I was comparing IKEA and Apple fans - I get the impression that both companies like to massage your ego as an important part of the marketing process. In reality, most people are just putting a few pieces of wood together to make a piece of IKEA furniture, or doing much the same as anyone else if they buy an Apple project. Still, that little amount of effort to change OS or assemble furniture and the short term satisfaction of having something that seems more functional than what other people have can make you feel that you are on a different level as a consumer, especially when other people claim that they can’t understand the system.
In reality, there are many things that you shouldn’t buy at IKEA, but I think its success at marketing and design are very impressive. As for its durability, there are worse places and many people get bored of their furniture after a very short time anyway (how many 30+ year old sets of furniture do you see around?). If people are going to be getting rid of their furniture every 15 years anyway, I’d rather it wasn’t solid wood. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem (do people throw furniture away because it’s cheap or do they buy cheap because they don’t expect to keep it?), but our culture is not good at holding on to things for a long time.
