<story><title>IKEA&apos;s shopping malls arm plans U.S. entry in major play</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ikea-ingka-centres-exclusive/exclusive-ikeas-shopping-malls-arm-ingka-centres-plans-u-s-entry-in-major-play-idUSKBN22Q2MF</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pfranz</author><text>I feel like there&amp;#x27;s the Ikea (or Target&amp;#x2F;WalMart) furniture that&amp;#x27;s basically disposable, you can take it home in your small car, cheap, but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it. It&amp;#x27;s great in college or after when moving between multiple apartments. It&amp;#x27;s flat-pak, all the materials are thinner so the design follows that.&lt;p&gt;After settling down I wanted to invest more in furniture that wouldn&amp;#x27;t break or slide around. It definitely costs 3-5x more, looks better, but isn&amp;#x27;t great quality either. It&amp;#x27;s not flat-pak, cant be disassembled, wont fit in your car. I don&amp;#x27;t know if my calibration is off for what decent furniture should cost, or if everything started cheaping out years ago, but it seems like the worst of both worlds. The design is nice, but since it&amp;#x27;s wood veneer you can&amp;#x27;t really touch it up or repair it because the fiber board is showing through. I&amp;#x27;m not sure where to find decent furniture. I feel like I&amp;#x27;d have to pay through the nose for something bespoke.</text></item><item><author>cosmodisk</author><text>I do notice this with a lot of things in the US. It looks like it&amp;#x27;s either super expensive stuff that looks great anywhere and is usually targeting upper middle class&amp;#x2F;elite, or tacky, tasteless crap on the other side of the spectrum. There&amp;#x27;s almost nothing in between.</text></item><item><author>jermaustin1</author><text>I have noticed over the last 15 years or so, a lot of the anchor stores in suburban malls (Macy&amp;#x27;s, Dillard&amp;#x27;s, JCP, the now defunct Montgomery Ward&amp;#x27;s) attempting to become furniture stores on their upper levels, but their execution was awful. The furniture is typically stodgy looking, almost like what a grand parent would have in their home, but worse quality. Its like the furniture is an afterthought to the store, and I rarely see anyone actually purchasing anything.&lt;p&gt;Then when you go over to the UK, an visit a department store like a House of Fraser or John Lewis, their furniture has a much more contemporary look, and there are always people buying, talking to clerks about pieces, etc.</text></item><item><author>OzzyB</author><text>I think this might actually work out because IKEA will essentially become the new $ANCHOR_STORE.&lt;p&gt;In previous times these anchor stores were businesses that got blown out by the Internet so there was no more anchor, and no more reason to visit the mall.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Clothes Store - Go Online&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Book Store - Go Online&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Cinema Complex - Go Online&lt;p&gt;But furniture? People still wanna visit the showroom and check out the merchandise before dropping $thousands, and you might as well get a new pair of shoes and a sandwich too while you&amp;#x27;re there.&lt;p&gt;In short, don&amp;#x27;t change the Mall, change the Anchor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>seanmcdirmid</author><text>Swedes (where IKEA is from) are famous for saying their IKEA furniture is just what they use until their kids are old enough not to wreck the good furniture they have in storage.&lt;p&gt;The trick is finding better than IKEA quality furniture. You might wind up paying more for something that is still IKEA quality.</text></comment>
<story><title>IKEA&apos;s shopping malls arm plans U.S. entry in major play</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ikea-ingka-centres-exclusive/exclusive-ikeas-shopping-malls-arm-ingka-centres-plans-u-s-entry-in-major-play-idUSKBN22Q2MF</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pfranz</author><text>I feel like there&amp;#x27;s the Ikea (or Target&amp;#x2F;WalMart) furniture that&amp;#x27;s basically disposable, you can take it home in your small car, cheap, but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it. It&amp;#x27;s great in college or after when moving between multiple apartments. It&amp;#x27;s flat-pak, all the materials are thinner so the design follows that.&lt;p&gt;After settling down I wanted to invest more in furniture that wouldn&amp;#x27;t break or slide around. It definitely costs 3-5x more, looks better, but isn&amp;#x27;t great quality either. It&amp;#x27;s not flat-pak, cant be disassembled, wont fit in your car. I don&amp;#x27;t know if my calibration is off for what decent furniture should cost, or if everything started cheaping out years ago, but it seems like the worst of both worlds. The design is nice, but since it&amp;#x27;s wood veneer you can&amp;#x27;t really touch it up or repair it because the fiber board is showing through. I&amp;#x27;m not sure where to find decent furniture. I feel like I&amp;#x27;d have to pay through the nose for something bespoke.</text></item><item><author>cosmodisk</author><text>I do notice this with a lot of things in the US. It looks like it&amp;#x27;s either super expensive stuff that looks great anywhere and is usually targeting upper middle class&amp;#x2F;elite, or tacky, tasteless crap on the other side of the spectrum. There&amp;#x27;s almost nothing in between.</text></item><item><author>jermaustin1</author><text>I have noticed over the last 15 years or so, a lot of the anchor stores in suburban malls (Macy&amp;#x27;s, Dillard&amp;#x27;s, JCP, the now defunct Montgomery Ward&amp;#x27;s) attempting to become furniture stores on their upper levels, but their execution was awful. The furniture is typically stodgy looking, almost like what a grand parent would have in their home, but worse quality. Its like the furniture is an afterthought to the store, and I rarely see anyone actually purchasing anything.&lt;p&gt;Then when you go over to the UK, an visit a department store like a House of Fraser or John Lewis, their furniture has a much more contemporary look, and there are always people buying, talking to clerks about pieces, etc.</text></item><item><author>OzzyB</author><text>I think this might actually work out because IKEA will essentially become the new $ANCHOR_STORE.&lt;p&gt;In previous times these anchor stores were businesses that got blown out by the Internet so there was no more anchor, and no more reason to visit the mall.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Clothes Store - Go Online&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Book Store - Go Online&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Big Cinema Complex - Go Online&lt;p&gt;But furniture? People still wanna visit the showroom and check out the merchandise before dropping $thousands, and you might as well get a new pair of shoes and a sandwich too while you&amp;#x27;re there.&lt;p&gt;In short, don&amp;#x27;t change the Mall, change the Anchor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>opencl</author><text>It seems like the main way to find decent quality furniture at non-ridiculous prices is older stuff at thrift stores&amp;#x2F;flea markets&amp;#x2F;garage sales. Gets harder and harder to find every year though.&lt;p&gt;IKEA does carry a few items that are actually made of wood, though most of those are pine. Not great but a step up from particleboard.&lt;p&gt;Home Depot of all places sells some reasonably nice self-assembly hardwood furniture. Some of them are available pre-painted or stained but a lot of them you have to finish yourself.</text></comment>