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Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died

368 points by severine 9y ago

neopang 9y ago
One less nazi
5_minutes 9y ago
Nice trivia: he actually started with delivering self-made furniture on his bike in his local town.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  I'll bet that was the highest quality stuff Ikea ever produced. I was in a store for recycled stuff a week ago or so looking for a typewriter and some old comic books for my kids and it struck me that none of the furniture they was made by Ikea. That translates into there being a direct path to the landfill from Ikea.
  - Emouri 9y ago
    I've still got an Ikea table my in-laws bought in the early 70s, it'll last another 30 years no problem. Some of it wasn't so bad.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      Stuff from that era was really good. High quality woods and good finishing work. Then it went downhill with the low point somewhere around '97 or so and since then it has been slowly climbing back up. But there is a long way to go if they ever want to get back to their old quality level and their profit margins would likely suffer as a consequence.
      - kalleboo 9y ago
        > their profit margins would likely suffer as a consequence They would certainly have to raise prices if they raised the quality, and then they lose their customers to competitors who are cheaper (and even worse quality - have you ever tried the cheap furniture from a hardware store?) Furniture is a competitive market, and IKEA are very aggressive at undercutting their competition (they have directives to never let their competitors be cheaper) and they manage to sustain profits though their scale of operations (and some good engineering - IKEA have hollow tables filled with cardboard that's more durable than some competitors solid MDF stuff). Basically people aren't willing to pay for quality. IKEAs trick is to be both cheap and have an acceptable level of design and quality.
      - edraferi 9y ago
        IKEA has several price/quality options. I’ve shopped there for a long time and slowly moved up the product line. Their breadth makes it hard to compete with. On the low end, pretty much anything cheaper than IKEAs entry level is total garbage. I’m looking at you Target! That stuff is little better than a cardboard box. On the high end, price rapidly outpaces quality. Every time I think “maybe I’ll get real furniture this time” the prices jump 10x. That’s just not worth it to me.
        Ma8ee 9y ago
        I agree. The jump to “real” furniture is ridiculous. Suddenly the dinner table cost $3000. And if you try to find something in between there are the stores whose main selling point seem to be that they aren’t IKEA. Their prices are double and the quality is worse than IKEA.
        woolvalley 9y ago
        Really? You can get some pretty decent solid wood stuff from places like CB2 in the $500-$1500 range for example: https://www.cb2.com/dining-tables/furniture/1 https://www.cb2.com/dining-tables/furniture/1 You can also order directly from places like etsy for other custom solid wood furniture around that price range: https://www.etsy.com/listing/268844007/mid-century-dining-table-modern-dining?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=dining%20table&ref=sr_gallery-1-11 https://www.etsy.com/listing/268844007/mid-century-dining-ta...
        Ma8ee 9y ago
        I’ve no direct experience with CB2, but my experience with furniture in that price range is that the quality usually is worse than IKEA. They might use mor expensive materials, but QA is usually bad.
        woolvalley 9y ago
        So far the quality has been better than ikea for me. CB2 is crate and barrel's 'urban' division.
  - sitkack 9y ago
    Ikea has optimized the price and durability of an item to maximize utility for both the end user and the corp. People like getting new stuff for cheap and dont value resale or reuse. Ikea is an excellent machine for turning Borneo rain forest into landfill at the lowest price.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      > Borneo rain forest Most of IKEAs wood comes from Europe/Russia. They also probably do a lot more work tracing the source of their wood and making it sustainable than your average furniture maker, simply due to their visibility. You might be better off with something hand-crafted by an artisan from local wood, but who can afford that? Most people get their furniture from other big box stores, with unknown provenance
    - dbrgn 9y ago
      Ikea actually plans to become "forest positive": https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ikea-sustainability-forest-positive-karelia https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ikea-sustai... The article is from 2012, not sure how far they progressed (true sustainability is difficult). I doubt they use any tropical wood though. Most of their wood supplies are already FSC certified.
      - matthewmacleod 9y ago
        Also worth pointing out that in the UK, the company now sends nothing to landfill itself (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38636272/ikea-sustainability-report-reveals-the-firm-sent-zero-waste-to-landfill-in-2016 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38636272/ikea-sustaina...). And in France, they will accept old Ikea furniture and resell it at low cost (https://www.climatesolutionsplatform.org/solution/giving-furniture-a-second-life-with-ikea/ https://www.climatesolutionsplatform.org/solution/giving-fur...) There are a few things to attack the company on; I’m not sure sustainability is one of their weak points.
        nicoburns 9y ago
  - tjoff 9y ago
    You obviously have never bought anything second hand. Ikea items are extremely popular and easy to sell used.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      I visit the local garbage drop off a couple of times per year and the amount of Ikea stuff that gets dumped there is depressing. If you actually read the comment above you'd see that I do buy stuff second hand.
      - tjoff 9y ago
        Maybe that speaks more about the culture where you live rather than ikea? Your comment reads as if it was a new experience and that you've never tried ikea yourself.
        fermienrico 9y ago
        No. Is it hard to see that IKEA furniture is not made to last? Doesn’t matter how many hands it changes - overall longevity is what determines its life.
        tjoff 9y ago
        Ikea design is generally excellent and the quality per dollar is in a league of its own. That said, a $10 piece of furniture is not going to have $100 worth of materials... But ikea makes more expensive pieces as well. I don't think I've thrown away anything from ikea because it was end of life. (Part from <$1 kitchen peripherals).
        fermienrico 9y ago
        The topic at hand is recyclability. You may have not throw things away but it is widely accepted and frankly utterly obvious - IKEA furniture has a short lifespan and it ends up being thrown away more according to the GP of this thread. You’re circling around the argument.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    I've sold a bunch of IKEA furniture second-hand the couple times I've moved and it all got offers within minutes of putting up the ad. Although I'm sure the low prices encourage people to just throw it away rather than bother trying to sell it.
    - saddestcatever 9y ago
      Same here. Recently sold 3 MALM dressers on Craigslist when I moved out of my last apartment. Recovered a little over half their value. My current desk (MALM) was bought on Craiglist 4 years ago. Didn't have a car to get to IKEA. It's survived 4 years of use, and 3 moves.
  - 5_minutes 9y ago
    My take on this is that they make some real crappy stuff, like in: if you ever take it apart, you might as well throw it away. And then they also have some decent, quality stuff, like some of their couches. The problem is that as a consumer, it’s sometimes a bit unclear which category you’re buying into. Price is not a good indicator when it comes to ikea stuff: they have cheap stuff that’s great and expensive stuff that’s dispensible.
    - geezerjay 9y ago
      > you ever take it apart, you might as well throw it away. I'm sure virtually no other piece of hone furniture was ever designed to be taken apart. Iikea's stuff is designed to be easily shipped and put together by unskilled people, but not to be taken apart. I'm sure that you won't rate your cellphone or laptop by how well it handles being disassembled.
      - ryukafalz 9y ago
