Because the stuff is cheap? (Inexpensive).

(BTW, does your wife agree with your characterization of Ikea furniture as being "ok?" If so, count yourself lucky!).

Because my wife likes to shop there. Everytime we go to the Bay Area for a Porsche event of whatever type, the deal is she gets to look around at Ikea. It's a fair trade for me. And all the money I save buying furniture there, I get to spend on Porsche stuff.

For the meatballs & lingon berries. I have bought a lot of crap from Ikea & never had any problems, in fact the PO of my home had the kitchen remodeled by Ikea & all the furniture in my office & nursery is Ikea. Did I mention I love Lingon berry preserves.:D

This blog could have been entitled "Why Do I Shop at Fry's Electronics?"

But the description of sales staff and returns desk would have included English as a Second Language rant.

LOL!

Singpilot, you're not alone. Miscellaeous Eastern European countries have apparently sent their dissidents to Fry's as punishment. They in turn, attempt to pass along their melancholy.

Beware the 'opened/returned' items! Beware!

Re: Wayne's World: Why do I shop at Ikea?
 

You meant to say, "It looks Ok if you don't use it."

And why you continue to shop there....Your Stupid?


Oh as to Dining Room Sets....I spent 17K wholesale on a set made by Kindel of Grand Rapids, Mich. 14 years ago. Today it would be more than 24K wholesale. Would I do it again? I love the set I bought, but would have checked all the high end read that as Beverly Hills Consignment shops and Estate Auctions till I got what I wanted.

I bought book case from Plummers funiture once. It looked pretty good in the store but when I got the kit that took me all day to put together I felt like a fool for building their funiture for them. What a racket.

Your better off buying quality used funiture than that stuff. Funiture made by Drexel, Thomasville etc. or even good antiques.
When we bought this house in 96 the economy was soft and we bought a bedroom set made by Drexel and payed it off in 2 years with no interest. It wasn't cheap but you can pull a drawer that's loaded with no problem. It will last a lifetime plus.
Then theres the resale factor, I saw the same set a couple years ago for about 25% more.
Bought a couple of good slip cover couches and their the way to go too.

I've never regreted those purchases. :)

Oh and just to show you cheap...Wally World has mini Blinds for $3.88.

On my last house I went to the extreme of what I could spend in upgrades for the neighborhood. I put in over 500 sq ft of marbe flooring, had the LR, DR, Family RM, Guest Bath, Master Bath all done in Decorative Finishes, 15K in Custom Drapes...in the backyard I spent 150K to landscape it, including an additional 750 sq ft garage in the backyard with a walk in vault. It took me from 1990 till 2003 just to break even on that house (remember housing was soft from 1992 through 1998)Then I moved to this trailer in LV.

I seriously wonder if it is worth it to upgrade a house very much. You can make virtually the same return on a house without putting huge sums into it.

The cost of building a house is virtually the same from one to the next, but what esculates the price besides the land is the frufru you put into it. In my last house I came to the conclusion that there are areas that you have to put the $'s into while others you can scale back on. Today I would keep my upgrades to certain things and use the things I own to make the place look like a million.

Out of personal taste I owuld spend the money on Kitchen Appliances...I would love to have the Viking Stove, Double Oven, Warming Drawer, Sub Zero Fridge cause you all know I like to cook.

Ha, it sounds a bit like our tax department, you phone up, you get passed from one person to the next, to the next. All seemingly a bunch of idiots, who make lots of mistakes on your payment/refund. Then you make one small mistake yourself and some prick sends you a "your day in court is"...

We have a furniture place a bit like yours called Freedom Furniture. I love it, it's like doing battle in the jungle and sometimes you are a winner, sometimes a looser.

Go shop at Eaten Allen. If you can afford a Ferrari, you can afford good furniture and the good service that goes with it. My wife made me understand that, and I thank her for it. I, too, shopped at Ikea when I was a poor immigrant. Now, all the Ikea stuff is going in garage sales or in the basement...

Aurel

had the same experience. obviously the same Renton (Kent, whatever) store. only thing similar to Wayne's plight was the damned waiting. heard that they mowed down the Ikea in Houston to build another bigger one. wonder if that will happen here

Spoken like a true "poor" college professor...;) Yessir...america's colleges are in a "funding crisis". Or could it be a "spending crisis"???? I thought professors could spell...guess I was wrong.
Furniture? I'm happy that our little home couldn't hold another stick of the stuff!

Wayne's story reminds me of shopping at Service Merchandise... great stuff, but a terrible system.

My wife is very excited that Ikea is opening a store next door to our health club in few months. Time for me to get a job - maybe I could work part time at Ikea and get an employee discount!

I gotta laugh here. We bought the LCD monitor I'm reading from Fry's. Made our selection. Then the salesman, in broken english, tried to sell us the store warranty. After perhaps 10 minutes of BS from him, I cut him off. I just asked that if LCD monitors were such pieces of crap to demand an extra $70 for a store warranty, so bad that they failed all the time, why would I want one? Then, I went to look at the tube models. Cindy later told me that a "manager", "escorted" the salesman away. ;)

Pwd72s,

I am getting tired of old farts talking about what they don`t know about. For your information, there are college professors who actually bring money to their universities, make patents that create business, create jobs for their students. And if you have a problem with my spelling, I can guarantee you that it is far better than that of most native, lazy americans. You certainly have a problem with a french man coming to this counrty, being succesful, being critical of your governement, and teaching your kids a little bit of science. Hey, if you can`t afford Eaten allen furniture, don`t make me responsible for it, okay ?

Aurel

Ethan Allen

LOL

Aurel

So...it's okay by you if your College board cuts professor salary and benefits "just a bit" in order to lower the tuition fees that working class parents must pay in order to give their children a "higher education"? After all, that seems to me to be a right thing to do, if I were a college professor, which I "ain't"! You see, I figure a WHOLE lot more of people in this country could afford "eaten allen" furniture...if only there weren't so many people sucking from the teat of government. Hard for a guy from France to understand, right? BTW, what I can or cannot afford is none of your biz...nor is it mine to know the same about you. Economically free societies are kind of funny that way. :)

Oohh, so you are for redistributing the income from the rich to the poor, PWd72s...I never knew you were a Pinko commie ;)
Again, for your information, when I build a research budget for hiring a student, I include the tuition fees, so the poor student not only gets paid, but also has his tuition paid. And the money may come from governement source, or from the private sector. And for your information, my salary is also coming from research contracts, with private companies that benefit from doing business with us, on research projects where they do not have enough exertise. This is how I can afford my Eathen Allen furniture. You see, that is how your education system also works in your economically free society ;) In reality, I am probably more capitalist than you are, by all standards :cool:

Aurel

the problem with ikea, is that it employs young folks in college and stuff. they could care less about decorating & stuff like that. i must have a hundred tiny pencils from the place. and i even have a special "monster" phillips screwdriver to handle the hardware. personally, my new kitchen will probably get cabinets from the place, so i can save money for high end stoves and fridges and whatnots. i have been offered money by wifes hoping to get some of the furniture into my pickup truck because they "didnt get the big picture". but i dont deliver. (sorry husbands) i swear a 5series beemer can hold alot of crap. i like wayne's world!