IKEA I dont get it!

It's somewhat stylish, affordable junk. It's prefect for younger people since they have quite the variety of stuff.

But to stand in line to get in is another story...

 

Ikea is great for apartment owners. I call it "disposable furniture". When I move, I just smash it and throw it in the dumpster. Pack my clothes, and move.

 

Then you can hit Sur La Table for the good stuff!

 

IKEA is a culture and lifestyle, the furniture is just a by-product. I read that the founder (who happens to be a billionaire) drives an old tore up Volvo and choses to do so because he would be going against his company's values and would lose credibility with his clientele.

 

I actually like it. When we moved we got rid of most of our stuff, it was looking pretty tired. Bought a bunch of stuff from Ikea. Its pretty good..except that it was sort of, improvise as you go along instructions. Their 50 cent frozen yogurt is to die for.

 

You mean good and overpriced stuff.

I look for stuff in stores, price it, then come home and search for it on the internet. One place wanted $650 for an outdoor loveseat (wood), I came home and found the exact same thing on the web for $89. Now, if it was $189 in the store, or maybe even like $229, I might have considered it, since I had to pay $50 for shipping, but $650 ?

 

I believe their targeted demographic is newly married couples in their late 20s/ early 30s with a median household income of roughly 35K. I think that speaks for the quality of the stuff as alluded to by a previous poster.

 

There are some good finds. The quality of stuff has definately gone done over the years. I guess they have to to keep the lower prices.

 

The cars in the parking lot would point to a slightly higher demographic.

 

I agree, five years ago I bought my aluminum dvd racks and they are wonderful. Quite amazing design but they no longer carry them. I have not bought anything since.

 

LOL!!

 

Disposable furniture....ROTFLMAO !!!!

The desk I am typing at right now, as well as the leather chair I am sitting in, and my leather client chairs, are all from IKEA. Their stuff looks great and is cheap.......in more ways than one. As long as you know what you are buying it's OK.

The desk is not even wood.....but made of the sweepings from some carpenter's shop floor and mixed with water and glue, then pressed together to resemble a piece of wood. They then lay a strip of wood colored paper laminate on top.......if I don't put something under one of my bills of sale when writing, the pen nib will mark the desk. But it's lasted almost 3 years now.......

 

Everytime we've gone to the IKEA in Frisco the parking lot is always full as are the places for picking up your merchandise. We are talking a very affluent area here - substantially more than a median income of 35K as in an earlier post! I can't wait for the IKEA to open in Round Rock (Austin area) - it's suppose to be designed much different than all the other stores. There are some exceptional buys that can be found and their price is definitely cheaper for the SAME items as some of the other ritzy Scandinavian stores in North Dallas where we've enriched there cofers too. There's always a line at the restaurant every time we've gone. The open face shrimp salad is very good. Perhaps if you don't like the store it's because of your furniture/decorating tastes. I MUCH prefer simplicity - that's why our new house is totally furnished in this type of decor in birch and my crystal is Finnish or Swedish that I've brought back on trips to Helsinki and Copenhagen.

Carol

 

As long as there will be lower to middle class people, IKEA will continue to make money.

I don't like a lot of things about IKEA furniture - certainly none of it seems comfortable and I can't believe how tiny they make their chairs, but it is CHEAP and as a [grad] student that is all you need to hear.

 

The quality of a persons car does not tell you their demographic.

 

Especially in the Dallas metroplex

 

When the lot is filled with higher end cars, it would suggest a greater income than $35k.

 

some of their stuff is not sooo bad. most of it is rather cheap though......

pop quiz: what does ikea mean in sweedish?????

answer: glue and sawdust!!!!!

 

When I furnished my first appt in college I bought all Ikea stuff. Two Dressers, Closet organizers, two couches and a tv stand. My appt was very modern / art deco and girls seemed to LOVE it. I always had compliments on my place and people would always be shocked to hear that I spend about 1500 on EVERYTHING. I still have the furniture in a rental of mine and it works out great. Another great place to get some nice things for your home is Target. I have gotten some amazing stuff there.....

 

We just bought a nice kitchen table from IKEA a few weeks ago for about $200. While it would not stack up to some of the $1000+ tables we saw elsewhere it is probably much nicer than the $400-600 tables we saw at most of the chain stores.

Plus, I did not mind saving $300 for about 30 minutes of my time that it took to screw the parts together.

 

Is it he drives the old cars and cheap lifestyle because he wants to, or feels "he has to"? Lives in Switzerland, doesn't he? Doesn't he live near Schmi?

 

Hey everyone, I work at the new IKEA store in MA and mange quality control there so I have a little insight to their products.

YES some of their products do not use the highest quality of materials, believe me if you saw what must of the tables are made out of in the inside your'd be in shock. (mostly cardboard and glue).

But one of the main reasons people go to IKEA and why its so successful (and in its mission statement) is that it wants to provide unbelievable low prices to reach the most people.

The first thing the furniture designers come up with when making a new piece, even before they start designing it, is the price of the product.

Our store just hit a new US record one day sales high this past TAX-FREE weekend making 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS SATURDAY ALONE! Sunday we made over a million in sales but I won't know till I come in today. We had over 300,000 people in our store Saturday before noon....so our stuff can't be that bad

 

Wow, 300,000 people entered the store in 2 hours? Where did they park?

 

You work there and you're knocking the product?

I would edit my post, you never know who might end up seeing it and how it might backfire.