        >I'm sure that you won't rate your cellphone or laptop by how well it handles being disassembled. I do, personally - that's a pretty good proxy for how repairable/upgradeable it is. (But yes, it's much less often that I need to repair or upgrade my furniture. :P)
      - ahartmetz 9y ago
        I have seen several over 100 years old wardrobes that can be disassembled and reassembled in minutes without damage because they are held together by metal fittings that hook into each other. Like the better Ikea stuff, but much sturdier, especially the actual metal fittings. The wardrobe I remember best had three doors - it would barely fit through any door if it couldn't be disassembled for transport. It had a socket part, separate wall parts with aforementioned fittings, and a top part that could be slotted onto the walls (and doors with their simple stick and hole type hinges) after assembling them. Assembly and disassembly was as simple as it sounds, if not simpler.
  - ahartmetz 9y ago
    Ikea has more and less cheap furniture. The longer life stuff is generally made of solid wood or plywood and its quality is just fine. Ikea never just throws a product together, which also applies to the cheap ones.
  - loceng 9y ago
    Eventually once we build the post-usefulness processing costs into products, we'll process/recycle everything fully as it should be instead of going to landfill; it's one of those Genuine Progress Index vs. GPD measurement things.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      I think landfilling is pretty rare in developed countries. Mostly only the US has enough cheap free space to do it. Most countries incinerate their garbage. Countries that used to mostly landfill like the UK are now moving more and more to incineration.
      - loceng 9y ago
        Incinerating likely isn't the best solution, however I've never looked into or studied the science behind it all..
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        Incinerating stuff made of particle board or MDF puts a lot of bad chemicals into the environment including dioxins.
  - jchw 9y ago
    Actually the real reason people throw it away is because it's inexpensive. Is it worth selling my $20 Ikea table? In the grand scheme, probably not. It's not worth as much because it's not as expensive to begin with. Some of it is certainly crap but a lot of the tables and shelves and whatnot are quite nice, but it doesn't mean you're going to get a lot of money for it second hand.
    - geezerjay 9y ago
      I agree. Ikea furniture is so cheap and readily available that reusing it after a renovation isn't exactly worth the trouble. I have an ikea table that is as new but I'm planning to either give it away or throw it in the trash because it's taking up space and cost abour 30€. Am I going to bother putting it on craigslist to recover 10 or 20€? It's not worth it.
      - Scoundreller 9y ago
        Sounds like the problem is the difficulty of posting on Craigslist and dealing with buyers, and not the item itself. It's an improvement though, when the threshold was putting a post in the newspaper, you probably wouldn't deal with it unless it was a 100 EUR return.
      - vidarh 9y ago
        Put stuff in the front yard, and order a takeaway. I'm only slightly facetious - last few times I've planned to throw something away and had put it outside, a delivery person from somewhere or other asked if they could take it. Chances are there are plenty of people in lower income jobs that'd love taking it off your hands.
    - mullen 9y ago
      What I notice with Ikea stuff is that you are more likely just to give it away. I was at a party a few years ago and the host said they were sick of a cheap Ikea table. I consulted the wife and we ended up taking it with us. I notice that people will give away the cheap stuff rather than trying to sell it. Still have the table BTW.
  - philjohn 9y ago
    You say that, but in two previous homes I've purchased, assembled and fitted IKEA kitchens - they were far better quality than other options in the same price range, and even held a candle to ones costing 2x as much. Solid oak for the doors and drawer fronts, good quality hinges and handles - the cabinets themselves were just laminated chipboard, but unless you're spending £££ that's the same for most kitchen suppliers. Recently had a look at property listings, and both homes have been on the market recently, and both still have the kitchen I fitted 10 and 15 years ago, both still looking excellent. As with most brands, they sell cheap throwaway things as well as more expensive, but that means that people who need furniture but would otherwise not be able to afford anything (unless they got everything 2nd hand) can furnish a home.
    - woolvalley 9y ago
      A good chunk of that wooden kitchen stuff that ikea sells is actually a thin layer of wood with an MDF core inside. For example: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70335212/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70335212/
      - acdha 9y ago
        They sell both but are good about clearly labeling things so you can know what you’re buying. This contrasts with some other manufacturers who bury it more.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      > Solid oak for the doors and drawer fronts Easily fooled? No way that is solid oak. And for once that's a good thing, solid oak would warp, so you'd have to cross laminate it to counteract this. It's about 95% MDF with some veneer to make it look like wood. Yes it's heavy, but MDF is about as heavy as solid wood would be. The only way to get the kind of fit that makes it possible to assemble an IKEA product is to use what is called 'engineered' materials, a completely natural product would not work at that scale, there is just way too much variance. So even when IKEA does sell stuff that is made of wood throughout it will still be an engineered product. But the doors and drawer fronts of kitchen cabinets are not going to be cost effective that way so instead you get this MDF+surface coating solution, which for that application is ok. The easiest place to verify this is where the hinges embed in the doors and the boreholes for the drawer to frame connection, there you can easily see that it is not solid wood.
  - evan_ 9y ago
    You didn’t see anything from ikea because the ikea stuff got bought as soon as they put it on the floor.
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erikrothoff 9y ago
I read the news in an IKEA sofa wrapped in an IKEA blanket resting my head on an IKEA cushion watching TV on an IKEA bench. He truly built a startup that changed the world.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  "Those were not just sticks of furniture, that was me!"
  - jwdunne 9y ago
    This made me chuckle. I had the pan of the condo in mind whilst reading it too.
- mherrmann 9y ago
  Same here. Such a shame about his (apparently) dark past.
  - mseebach 9y ago
    It’s a reminder to assess people on their actions, especially the outcomes (rather than intentions) of their actions, and not speculation on what might be in their heads.
  - osrec 9y ago
    If you're referring to his fascist involvement, he later described it as one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
    - dingaling 9y ago
      Another "mistake" was outsourcing production to East German prisoners during the 1970 and 80s.
      - kalleboo 9y ago
        So he was both a Nazi and a Communist.
mozumder 9y ago
Did he leave instructions on assembling his funeral? <3 <3 Ikea is life
- jacquesm 9y ago
  > <3 <3 Ikea is life Fortunately it really isn't. It is ok, mostly single use stuff that seems to be cheap but that is actually quite expensive if you take into account the material costs and the production quality. Even so, their sticker price and economies of scale put almost everybody competing with them out of business.
  - paganel 9y ago
    It’s ok looking furniture at decent prices if you’re just a little bit careful when picking stuff from them. They’re the perfect company for very mobile clients, such as myself, as I’ve been moving houses at an average at one every 2-3 years for the past 15 years, it would have been even more economically bad for me had I invested in furniture meant to last 30 to 50 years (compared to Ikea’s 5-to-10 years) but for which I would have had to pay at least 2 or 3 times more.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      Before disposable stuff, people bought used furniture and then re-sold it when they moved. It was less convenient, but certainly not 2-3 times more expensive, since good furniture holds its value.
