furniture. Do I expect it to be able to bequeath it to my great-grandsons, when I have them? No. But then again, I would not want to inherit my grandparent's furniture, either, so no great loss there.

(My main complain about IKEA is their labyrinthine set-ups that require me to carry a map to be able to skip to the section I want, and that their customer service on the floor is so terrible it's best to avoid them entirely)

Grey Wolf

[Eldan]

Their household goods are fine and very decently priced, mostly. Their furniture is between very cheap and dirt cheap, but also often a pain to assemble.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Their furniture is [...] often a pain to assemble.

No more so than assembling legos, and you get to have a useful furniture when you are done.

(I'd describe it, in fact, as "legos for adults" if I did not gift myself actual legos every so often. But I do, so I don't)

GW

[anjxed]

We can't buy furniture since we were in Hong Kong for a brief vacation. But I got a copy of their catalogue for future reference.

[FinnLassie]

Quality is from bad to decent, it's considered a cheaper brand here, but has gotten more expensive in some part. You get what you pay for, cheap glued products, cheap wood, cheap this and that.

Although, the bedsheets are pretty good for their price.

[Aliquid]

As with anything, you get what you pay for... and IKEA has low prices (although if you look around there are more expensive things there too).

But, at the same time, IKEA quality is better than other cheap places by comparison. i.e. if you buy an item at IKEA for price X.xx, and buy a similar item at another store for the exact same price (assuming neither are sale price), then the IKEA one will be better quality.

[Honest Tiefling]

Um...Judging from some information, I think Ikea is more highly regarded in America?

It's considered a decent brand, if limited selection. Here, Ikea items will last longer then those bought at places with equivalent prices. Several department stores near me have decreased in quality in several areas (I AM LOOKING AT YOU, NORDSTROM), so I find it a much safer bet to buy an Ikea item which will last a few years guaranteed and at a cheaper price then try to find some overpriced junk.

Also, Ikea is more likely to be compact or folding, which can be extremely useful for some people.

It'll also depend on the item, the price at Ikea, and your use of it. If you are good with your furniture, don't buy the cheapest stuff, and take care of it, it'll easily last a few years. I wish I could say things lasted longer then that, but I don't have anything from Ikea that old.

If it is an item that doesn't really matter, you could try Amazon, but that seems to be far more of a gamble given materials. I have a shoe rack that was extremely cheap, but...That's just something I hide in the closet and stack my shoes on.

[Yora]

Ikea is pretty common here in Germany and we have a lot of stuff from them (70+%) in our family. I would not say that it's a brand reknown for its quality. Much more for its affordable prices. But as regular customers, I think the impression is really one of "best return for a limited budget". There are others at the same and lower prices, but their furniture tends to be not only cheaply priced but also cheaply made.
Now that we can afford to pay considerably more than we used to, we mostly still buy it because we've come to really like the design.


Um...Judging from some information, I think Ikea is more highly regarded in America?

It's considered a decent brand, if limited selection. Here, Ikea items will last longer then those bought at places with equivalent prices. Several department stores near me have decreased in quality in several areas (I AM LOOKING AT YOU, NORDSTROM), so I find it a much safer bet to buy an Ikea item which will last a few years guaranteed and at a cheaper price then try to find some overpriced junk.

Interesting observation, but it seems very plausible based on what I've heard about what is considered "normal" quality in America compared to Germany. Not quite sure about the rest of Europe, but in Germany we really price durability and reliability very high and prefer to have just everything pretty much bomb proof. That quickly gets expensive and the philosophy is one of "investment for eternity". Americans seem to be much more content with things simply needing replaced when they are worn out after some time, as long as you paid an appropriate price for it when it was new. (American home building standards give Germans nightmares. :smallbiggrin:)
I believe it's quite a significant difference so something that is regarded as below average in Germany could very well be above average in America.

[Honest Tiefling]

Yeah, that's the impression I am getting, at least with the furniture. (Building standards vary from area to area). Many people prefer to buy something temporary, for a variety of reasons, such as dorm rooms, destructive hobbies/pets/children, need to move quickly, etc.

[The Fury]

Their household goods are fine and very decently priced, mostly. Their furniture is between very cheap and dirt cheap, but also often a pain to assemble.

I don't know about that. I wish that a lot of things were as easy to assemble as IKEA furniture.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I don't have an IKEA in my country, so when I went to Hong Kong which has an IKEA... and it was awesome. Is IKEA considered good quality items though? Spent about 90 dollars worth of items that we need like pots and pans.

