I’m a Walmart boycotter. I do realize it’s a bit hypocritical since I still shop at Target. And Ikea. Walmart just seems soooo evil!
Salon has a great review of Ellen Ruppel Shell’s book “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture“. Shell depicts how we’ve totally become a disposable society. We don’t even expect craftsmanship any longer. Ikea is inexpensive because consumers take items off the shelves and assemble furniture themselves. It’s great design at affordable prices. But what about the skilled craftsperson? Has their value gone down?
Scarier still, Shell states that IKEA is the third-largest consumer of wood in the world and uses timber that comes mostly from Eastern Europe where wages are low and half of all logging is illegal.
I graduated from Ikea furniture years ago. I prefer vintage, so I have no worries about cost or the environment. But the next time I buy my 6 pack of wine glasses for 5 bucks, I might think about the little Indonesian children who made them.
4 Comments
I heard the interview of the author on NPR last week. It inspired me to purchase the book… Fantastic interview… Great perspective! Can’t wait to read it!
Ikea has it’s advantages, but also their negatives, and there is no way that stuff could be so cheap with out them exploiting somebody somewhere. I go there for the cheap entertaining stuff I can get-glasses, napkins etc. Making more people aware of this is a good idea. They are tearing down trees all over the place for furniture that has to go in the garbage in a few years anyway.
Ikea has lost it for me too. They dropped from affordable design stuff to the cheapest mass production. On top my brother who lives in Sweden tells me stories of very bad employee treatment.
Most furniture falls apart quickly, besides I don’t like the look of it anymore. Somehow I have tons of other Ikea stuff in my home; bed covers, towels, curtains, picture frames etc. that came to me because neighbours threw them out… All in great to brand new condition, some items had not even left their original packaging!
Definitely reading this book. And am rethinking my cheap wine glasses…
Interestingly, I too can’t bring myself to shop at Walmart. Walked in one for the first time last summer, just for a look-see at what all the fuss is about. It’s…wow. It’s something.