      - paganel 9y ago
        Most of the times when you rent you don't have the actual time to sell the furniture that you bought, because the "finding a new place and moving right in"-period is pretty short. Plus, you kind of need your bed, your chairs and your table until the day when you're actually moving out, so if you were the one who had actually bought them and there's not enough space for them in the new place then your only solution is to leave them behind.
marban 9y ago
And thanks for the Köttbullar. "It's difficult to do business with someone on an empty stomach."
- vq 9y ago
  IKEA is actually a köttbullar and lingonsylts (lingonberry jam) distribution system so that us Smålänningar can get our fix almost anywhere in the world.
  - rsynnott 9y ago
    Last time I was in the one in Dublin, the TVs in the cafe area were literally showing a propaganda film about lingonberries.
  - marban 9y ago
    Glad you didn't call Ikea a platform ;)
  - jschwartzi 9y ago
    It's also one of the few places I can get herring too. The Poulsbo stuff that I like is seasonal so I have to go to Ikea for canned fish in the summer. That I can buy furniture and kitchen tools is a nice bonus.
    - vidarh 9y ago
      And while their selection is limited, it's one of the few places outside the Nordic countries and the Netherlands where you can reliably get salty licorice candy.
diameter 9y ago
Fuck hacker news!
dbuder 9y ago
Ikea should lose their tax exemption.
toomanybeersies 9y ago
Moving from a country with no Ikea to a country with Ikea has been a paradigm shift for me, and I'm not sure it's entirely a good one. It used to be that if I wanted furniture, I'd go to the second hand store, and look for some used furniture that fitted my purpose. If I couldn't find something that worked, then I'd look online, and then failing that, I'd buy it new. I found some real gems at the second hand store. A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later (I gave it to a friend). Now I don't even bother, I just go straight to Ikea. It's so cheap that there's no point in looking at second hand.
- alva 9y ago
  Perhaps because of the presence of an IKEA in your new area, it would be an even better place to seek out second hand furniture. Perhaps more choice and cheaper as people flock to IKEA?
- coldtea 9y ago
  >A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later So? Furniture of any quality can be found at second hand stores. From one of a kind expensive pieces to el cheapo ready to break stuff and everything in between. That said, there's nothing much that can hurt a properly done desk. I have IKEA desks I use for 10 and 15 years now, and other than a few dents I've caused them, are perfectly fine.
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    I don't mean to insinuate that Ikea has bad quality stuff, quite the opposite. Instead of getting second hand stuff, it's easier for me to just get new stuff from Ikea. But what's happening to all the second hand stuff that I would've bought? Does it all just go into the landfill? Because that's a waste.
    - fwn 9y ago
      But wouldn't this cheaper Ikea furniture just translate to even cheaper second hand Ikea furniture? I can't imagine a way to keep furniture prices high enough to pressure people into engaging in the second hand market. The last time I wanted to get rid of something very cheap I posted it online for people to pick it up for free. A few days later it was gone.
reimertz 9y ago
I worked at Ikea for some time and it's quite amazing the possibilities you had as an employee pursuing a career within the company. Rather than them basing your performance on past studies and grades, you definitely had the possibility to pursue any role within the company as long as you had the "right" mentality and really wanted it. Just like any early-stage startup I've work with. I was a lazy university student who just saw it as a part-time job though, just improving my economical situation for a bit but the few ideas I had was easily escalated and heard. Kind of miss that place sometimes. When it comes to Kamprads legacy, I do hope they open a fund with his pile of cash because for me, his legacy is stained by all the sketchy tax evasion schemes they've set up. Rest in peace Ingvar.
- loceng 9y ago
  Do you know of any good books that talk about the culture like this at Ikea? I'd love to read it.
  - reimertz 9y ago
    Great question. I think their own documentation of it is spot on and gives a honest picture of their core values. You can read it for yourself here: http://ikea.in/culture-value http://ikea.in/culture-value I guess it’s worth saying that I don’t work for Ikea anymore so my words are my own and not affiliated with Ikea in any way.
    - loceng 9y ago
      Cool, thanks for the link. Also, only someone with poor reading comprehension - whether through rushing or lack of focus - would have thought you still worked for Ikea, I appreciate you saying it for those people though. :)
  - dietr1ch 9y ago
    Book? Oh no, they might give you some paper and a pen.
- expertentipp 9y ago
mongol 9y ago
This news also tops the consumer version of the IKEA swedish subsite. Kamprad was the most well known entrepneur in Sweden. He projected an image of himself as an every day man, even somewhat behind ("smådum") which he obviously was not. He considered the entire supply chain, including buying forests as supply for wood. With him gone, only future will tell if IKEA will be able to keep up its success.
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stefantalpalaru 9y ago
"Romania's brutal communist-era secret police received covert six-figure payments from Ikea as part of the Swedish group's deals with a local furniture manufacturer in the 1980s, according to documents obtained by the Guardian." - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/ikea-funds-romania-secret-police-communist-era https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/ikea-funds-rom...
afriend4lyfe 9y ago
"In the later years of his life, Mr Kamprad had faced questions over his past links to the Nazis." It's crazy how he ran Ikea for over 70 years but a quarter of the article deals with his ties to Nazis. Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life, so I suppose the attention to it may not be unwarranted. But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. "Youthful stupidity" doesn't convey much. Still, I can't help but feel like the information age is ushering in a modern-day version of the Akashic records. A double-edged sword anyone with an internet connection can consult. We laud past failures as learning experiences when it comes to startups, almost as if it's a badge of honor. But it's a very different story when someone violates a social contract, even in retrospect. (Albeit there are plenty of cases where people are embraced because of the drastic changes they made in their life, e.g. gang members that become speakers for at-risk youth.) I think there's both a wisdom, and ignorance, of crowds/culture. And these crowds are constantly redrawing the line of who deserves redemption. Lately, the line seems to be inching in the wrong direction in my opinion. With the advent of the internet it's scary to think about how efficiently the arbiters of information control the narrative. "We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us." -Madame Swetchine.
- 5_minutes 9y ago
  Objectively, what IBM did, in helping the nazis, and was collaborating with them, for many years into the war - even when the US was getting involved —, was much worse then what this guy was doing. There’s also Porsche, Volkswagen (basically, Hitler’s own brand) and any other brands that were involved, and basically the catholic church was preaching in many EU countries for their sons to join the German army...
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  - defo_nonconvex 9y ago
    BASF, Thyssen (without the Krupp at that time...) plenty of blame to go around...
WisNorCan 9y ago
Europe has less of a philanthropic tradition than the United States. For example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes. Jeff Bezos is now making plans for his philanthropy. This happens in Europe too, but is less common. I was looking to see if there were any specific plans for Mr. Kamprad’s wealth, but unfortunately did not see anything.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Europe doesn't believe as much in handouts from the rich, or in depending on arbitrary goodwill. We believe more in structuring society, government, welfare, healthcare, funding, etc, such that they're not needed.