As I understand it there are some differences per country. Apparently in Japan people see it as relatively fancy and have someone from the store come over to put the furniture together (this is knowledge I retained from reading a single article about it in a newspaper years ago, so disclaimer there). In my circles (the Netherlands, before my latest move) Ikea often gets joked about as sort of a cheap brand, but in reality people own a lot of off-brand Ikea imitations from other stores because they're cheaper. If you're not looking for a potential heirloom, but just something that will work for maybe a low number of decades and move houses with you a handful of times during that period, Ikea is generally fine. It works. Assembly is not as hard as often joked about either.

[2D8HP]

Can't resist:

https://satwcomic.com/art/name-calling.jpg

:amused:

[Honest Tiefling]

I think the assembly matter also really depends on the piece. I have an Ikea bed that was a pain in the rear to assemble, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the floors where I live aren't even. (it's a really old house.) But desks, the odd bookcase and some chairs? Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard. Basically, if you hate assembling things, some bits are okay, some are horrible.

Target often has pieces that look rather suspiciously European and some are terrible. So even the off-brand Ikea varies!

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c
My main complain about IKEA is their labyrinthine set-ups that require me to carry a map to be able to skip to the section I want, and that their customer service on the floor is so terrible it's best to avoid them entirely….

This. So much this.

I deeply dislike Ikea, in large part because of their layout. What makes it so frustrating to me is that they force you through a predetermined course, like you’re a rat running a maze, and in order to get out (o gawd o gawd just let me out) you have to retrace the entire course in reverse.

I’m also somewhat boggled by their approach of having the customer visit a completely separate level of the store to actually pick up the item you saw three levels up.


Originally Posted by Honest Tiefling
Um...Judging from some information, I think Ikea is more highly regarded in America?

Weirdly so, yes. I used to live in Northern Virginia, and a lot of people venerated Ikea like it was spun from crystallized webs of glittering awesome.

I bought one (1) end table, mainly to justify the long drive and the hassle of dealing with the layout. The end table didn’t fit where I wanted it to, and now I have no idea where it is.

As for assembly, I've built about forty zillion of the cheapie bookshelves from Target and Wal-Mart, so the end table wasn't an issue.


Originally Posted by 2D8HP
Can't resist:

What.

.

[Honest Tiefling]

I deeply dislike Ikea, in large part because of their layout. What makes it so frustrating to me is that they force you through a predetermined course, like you’re a rat running a maze, and in order to get out (o gawd o gawd just let me out) you have to retrace the entire course in reverse.

...If you learn the layout of your local Ikea, you can usually use a shortcut or two. But yeah, what were they thinking with that?

The joke in the comic is that a Swedish company named doormats after towns in Denmark, the traditional rival of their country. Those two dudes represent their respective countries.

[Manga Shoggoth]

We have several IKEA pieces in the home: The bookshelves (Billy) are all IKEA as are a number of the smaller units (the one holding the TV, for instance). A lot of the crockery is IKEA as well.

Overall, the quality is decent and the price is decent.

[Tvtyrant]

...If you learn the layout of your local Ikea, you can usually use a shortcut or two. But yeah, what were they thinking with that?

The joke in the comic is that a Swedish company named doormats after towns in Denmark, the traditional rival of their country. Those two dudes represent their respective countries.

I am fairly certain they are hoping to imitate Walmart, where you are expected to buy 1-2 items you weren't looking for when you walk past them.

[A.A.King]

The only other place I've bought furniture from are second hand places. I can't imagine going to a place other than IKEA for non-secondhand furniture except maybe for something small. You can't beat the price and quality is absolutely fine. It might not be perfect I can't imagine how much better 'proper' (a.k.a. non flatpack) furniture is to actually warrant the price spike.

(From Europe btw, for people keeping score on America vs The Rest of the World)

[Lvl 2 Expert]

O, and I totally forgot the main reason you should go to the Ikea, the Swedish meatballs.

You see, a proper Ikea outing is not about grabbing a closet and getting out. You need to go to the largest Ikea you can find, first go to the restaurant (if you can call it that) and have a portion of their meatballs, with little Swedish flags, and then you run the entire gauntlet, one long route from the beginning to the end of the store. There are often shortcuts, but you're not getting the proper experience if you use those. In a bunch of places Ikea also organizes yearly or so games of hide and seek in their stores, if that helps you imagine the layout. They're great places for when you have an idea of buying something but that's not really urgent enough to be the entire point of going.

[Honest Tiefling]

O, and I totally forgot the main reason you should go to the Ikea, the Swedish meatballs.

*sigh* Their food was honestly better then a lot of fast food I've had. Maybe that's another difference between here and the Rest of the World.

The lingon berry jam was awful, however. Don't get that.

[anjxed]

O, and I totally forgot the main reason you should go to the Ikea, the Swedish meatballs.

I find that the meatballs are mediocre, but I do like the gravy and jam combo. It was nice.
Well, in my country, the prices in IKEA are already above average, soooo we have a lot of cheaper stuff. I like their designs tho.

