Never visited one either, solely because of their set up. You can’t just pop in.

One aspect I like about Ikea is that they brought some level of standardization and continuity to furniture. I can get used Ikea stuff from several sellers and easily combine it. For a lot of stuff that’s decades old, I can still get new accessories, spare parts etc.

And there’s a big community around Ikea stuff to creatively repurpose and adjust their products (often referred to as Ikea Hacks), almost giving it a feeling of open source to me.

It’s still a huge capitalist company with all of the typical downsides, but I think with only lots of small, local players ressource consumption might be even worse overall without having the advantages above.

So overall, I tend to like Ikea while still trying to avoid unnecessary overconsumption.

IKEA is both a good and bad company.

They have done a fair amount for sustainability, they have mastered good, visual instructions (despite what people may say about IKEA assembly, they have some of the clearest instructions in the world), they try hard to move in a sustainable direction.

Of course, they are a megacorporation now, they are deforesting Romania through sheer demand (though I think they are re-seeding, but there are monoculture problems there). They ushered in an era of shit, composite industrial wood chip production such that now, for things like kitchens and bathrooms, even if you pay 200% more than IKEA for your kitchen or bathroom by a better quality supplier, it is still made of the same wood composite material, just with a better finish and tighter tolerances.

It is impossible to get new, actual wood cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, etc… in much of Europe anymore because of the trend they popularized. Of course, you can go to boutique carpenters if you have literally unlimited money to pay €50k-€80k for a kitchen in actual wood, but otherwise you have to have the tools and expertise to do it yourself.

All that being said, they have talented design and engineering teams that have simplified fasteners and flatpacking to be so economical and usable. Their wood vaneers are thicker than traditional vaneer and are quite decent quality compared to earlier finishes. They make very good systems, actually think through space-constrained design and make living in the middle class, especially on the low end, not feel as if you are living in poverty. Not to mention that their design standardizations and storage systems have been wildly successful in the open source 3D printing community.

Personally, I think they are a net negative on the industry, but a net positive on peoples’ lives which not that many corpos can say, and haven’t been found supporting fascist politics monetarily, so that is already a huge step up from most corporations. I give them tentative support.

I don’t mind their products or the self assembling stuff. But every time I go to the store it feels like I am being manipulated and forced to walk past products instead of just going directly to the thing I need.

I remember about ~10-15 years ago there were big issues with them acquiring massive amounts of central european forests. Trying to find recent stuff of that ilk and they seem significantly better (as far as I can get with english written articles and searches).

Like any massive retailer that is known for selling cheap things: check for local stores and second-hand first (if you can and feel comfortable doing so).

I’d be lying if i didn’t say the meatballs aren’t godly though.

Lots of stuff made out of plastic and made in China. Be sure to check the “made in” label if you’re wanting to buy European.

They are perfect for people in bad situations who just moved unexpectedly. I gave a ride there to so many newcomers in the city (and shopped there myself long time ago in similar situations). Also setting up a new office is great there. So it’s kind of almost social support thing.

In less metropolian areas, mutual help and used stuff rotation beats IKEA 10/10. We should strive to the world where community does this more, but big cities are no solarpunk yet.

One of the few good-ish companies.

Blahaj!

They are a gigantic company. They aren’t known to support evil causes besides capitalism. Ikea has quality furniture, but you have to pay for that. The cheap stuff is … okay, if you really need cheap furniture right now and don’t plan to move with it. They have some really great household goods. The vegan hot dogs and köttbullar (not the vegetable ones, the fake meat stuff) are amazing.

The furniture typically disappoints with its quality. The rest is mostly fine.

Blahaj is good. But I prefer to make my own furniture out of solid hardwood.

Kallax is great!