  - kzrdude 9y ago
    The sprit of the time in the US seems to be poisoned by the fantasies of get rich schemes still (including founder dreams of making a company to "get rich" instead of making a company to make a living).
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  - jopsen 9y ago
    Yeah, American has trickle down economics :)
  - nathanasmith 9y ago
    You condescending assholes waste no opportunity to toot your horn. Your statement is as vacuous as it is wrong. First of all, there are quite a few European nations with double digit percentages of the population living under what is considered the poverty line in the US. Secondly, your rich don't give because they are more interested preserving a family name and giving the money to their descendants.
- antirez 9y ago
  It's less common to accumulate very big fortunes because in general there is much more redistribution of wealth and much higher taxes (so also as you accumulate you share a big amount with society). See for instance tipping in the US vs no tips but places paying a more fair amount of money to waiters in Europe. A different model.
kchoudhu 9y ago
No one? Ok. Rest in pieces.
drawkbox 9y ago
What a great entrepreneur and product guy. Kamprad should be very proud of what he built. Not many business owners today start from the aspect of frugality like he did. IKEA is a place that targets everyone but is priced at middle class or lower levels unlike most products today. That goes back to his roots. Mr Kamprad was renowned for his devotion to frugality, reportedly driving an old Volvo and travelling by economy class. In a 2016 interview with Swedish television channel TV4, Mr Kamprad said that it was "in the nature of Småland to be thrifty". "If you look at me now, I don't think I'm wearing anything that wasn't bought at a flea market," he said. Far away from Sweden, on a Saturday night me and my wife were in line buying some sheets at IKEA for beds we just setup from IKEA, and it was bustling with massive lines. His products have massive reach. IKEA is quite good at everything they do and are extremely efficient, except checkout on a Saturday but we grabbed some meatballs while waiting in line. Fun fact: IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd which is derived from founder's initials and hometown. [1] The driving idea behind IKEA was, and is, that anyone should be able to afford stylish, modernist furniture. Kamprad felt he was not just cutting costs and making money, but serving the people as well. [1] [1] https://sweden.se/business/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea/ https://sweden.se/business/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea/
- alkonaut 9y ago
  I believe that (name+place) was effectively the address of the business at the time it started.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  Some of the "frugality" stuff is just image - he also had a Porsche, lived in a very nice property in Switzerland for 40 years, and also owned a French vineyard (although he forced IKEA to sell the wine from the latter so he may have actually made money off of that one...)
  - jokola 9y ago
    Give people cheap stuff, pretend to be one of them and they won't question anything you do. Seem like he invented the modern tech company decades early.
darkerside 9y ago
> Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life And if he didn't talk about it in that way, we'd probably have forgotten about it long ago. Ironic.
aridiculous 9y ago
I once was talking to a firefighter who was saying that these days house/apartment fires burn hotter and much more rapidly. Why? Because of cheap furniture (materials and construction). He didn’t have kind things to say about IKEA.
- mullen 9y ago
  Considering that the number of house fires are down between 30% - 50% in the developed world, I say we call it break even.
slac 9y ago
Mixed feelings here. Incredible entrepreneur that built an empire on solid product values. Masterfully executed through laser focus on logistics. Brought design and furniture to the masses. Shadowed by his Nazi roots which I never felt he apologized forcefully enough... And the fact the incredibly shadowy ikea tax structure makes it hard for anyone to compete against. Profiles itself as a Swedish company and uses the country for marketing purposes but has done everything it could to avoid taxes here. Also, the mountain of cash hidden in all the Dutch and Luxembourg trust funds coming from this tax structure is not being used to contribute back to society in a meaningful way like Gates and Buffett.
- zkomp 9y ago
  Tax evasion... did that not happen only after the swedish arrogant Socialists wanted to impose one extra tax that would only hit IKEA? I really think my country has been crazy a long time with the highest taxation in the world... Honestly, we need more companies leaving...
  - robert_foss 9y ago
    Sorry, which tax was proposed that specifically targetted only IKEA?
    - jchb 9y ago
      It was not a specific tax that targeted IKEA. But there was a set of taxes and regulations that one could say targeted all major "owners of capital". Until 1989, the corporate tax was 52%. Yes there were various deductions, but still, 52%. Then a wealth tax of 2.5% on assets (all asset classes) over 1.6 million kronor - about $1.5 million in todays monetary value. This wealth tax could also be collected from a corporation when its liquid holdings exceeded double than that that of its debt. Add to that, a intense political debate about introducing the so called Employee Funds - a mechanism in where a large part of the collected corporate tax would be dedicated to buying shares in the taxed corporation, shares that would then be distributed among the employees with a goal of collective ownership. Perhaps indicative of the business climate in 1970s Sweden, Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Longstocking, famously wrote a short satirical story about her over 100% margin tax rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania.
chewyland 9y ago
I've been to 27 IKEAs in 27 different countries and have eaten 27 different hot dogs. I swear. I have seriously done this....
ajaimk 9y ago
Humor: I really want to see his coffin. It better arrive flat packed with self-assembly requirements.
unicornporn 9y ago
Ingvar was a fascist sympathizer with corporatist ideas. He stayed true to his nazi sympathies long after the atrocities of Nazi Germany became known to the world. He was once a very active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling[1][3]. As late as 2010 he hailed the Swedish fascist leader Per Engdahl[1][2]. He may have been an excellent business man (and tax evader), but please remembers these facts too. [1] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nya-avslojanden-om-kamprads-nazi-forflutna https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nya-avslojanden-om-kampra... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Engdahl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Engdahl [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Workers%27_Party_(Sweden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Workers%27_...
- reader5000 9y ago
  The man was a hero.
  - contravariant 9y ago
    You're going to have to clarify that one a bit. Currently it looks like you're calling him a hero for being fascist.
- orsenthil 9y ago
  Some context also helps. ``` The tycoon revealed some elements of his past in a book in 1988, admitting that he was a close friend of the Swedish fascist activist Per Engdahl, and a member of his New Swedish Movement between 1942 and 1945. He said that his involvement was youthful "stupidity" and the "greatest mistake" of his life. ```
  - alphonsegaston 9y ago
    The parent already pointed out that in a 2010 interview he expressed his unchanged admiration for Endghal. And he was also later show to have remained friends with him well into the 50s, exchanging correspondence and kind regards, a further misrepresentation of the length and character of their friendship. The 1988 “apology” was obviously just PR.
padrian2s 9y ago
I wonder what's with the id? ID 498407 http://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/gallery/image/ingvar-kamprad/a/80af310b-39bc-406c-85b6-9a0eedc9a4a5 http://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/gallery/image/ingvar-kamprad/...
azureio 9y ago
The thing I really really like about IKEA is the fact that you could look at and try out furniture for hours without any staff ever coming over to ask you if you needed anything.