[BWR]

Cheap, serviceable and a wide variety of useful household things is the basic impression of söta bror's big export around here. The food is pretty meh. Had the meatballs yesterday and my impression was that I would be embarrassed to serve that to someone. Granted, it's cheap(ish) and filling, but that's about it. The lingon jam was bad. So sweet it hardly tasted like lingon. Not that that is a bad thing in itself but I feel if you bill something as X, it should be recognizable as X. The cinnamon rolls are amazing, though.

[snowblizz]

I am fairly certain they are hoping to imitate Walmart, where you are expected to buy 1-2 items you weren't looking for when you walk past them.
I'm almost willing to give Ikea the credit for inventing that particular thing, because they've done it very very well. They probably didn't, and they gotten so much nicer about letting you out compared to 20 years ago. Imagine the time when shortcuts were not marked and really only meant for staff.


I deeply dislike Ikea, in large part because of their layout. What makes it so frustrating to me is that they force you through a predetermined course, like you’re a rat running a maze, and in order to get out (o gawd o gawd just let me out) you have to retrace the entire course in reverse.

I’m also somewhat boggled by their approach of having the customer visit a completely separate level of the store to actually pick up the item you saw three levels up.There *is* a map and they makr out stuff, but yea it can be rather confuisng.
However I'm confused by this levels thing, I've only ever seen 2 story Ikea buildings. But their labyrinth structure in a palce where they didn't have an open lot to start with might be somewhat different. The idea in general would be that you pick up all the heavy stuff at ground level, who wants to cart the parts of a bed-sofa from 3 floors up?


The end table didn’t fit where I wanted it to, and now I have no idea where it is.

You didn't take measurements first? Hardly their fault that?


I don't have an IKEA in my country, so when I went to Hong Kong which has an IKEA... and it was awesome. Is IKEA considered good quality items though? Spent about 90 dollars worth of items that we need like pots and pans.
I've always found Ikea to be good quality. They stress test their stuff like hell. I've got an Ikea officechair in elather that's so old I can barely find it by googling and I just recetly managed to ruin the wheels it rolls on, and one armrest is slightly scuffed after at least 20 years of use. Oh, Ikea got loads of crap when they recently changed measurements of Billy after 30 years. People were expecting to still add to their line up of shelves.

Obviously Ikea is built on the premise that you will change out you sofa more than once a century. This has been a longstanding thing in Sweden since the 70s abouts, the use-up and toss, "consumerism philosophy".

The people who say you don't go to Ikea to buy a furniture are on to something, it's all planned. That's why you got the restaurant and stuff. Their food? Ok, and very cheap for Scandinavia. I've paid more for worse at a regular restaurant. I've taken my bike to Ikea once for lunch just for the excercise.

I'm of two minds when it comes to Ikea, sorta love-hate thing. They make LOADS of stuff that fits me, my mindset and my wallet. However, much of this is bought with an aggressive taxdodging plan I find exceedingly seedy. Morally reprehensible even. And throw in some concerns about the outsourcing of manufacture. Neither of these are in any way unique to Ikea, everyone else does it too. They just don't pass on some of the savings to you the consumer. They've definitely revolutionised people's ability to use and change styles though, for better and worse.

I not too long ago got my first own owned apartment and needed to furnish. I ended up with maybe 80% Ikea stuff, basically filled out the stuff I didn't already have. Impossible to beat the value. I went and checked a local competitor and price was 3x as high for no appreciable quality gain (basically got all furniture form Ikea I wanted for the cost of the sofa alone from someone else). Most normal furniture stores will give you a flatpack too anywya nowadays because it just makes logistical sense. Except theirs are never as cleverly engineered as Ikea's. In ~20+ years of assembling Ikea stuff I've only twice ran into serious problems. I had one chair that was clearly put together defectively in factory, but I sorted that out myself. And the instructions for the bed-sofa I could not see any way of completing assembly in the order presented.
Top notch customer service though. Had a broken pane on a cabinet, rang them up late in the evening (well past closing time of any other place), they arranged for pick-up of defective packages and delivery of new ones at no extra cost for me.

Maybe that makes me a fan. If they'd pay taxes responsible instead of being like most other businesses I'd have no qualms whatsoever.

[Cozzer]

In my country (Italy), it's considered more or less the lowest-price point of the "reasonable price-quality ratio" range. Pay less than that, and you get crap that breaks down way too early.

So yeah, if you're furnishing your dream house in which you plan to spend decades, you should probably try to get something better (and more long-lasting). If you're not sure whether you want to stay more than, say, six years in the house, then it's perfect to get decent furniture for the right price.

[FinnLassie]

I suppose my opinion is also weighed in by how ethical Ikea actually is and how since childhood the communities around me have emphasised sustainability and durable materials. Yes, you pay more when you purchase your item, but it's likely to survive for decades at best. As an example, my Lundia shelving units, of which Ikea has made cheap alternatives of, are 30+ years old, and still sturdy as hell.

