IKEA - the Swedish Solution
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
We all know the trouble of moving into a new house/apartment -- packing up all the things, furniture, kitchen machines and fish bowls and storing them in a big truck which then takes us to the new home where we set them all up, most of them broken, the rest of them in a different color than the new home's curtains.
But there's a solution for that, two even, if you decide to buy new curtains or blinds (58 Euros each) for the windows. In any case, there may still be a better one, . . .
. . . a Swedish solution.
IKEA is an amazingly effective way of decorating your home in a charming and original way and spending your savings. IKEA has almost everything you need for a new home, and even more which until then you didn't even know you needed.
Founded by Ingvar Kamrad from a farm called Elmtaryd in Agunnaryd, Sweden (hence the name I.K.E.A.) in 1950, the name had alreay been registered as such in 1943, when young Ingvar realized - by selling matches to neighbors, then fish, Christmas ornaments, ballpens and pencils - that buying cheap products and selling them for slightly more money can be an effective way of making a living. The now famous IKEA catalogue began in 1950, when for the first time he sold furniture.
The industry was erected. Five years later specially designed IKEA furniture was produced, and put to pieces, so that it can be stored and transported easily, and put together at home, with a two page instruction sheet.
Between 1973 and 1985 fourteen stores were built all over the world, the last of which in the USA. Stores in Britain, Hong Kong and Italy followed, and now there are 157 buildings in 29 countries.
So what's the clue behind all this? Why is the Swedish solution so effective? And what's so special that every time we go buy something there, ten check-out registers are busy helping up to twenty people per line getting rid of their money?
The Swedish solution is easy, and once and for all shall be revealed here:
Whenever you go to the store to buy whatever you want, and decide on a certain sum of money to be your limit to spend, you will exit the building having spent more. (You will have gotten the blinds pretty cheap though.) You enter the building, look at the map which serves as a guide for all to know where they need to go, and go off into the only possible direction there is. Straight, following the arrows on the ground. By following them you have to go through the whole store, looking at wholly decorated rooms and all kinds of fabulously cheap decorations, smiling at you. When you come to the part you were looking for, the little cart will already have all kinds of stuff piled up in it that you picked up along the way: a pillow, a blanket, a picture frame and something you just can't remember what it actually is for. It's difficult just to pass all of those items by without at least having a look at them. All of them have interesting names like CD-racks called BENNO, chairs called JULES or KRISTOFER, a bedside table named ODDVAR and a sort of "Jaffa" box which goes by the name of DÅNA. Maybe that's one of the reasons why you just grab them and pack them in, although you do not actually need them. Who can ignore a tiny 14-Euro mirror called KOLJA?
Taking the cart you head off for the cash register. Now, the cash register is a phenomenon by itself. It is often described as being a "system which may well be one of the slowest of the galaxy". Prepare to wait at least half an hour to get to the spot where you can read the cashier's name tag. Then it's still another couple of minutes until you can place the items on the counter.
A little eternity has passed before you are done with the shopping, and you will have spent at least three times the sum you planned with, which is still low because you can be sure at the same time someone else in the store will have paid about 1986.37 Euros for a new kitchen.
So beware: it's dangerous ever entering such a store, but the quality is really not bad and the build-it-yourself furniture is a clever idea. But usually one buys things he doesn't really want and need, so maybe you should at least consider buying the expensive roller blinds somewhere else. It's still less than spending money at IKEA.
In the year 2000, 230 million people came to visit IKEA worldwide. There are 10,000 different pieces of home decorations set up in each store. When you look at those figures it's easy to see that IKEA doesn't really lose much money by selling things a little cheaper. Anyone who ever was able to go in there - just buy the things he wanted - and leaves, has all my due respect and I won't believe a word of it.
But there's a solution for that, two even, if you decide to buy new curtains or blinds (58 Euros each) for the windows. In any case, there may still be a better one, . . .
. . . a Swedish solution.
IKEA is an amazingly effective way of decorating your home in a charming and original way and spending your savings. IKEA has almost everything you need for a new home, and even more which until then you didn't even know you needed.
Founded by Ingvar Kamrad from a farm called Elmtaryd in Agunnaryd, Sweden (hence the name I.K.E.A.) in 1950, the name had alreay been registered as such in 1943, when young Ingvar realized - by selling matches to neighbors, then fish, Christmas ornaments, ballpens and pencils - that buying cheap products and selling them for slightly more money can be an effective way of making a living. The now famous IKEA catalogue began in 1950, when for the first time he sold furniture.
The industry was erected. Five years later specially designed IKEA furniture was produced, and put to pieces, so that it can be stored and transported easily, and put together at home, with a two page instruction sheet.
Between 1973 and 1985 fourteen stores were built all over the world, the last of which in the USA. Stores in Britain, Hong Kong and Italy followed, and now there are 157 buildings in 29 countries.
So what's the clue behind all this? Why is the Swedish solution so effective? And what's so special that every time we go buy something there, ten check-out registers are busy helping up to twenty people per line getting rid of their money?
The Swedish solution is easy, and once and for all shall be revealed here:
Whenever you go to the store to buy whatever you want, and decide on a certain sum of money to be your limit to spend, you will exit the building having spent more. (You will have gotten the blinds pretty cheap though.) You enter the building, look at the map which serves as a guide for all to know where they need to go, and go off into the only possible direction there is. Straight, following the arrows on the ground. By following them you have to go through the whole store, looking at wholly decorated rooms and all kinds of fabulously cheap decorations, smiling at you. When you come to the part you were looking for, the little cart will already have all kinds of stuff piled up in it that you picked up along the way: a pillow, a blanket, a picture frame and something you just can't remember what it actually is for. It's difficult just to pass all of those items by without at least having a look at them. All of them have interesting names like CD-racks called BENNO, chairs called JULES or KRISTOFER, a bedside table named ODDVAR and a sort of "Jaffa" box which goes by the name of DÅNA. Maybe that's one of the reasons why you just grab them and pack them in, although you do not actually need them. Who can ignore a tiny 14-Euro mirror called KOLJA?
Taking the cart you head off for the cash register. Now, the cash register is a phenomenon by itself. It is often described as being a "system which may well be one of the slowest of the galaxy". Prepare to wait at least half an hour to get to the spot where you can read the cashier's name tag. Then it's still another couple of minutes until you can place the items on the counter.
A little eternity has passed before you are done with the shopping, and you will have spent at least three times the sum you planned with, which is still low because you can be sure at the same time someone else in the store will have paid about 1986.37 Euros for a new kitchen.
So beware: it's dangerous ever entering such a store, but the quality is really not bad and the build-it-yourself furniture is a clever idea. But usually one buys things he doesn't really want and need, so maybe you should at least consider buying the expensive roller blinds somewhere else. It's still less than spending money at IKEA.
In the year 2000, 230 million people came to visit IKEA worldwide. There are 10,000 different pieces of home decorations set up in each store. When you look at those figures it's easy to see that IKEA doesn't really lose much money by selling things a little cheaper. Anyone who ever was able to go in there - just buy the things he wanted - and leaves, has all my due respect and I won't believe a word of it.
