Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug
IKEA also represents disposable culture at its worst, so the brand's relative lack of success in the US is somewhat surprising. I have noticed that Americans tend to spend big on high quality (not necessarily high design) furniture and keep it for a long time. Houses tend to be bigger and moving costs lower.
|
Hence my reference to Ashley Furniture. It's somewhat bland, unadventurous stuff that is generally well built by modern standards, and it fills a lot of space in a big house.
IKEA is pointless if you live in a 2,000-3,000 square foot home as many Americans do... on the flipside, IKEA is perfect for 600 square foot apartments where you really need to maximize space with compact furniture. As far as I can tell, Americans outside of the dozen or so biggest east coast cities tend have a lot of space unless they're really, really hard up... for example, I recall visiting a neighbourhood in Rocky Mount, NC that looked very down at the heels, but was still filled with 1,500 sf and up 1950s and 60s ranch houses that would go for a million dollars in Toronto.