And as a student when I go out to purchase something without any monetal support from an outsider, I heavily prefer second hand. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it also in many cases in Finland second hand centres employ those that have been without a job for years and let them build on new skills.

[Honest Tiefling]

And as a student when I go out to purchase something without any monetal support from an outsider, I heavily prefer second hand. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it also in many cases in Finland second hand centres employ those that have been without a job for years and let them build on new skills.

Yeah...Um. In the States, thrift stores are...Interesting. You get a choice of the homophobic Salvation Army, Goodwill which doesn't pay its workers a lot (I don't care if they are mentally challenged, work is work!), and a really a lot of dodgy thrift stores.

[anjxed]

As with anything, you get what you pay for... and IKEA has low prices (although if you look around there are more expensive things there too).

But, at the same time, IKEA quality is better than other cheap places by comparison. i.e. if you buy an item at IKEA for price X.xx, and buy a similar item at another store for the exact same price (assuming neither are sale price), then the IKEA one will be better quality.

If IKEA is cheap in European countries, I wonder what you guys would view about the stuff they have for sale here. It's about twice as cheap and easily breaks. IKEA's prices are already mid level to lower tiers of expensive.

[Vinyadan]

Personally, I really dislike their choice of colours, and many esthetic things in general. However, most stuff is good, from a use perspective.

[Aliquid]

There is a song about IKEA that I can't get out of my head now.

IKEA by Jonathan Coulton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUPu_ipbVB0)

[anjxed]

There is a song about IKEA that I can't get out of my head now.

IKEA by Jonathan Coulton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUPu_ipbVB0)

IKEA the furniture of choice for college kids and divorced men lol.

I really hope they push through with opening one in my country

[Teddy]

I'd say Ikea has a really good reliability to price ratio. If you want better quality, you usually either have to pay a lot more, or go second hand and hope to find a could-have-been-a-heirloom with a bit of luck. And over here, half of the furniture and kitchenry you find in second hand stores is Ikea made too. But that might say more about about how ingrained Ikea is in the Swedish urban culture than anything else...


I am fairly certain they are hoping to imitate Walmart, where you are expected to buy 1-2 items you weren't looking for when you walk past them.

Since Ikea is nearly twice as old as Walmart, I'm not sure who's imitating who here.

That said, this is true. The new Ikea joke here in Sweden (or at least my hometown) is all variations of "One does not simply buy one thing from Ikea.", usually said in response to someone's story about what they did last Saturday. https://i.imgur.com/ZRHtTJs.png

[Drascin]

Personally, IKEA has three things that makes it very favored to my eyes.

One, size. IKEA is basically the best place to find compact furniture that will not disintegrate inside of a year (most of what I've bought in IKEA has lasted me the entire duration of a house move, easily and without much wear). And when a flat will often be all of thirty square meters, every centimeter counts.

Two, aesthetics. Most of the higher quality chains around here tend to sell stuff that is, not to put too fine a point on it, baroque as ****. Solid oak stuff, all grandfather-y. I don't want that! I'm renting a small flat, I want light colors that make it feel less cramped than it is and smooth surfaces, not detailed brown wood grain!

And three, practicality. You can just head to IKEA and grab a thing, which will fit in your car because it comes disassembled, and have it at home and built inside two hours. "I should get a new shelf" -> "I have a new shelf" is a process that takes an afternoon. And because they're cheap and manageable, moving out is far less of an investment.

Most of my and my parents' homes are basically furnished with IKEA. I won't say it's amazing, but for my money it's far and away the most practical.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah...Um. In the States, thrift stores are...Interesting. You get a choice of the homophobic Salvation Army, Goodwill which doesn't pay its workers a lot (I don't care if they are mentally challenged, work is work!), and a really a lot of dodgy thrift stores.

Here in the UK the normal place to find secondhand stuff is charity shops, run by one of the big charities, all items are donations, sales go to paying the manager's salary, and always staffed by volunteers (I did a six month stint of several hours a week for six months between my disastrous first year at uni and the second attempt I was very lucky to get). The general idea is that most of the people there are doing free work for the work experience, when I worked in one several people were sent in by the local jobcentre of they were young and had trouble finding work.

Other than that, the only second hand shops you see here are bookshops in my experience (and the biggest second hand market where I used to live was books, to the point we randomised them as much as possible so people had to search and couldn't look for a minute and see that we don't have what they want). Prices range from slightly below to slightly above charity shop prices depending on who's running it and how they made their money. I used to frequent one where most books were a pound, but it want where they made must of their money.

On the thread topic, IKEA hasn't really been consisted special either way by most people I know, just tending towards the low end.