368 points by severine 9y ago

neopang 9y ago

One less nazi

5_minutes 9y ago

Nice trivia: he actually started with delivering self-made furniture on his bike in his local town.

jacquesm 9y ago
I'll bet that was the highest quality stuff Ikea ever produced. I was in a store for recycled stuff a week ago or so looking for a typewriter and some old comic books for my kids and it struck me that none of the furniture they was made by Ikea. That translates into there being a direct path to the landfill from Ikea.
- Emouri 9y ago
  I've still got an Ikea table my in-laws bought in the early 70s, it'll last another 30 years no problem. Some of it wasn't so bad.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Stuff from that era was really good. High quality woods and good finishing work. Then it went downhill with the low point somewhere around '97 or so and since then it has been slowly climbing back up. But there is a long way to go if they ever want to get back to their old quality level and their profit margins would likely suffer as a consequence.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      > their profit margins would likely suffer as a consequence They would certainly have to raise prices if they raised the quality, and then they lose their customers to competitors who are cheaper (and even worse quality - have you ever tried the cheap furniture from a hardware store?) Furniture is a competitive market, and IKEA are very aggressive at undercutting their competition (they have directives to never let their competitors be cheaper) and they manage to sustain profits though their scale of operations (and some good engineering - IKEA have hollow tables filled with cardboard that's more durable than some competitors solid MDF stuff). Basically people aren't willing to pay for quality. IKEAs trick is to be both cheap and have an acceptable level of design and quality.
    - edraferi 9y ago
      IKEA has several price/quality options. I’ve shopped there for a long time and slowly moved up the product line. Their breadth makes it hard to compete with. On the low end, pretty much anything cheaper than IKEAs entry level is total garbage. I’m looking at you Target! That stuff is little better than a cardboard box. On the high end, price rapidly outpaces quality. Every time I think “maybe I’ll get real furniture this time” the prices jump 10x. That’s just not worth it to me.
      - Ma8ee 9y ago
        I agree. The jump to “real” furniture is ridiculous. Suddenly the dinner table cost $3000. And if you try to find something in between there are the stores whose main selling point seem to be that they aren’t IKEA. Their prices are double and the quality is worse than IKEA.
        woolvalley 9y ago
        Really? You can get some pretty decent solid wood stuff from places like CB2 in the $500-$1500 range for example: https://www.cb2.com/dining-tables/furniture/1 https://www.cb2.com/dining-tables/furniture/1 You can also order directly from places like etsy for other custom solid wood furniture around that price range: https://www.etsy.com/listing/268844007/mid-century-dining-table-modern-dining?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=dining%20table&ref=sr_gallery-1-11 https://www.etsy.com/listing/268844007/mid-century-dining-ta...
        Ma8ee 9y ago
        I’ve no direct experience with CB2, but my experience with furniture in that price range is that the quality usually is worse than IKEA. They might use mor expensive materials, but QA is usually bad.
        woolvalley 9y ago
        So far the quality has been better than ikea for me. CB2 is crate and barrel's 'urban' division.
- sitkack 9y ago
  Ikea has optimized the price and durability of an item to maximize utility for both the end user and the corp. People like getting new stuff for cheap and dont value resale or reuse. Ikea is an excellent machine for turning Borneo rain forest into landfill at the lowest price.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    > Borneo rain forest Most of IKEAs wood comes from Europe/Russia. They also probably do a lot more work tracing the source of their wood and making it sustainable than your average furniture maker, simply due to their visibility. You might be better off with something hand-crafted by an artisan from local wood, but who can afford that? Most people get their furniture from other big box stores, with unknown provenance
  - dbrgn 9y ago
    Ikea actually plans to become "forest positive": https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ikea-sustainability-forest-positive-karelia https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ikea-sustai... The article is from 2012, not sure how far they progressed (true sustainability is difficult). I doubt they use any tropical wood though. Most of their wood supplies are already FSC certified.
    - matthewmacleod 9y ago
      Also worth pointing out that in the UK, the company now sends nothing to landfill itself (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38636272/ikea-sustainability-report-reveals-the-firm-sent-zero-waste-to-landfill-in-2016 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38636272/ikea-sustaina...). And in France, they will accept old Ikea furniture and resell it at low cost (https://www.climatesolutionsplatform.org/solution/giving-furniture-a-second-life-with-ikea/ https://www.climatesolutionsplatform.org/solution/giving-fur...) There are a few things to attack the company on; I’m not sure sustainability is one of their weak points.
      - nicoburns 9y ago
- tjoff 9y ago
  You obviously have never bought anything second hand. Ikea items are extremely popular and easy to sell used.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    I visit the local garbage drop off a couple of times per year and the amount of Ikea stuff that gets dumped there is depressing. If you actually read the comment above you'd see that I do buy stuff second hand.
    - tjoff 9y ago
      Maybe that speaks more about the culture where you live rather than ikea? Your comment reads as if it was a new experience and that you've never tried ikea yourself.
      - fermienrico 9y ago
        No. Is it hard to see that IKEA furniture is not made to last? Doesn’t matter how many hands it changes - overall longevity is what determines its life.
        tjoff 9y ago
        Ikea design is generally excellent and the quality per dollar is in a league of its own. That said, a $10 piece of furniture is not going to have $100 worth of materials... But ikea makes more expensive pieces as well. I don't think I've thrown away anything from ikea because it was end of life. (Part from <$1 kitchen peripherals).
        fermienrico 9y ago
        The topic at hand is recyclability. You may have not throw things away but it is widely accepted and frankly utterly obvious - IKEA furniture has a short lifespan and it ends up being thrown away more according to the GP of this thread. You’re circling around the argument.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  I've sold a bunch of IKEA furniture second-hand the couple times I've moved and it all got offers within minutes of putting up the ad. Although I'm sure the low prices encourage people to just throw it away rather than bother trying to sell it.
  - saddestcatever 9y ago
