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.
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.
Well said! It’s a corpo but it’s giving us so much.