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I wouldn't buy a sofa from Ikea, except perhaps the Klippan. The rest aren't really good IMO. But neither are any of the other budget offerings from other store

I wouldn't buy a sofa from Ikea, except perhaps the Klippan. The rest aren't really good IMO. But neither are any of the other budget offerings from other stores. Unless you buy a super expensive designer sofa, you will get the flimsy feeling sofa. And if you look at the option, you can have 1 good quality sofa, or 5-10 cheap ones - it's not hard to see why people opt for the cheap model. And this story continues with all other offerings in my experience. Ikea is the king in the budget segment - they offer more quality for money, than any of their competitors. You need to significantly upgrade the material choice to get better quality, and since that is not produced at scale it's significantly more expensive.

data_hope 10y ago
I'd like to add, that with IKEA you know what you can expect in terms of quality, sturdiness and usability. You know it's not the best, but you also know that it'll survive a few years and maybe moving once. With other brands, your expectation has a broader variance. * the discount furniture competitor also uses cheap material, but you cannot be sure that you can even assemble the furniture (lousy packaging and screws are missing or you aren't able to grasp the manual, etc). * the quality brand thing might be amazing, or it might just be an expensive, good-looking piece of bad furniture. Anyone use USM Haller? I admit: I buy all my furniture at IKEA. And helping friends move their furniture from place to place, I have learned, that IKEA is the choice if you don't want to become a furniture expert. They are sturdier than their reputation, their design doesn't quickly fall out of fashion (like other furniture often does) and overall a rational choice. Also this seems to be reflected by the their resale value. I had lived a 1 h drive away from an IKEA last time I moved, and was able to sell off a lot of ikea furniture for prices I never dreamed reachable for used furniture. People knew what to expect, what the stuff cost new (because: catalog), didn't want to do the 1 hour drive and then felt like a high price was still reasonable.
- hvidgaard 10y ago
  The resale value has surprised me every single time I want to get rid of some Ikea furniture. It's always sellable, and it is for a decent price.

data_hope 10y ago

I'd like to add, that with IKEA you know what you can expect in terms of quality, sturdiness and usability. You know it's not the best, but you also know that it'll survive a few years and maybe moving once. With other brands, your expectation has a broader variance. * the discount furniture competitor also uses cheap material, but you cannot be sure that you can even assemble the furniture (lousy packaging and screws are missing or you aren't able to grasp the manual, etc). * the quality brand thing might be amazing, or it might just be an expensive, good-looking piece of bad furniture. Anyone use USM Haller? I admit: I buy all my furniture at IKEA. And helping friends move their furniture from place to place, I have learned, that IKEA is the choice if you don't want to become a furniture expert. They are sturdier than their reputation, their design doesn't quickly fall out of fashion (like other furniture often does) and overall a rational choice. Also this seems to be reflected by the their resale value. I had lived a 1 h drive away from an IKEA last time I moved, and was able to sell off a lot of ikea furniture for prices I never dreamed reachable for used furniture. People knew what to expect, what the stuff cost new (because: catalog), didn't want to do the 1 hour drive and then felt like a high price was still reasonable.

hvidgaard 10y ago
The resale value has surprised me every single time I want to get rid of some Ikea furniture. It's always sellable, and it is for a decent price.