    Same here. Recently sold 3 MALM dressers on Craigslist when I moved out of my last apartment. Recovered a little over half their value. My current desk (MALM) was bought on Craiglist 4 years ago. Didn't have a car to get to IKEA. It's survived 4 years of use, and 3 moves.
- 5_minutes 9y ago
  My take on this is that they make some real crappy stuff, like in: if you ever take it apart, you might as well throw it away. And then they also have some decent, quality stuff, like some of their couches. The problem is that as a consumer, it’s sometimes a bit unclear which category you’re buying into. Price is not a good indicator when it comes to ikea stuff: they have cheap stuff that’s great and expensive stuff that’s dispensible.
  - geezerjay 9y ago
    > you ever take it apart, you might as well throw it away. I'm sure virtually no other piece of hone furniture was ever designed to be taken apart. Iikea's stuff is designed to be easily shipped and put together by unskilled people, but not to be taken apart. I'm sure that you won't rate your cellphone or laptop by how well it handles being disassembled.
    - ryukafalz 9y ago
      >I'm sure that you won't rate your cellphone or laptop by how well it handles being disassembled. I do, personally - that's a pretty good proxy for how repairable/upgradeable it is. (But yes, it's much less often that I need to repair or upgrade my furniture. :P)
    - ahartmetz 9y ago
      I have seen several over 100 years old wardrobes that can be disassembled and reassembled in minutes without damage because they are held together by metal fittings that hook into each other. Like the better Ikea stuff, but much sturdier, especially the actual metal fittings. The wardrobe I remember best had three doors - it would barely fit through any door if it couldn't be disassembled for transport. It had a socket part, separate wall parts with aforementioned fittings, and a top part that could be slotted onto the walls (and doors with their simple stick and hole type hinges) after assembling them. Assembly and disassembly was as simple as it sounds, if not simpler.
- ahartmetz 9y ago
  Ikea has more and less cheap furniture. The longer life stuff is generally made of solid wood or plywood and its quality is just fine. Ikea never just throws a product together, which also applies to the cheap ones.
- loceng 9y ago
  Eventually once we build the post-usefulness processing costs into products, we'll process/recycle everything fully as it should be instead of going to landfill; it's one of those Genuine Progress Index vs. GPD measurement things.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    I think landfilling is pretty rare in developed countries. Mostly only the US has enough cheap free space to do it. Most countries incinerate their garbage. Countries that used to mostly landfill like the UK are now moving more and more to incineration.
    - loceng 9y ago
      Incinerating likely isn't the best solution, however I've never looked into or studied the science behind it all..
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      Incinerating stuff made of particle board or MDF puts a lot of bad chemicals into the environment including dioxins.
- jchw 9y ago
  Actually the real reason people throw it away is because it's inexpensive. Is it worth selling my $20 Ikea table? In the grand scheme, probably not. It's not worth as much because it's not as expensive to begin with. Some of it is certainly crap but a lot of the tables and shelves and whatnot are quite nice, but it doesn't mean you're going to get a lot of money for it second hand.
  - geezerjay 9y ago
    I agree. Ikea furniture is so cheap and readily available that reusing it after a renovation isn't exactly worth the trouble. I have an ikea table that is as new but I'm planning to either give it away or throw it in the trash because it's taking up space and cost abour 30€. Am I going to bother putting it on craigslist to recover 10 or 20€? It's not worth it.
    - Scoundreller 9y ago
      Sounds like the problem is the difficulty of posting on Craigslist and dealing with buyers, and not the item itself. It's an improvement though, when the threshold was putting a post in the newspaper, you probably wouldn't deal with it unless it was a 100 EUR return.
    - vidarh 9y ago
      Put stuff in the front yard, and order a takeaway. I'm only slightly facetious - last few times I've planned to throw something away and had put it outside, a delivery person from somewhere or other asked if they could take it. Chances are there are plenty of people in lower income jobs that'd love taking it off your hands.
  - mullen 9y ago
    What I notice with Ikea stuff is that you are more likely just to give it away. I was at a party a few years ago and the host said they were sick of a cheap Ikea table. I consulted the wife and we ended up taking it with us. I notice that people will give away the cheap stuff rather than trying to sell it. Still have the table BTW.
- philjohn 9y ago
  You say that, but in two previous homes I've purchased, assembled and fitted IKEA kitchens - they were far better quality than other options in the same price range, and even held a candle to ones costing 2x as much. Solid oak for the doors and drawer fronts, good quality hinges and handles - the cabinets themselves were just laminated chipboard, but unless you're spending £££ that's the same for most kitchen suppliers. Recently had a look at property listings, and both homes have been on the market recently, and both still have the kitchen I fitted 10 and 15 years ago, both still looking excellent. As with most brands, they sell cheap throwaway things as well as more expensive, but that means that people who need furniture but would otherwise not be able to afford anything (unless they got everything 2nd hand) can furnish a home.
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    A good chunk of that wooden kitchen stuff that ikea sells is actually a thin layer of wood with an MDF core inside. For example: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70335212/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70335212/
    - acdha 9y ago
      They sell both but are good about clearly labeling things so you can know what you’re buying. This contrasts with some other manufacturers who bury it more.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    > Solid oak for the doors and drawer fronts Easily fooled? No way that is solid oak. And for once that's a good thing, solid oak would warp, so you'd have to cross laminate it to counteract this. It's about 95% MDF with some veneer to make it look like wood. Yes it's heavy, but MDF is about as heavy as solid wood would be. The only way to get the kind of fit that makes it possible to assemble an IKEA product is to use what is called 'engineered' materials, a completely natural product would not work at that scale, there is just way too much variance. So even when IKEA does sell stuff that is made of wood throughout it will still be an engineered product. But the doors and drawer fronts of kitchen cabinets are not going to be cost effective that way so instead you get this MDF+surface coating solution, which for that application is ok. The easiest place to verify this is where the hinges embed in the doors and the boreholes for the drawer to frame connection, there you can easily see that it is not solid wood.
- evan_ 9y ago
  You didn’t see anything from ikea because the ikea stuff got bought as soon as they put it on the floor.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

