If it beats or matches other purveyors of new furniture on quality, price or both, then great. I can understand anyone choosing Ikea for that reason.
But maybe there’s a problem with the quality of today’s furniture in general, not just from Ikea?
Even much mass-produced furniture from the 50s and 60s is still going strong – and in many cases it has at least some resale value. The 70s and 80s, not so much. And I’m only talking about mass-produced items, nothing handcrafted or from a “name” designer that anyone thought would become an antique.
And yes, a lot of that stuff will carry a similar price to a comparable new item. If you shop in a high-street retro or antique store. And even so that item will probably outlast the new one, even with several decades’ head start on aging.
If you’re a hacker and consider Ikea a toy store, good for you. But please understand you’re in a tiny minority. That’s one way of “doing it right” – in my case I followed the main intended way of doing it right and eventually found it badly lacking. For the most part, it’s just another example of the consumer culture that’s all around us, built on disposability, offshoring, planned obsolescence, etc. After all, if they built things to last, people wouldn’t need to buy as much new stuff, would they?