erikrothoff 9y ago

I read the news in an IKEA sofa wrapped in an IKEA blanket resting my head on an IKEA cushion watching TV on an IKEA bench. He truly built a startup that changed the world.

jacquesm 9y ago
"Those were not just sticks of furniture, that was me!"
- jwdunne 9y ago
  This made me chuckle. I had the pan of the condo in mind whilst reading it too.
mherrmann 9y ago
Same here. Such a shame about his (apparently) dark past.
- mseebach 9y ago
  It’s a reminder to assess people on their actions, especially the outcomes (rather than intentions) of their actions, and not speculation on what might be in their heads.
- osrec 9y ago
  If you're referring to his fascist involvement, he later described it as one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
  - dingaling 9y ago
    Another "mistake" was outsourcing production to East German prisoners during the 1970 and 80s.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      So he was both a Nazi and a Communist.

mozumder 9y ago

Did he leave instructions on assembling his funeral? <3 <3 Ikea is life

jacquesm 9y ago
> <3 <3 Ikea is life Fortunately it really isn't. It is ok, mostly single use stuff that seems to be cheap but that is actually quite expensive if you take into account the material costs and the production quality. Even so, their sticker price and economies of scale put almost everybody competing with them out of business.
- paganel 9y ago
  It’s ok looking furniture at decent prices if you’re just a little bit careful when picking stuff from them. They’re the perfect company for very mobile clients, such as myself, as I’ve been moving houses at an average at one every 2-3 years for the past 15 years, it would have been even more economically bad for me had I invested in furniture meant to last 30 to 50 years (compared to Ikea’s 5-to-10 years) but for which I would have had to pay at least 2 or 3 times more.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Before disposable stuff, people bought used furniture and then re-sold it when they moved. It was less convenient, but certainly not 2-3 times more expensive, since good furniture holds its value.
    - paganel 9y ago
      Most of the times when you rent you don't have the actual time to sell the furniture that you bought, because the "finding a new place and moving right in"-period is pretty short. Plus, you kind of need your bed, your chairs and your table until the day when you're actually moving out, so if you were the one who had actually bought them and there's not enough space for them in the new place then your only solution is to leave them behind.

marban 9y ago

And thanks for the Köttbullar. "It's difficult to do business with someone on an empty stomach."

vq 9y ago
IKEA is actually a köttbullar and lingonsylts (lingonberry jam) distribution system so that us Smålänningar can get our fix almost anywhere in the world.
- rsynnott 9y ago
  Last time I was in the one in Dublin, the TVs in the cafe area were literally showing a propaganda film about lingonberries.
- marban 9y ago
  Glad you didn't call Ikea a platform ;)
- jschwartzi 9y ago
  It's also one of the few places I can get herring too. The Poulsbo stuff that I like is seasonal so I have to go to Ikea for canned fish in the summer. That I can buy furniture and kitchen tools is a nice bonus.
  - vidarh 9y ago
    And while their selection is limited, it's one of the few places outside the Nordic countries and the Netherlands where you can reliably get salty licorice candy.

diameter 9y ago

Fuck hacker news!

dbuder 9y ago

Ikea should lose their tax exemption.

toomanybeersies 9y ago

Moving from a country with no Ikea to a country with Ikea has been a paradigm shift for me, and I'm not sure it's entirely a good one. It used to be that if I wanted furniture, I'd go to the second hand store, and look for some used furniture that fitted my purpose. If I couldn't find something that worked, then I'd look online, and then failing that, I'd buy it new. I found some real gems at the second hand store. A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later (I gave it to a friend). Now I don't even bother, I just go straight to Ikea. It's so cheap that there's no point in looking at second hand.

alva 9y ago
Perhaps because of the presence of an IKEA in your new area, it would be an even better place to seek out second hand furniture. Perhaps more choice and cheaper as people flock to IKEA?
coldtea 9y ago
>A desk I bought is going strong 5 years later So? Furniture of any quality can be found at second hand stores. From one of a kind expensive pieces to el cheapo ready to break stuff and everything in between. That said, there's nothing much that can hurt a properly done desk. I have IKEA desks I use for 10 and 15 years now, and other than a few dents I've caused them, are perfectly fine.
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  I don't mean to insinuate that Ikea has bad quality stuff, quite the opposite. Instead of getting second hand stuff, it's easier for me to just get new stuff from Ikea. But what's happening to all the second hand stuff that I would've bought? Does it all just go into the landfill? Because that's a waste.
  - fwn 9y ago
    But wouldn't this cheaper Ikea furniture just translate to even cheaper second hand Ikea furniture? I can't imagine a way to keep furniture prices high enough to pressure people into engaging in the second hand market. The last time I wanted to get rid of something very cheap I posted it online for people to pick it up for free. A few days later it was gone.

reimertz 9y ago

I worked at Ikea for some time and it's quite amazing the possibilities you had as an employee pursuing a career within the company. Rather than them basing your performance on past studies and grades, you definitely had the possibility to pursue any role within the company as long as you had the "right" mentality and really wanted it. Just like any early-stage startup I've work with. I was a lazy university student who just saw it as a part-time job though, just improving my economical situation for a bit but the few ideas I had was easily escalated and heard. Kind of miss that place sometimes. When it comes to Kamprads legacy, I do hope they open a fund with his pile of cash because for me, his legacy is stained by all the sketchy tax evasion schemes they've set up. Rest in peace Ingvar.

loceng 9y ago
Do you know of any good books that talk about the culture like this at Ikea? I'd love to read it.
- reimertz 9y ago
  Great question. I think their own documentation of it is spot on and gives a honest picture of their core values. You can read it for yourself here: http://ikea.in/culture-value http://ikea.in/culture-value I guess it’s worth saying that I don’t work for Ikea anymore so my words are my own and not affiliated with Ikea in any way.
  - loceng 9y ago
    Cool, thanks for the link. Also, only someone with poor reading comprehension - whether through rushing or lack of focus - would have thought you still worked for Ikea, I appreciate you saying it for those people though. :)
- dietr1ch 9y ago
  Book? Oh no, they might give you some paper and a pen.
expertentipp 9y ago

mongol 9y ago

This news also tops the consumer version of the IKEA swedish subsite. Kamprad was the most well known entrepneur in Sweden. He projected an image of himself as an every day man, even somewhat behind ("smådum") which he obviously was not. He considered the entire supply chain, including buying forests as supply for wood. With him gone, only future will tell if IKEA will be able to keep up its success.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

stefantalpalaru 9y ago

"Romania's brutal communist-era secret police received covert six-figure payments from Ikea as part of the Swedish group's deals with a local furniture manufacturer in the 1980s, according to documents obtained by the Guardian." - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/ikea-funds-romania-secret-police-communist-era https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/ikea-funds-rom...

afriend4lyfe 9y ago

"In the later years of his life, Mr Kamprad had faced questions over his past links to the Nazis." It's crazy how he ran Ikea for over 70 years but a quarter of the article deals with his ties to Nazis. Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life, so I suppose the attention to it may not be unwarranted. But I think it would have been prudent to touch on what caused him to shift his perspective. "Youthful stupidity" doesn't convey much. Still, I can't help but feel like the information age is ushering in a modern-day version of the Akashic records. A double-edged sword anyone with an internet connection can consult. We laud past failures as learning experiences when it comes to startups, almost as if it's a badge of honor. But it's a very different story when someone violates a social contract, even in retrospect. (Albeit there are plenty of cases where people are embraced because of the drastic changes they made in their life, e.g. gang members that become speakers for at-risk youth.) I think there's both a wisdom, and ignorance, of crowds/culture. And these crowds are constantly redrawing the line of who deserves redemption. Lately, the line seems to be inching in the wrong direction in my opinion. With the advent of the internet it's scary to think about how efficiently the arbiters of information control the narrative. "We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us." -Madame Swetchine.

5_minutes 9y ago
Objectively, what IBM did, in helping the nazis, and was collaborating with them, for many years into the war - even when the US was getting involved —, was much worse then what this guy was doing. There’s also Porsche, Volkswagen (basically, Hitler’s own brand) and any other brands that were involved, and basically the catholic church was preaching in many EU countries for their sons to join the German army...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- defo_nonconvex 9y ago
  BASF, Thyssen (without the Krupp at that time...) plenty of blame to go around...

WisNorCan 9y ago

Europe has less of a philanthropic tradition than the United States. For example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes. Jeff Bezos is now making plans for his philanthropy. This happens in Europe too, but is less common. I was looking to see if there were any specific plans for Mr. Kamprad’s wealth, but unfortunately did not see anything.

coldtea 9y ago
Europe doesn't believe as much in handouts from the rich, or in depending on arbitrary goodwill. We believe more in structuring society, government, welfare, healthcare, funding, etc, such that they're not needed.
- kzrdude 9y ago
  The sprit of the time in the US seems to be poisoned by the fantasies of get rich schemes still (including founder dreams of making a company to "get rich" instead of making a company to make a living).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jopsen 9y ago
  Yeah, American has trickle down economics :)
- nathanasmith 9y ago
  You condescending assholes waste no opportunity to toot your horn. Your statement is as vacuous as it is wrong. First of all, there are quite a few European nations with double digit percentages of the population living under what is considered the poverty line in the US. Secondly, your rich don't give because they are more interested preserving a family name and giving the money to their descendants.
antirez 9y ago
It's less common to accumulate very big fortunes because in general there is much more redistribution of wealth and much higher taxes (so also as you accumulate you share a big amount with society). See for instance tipping in the US vs no tips but places paying a more fair amount of money to waiters in Europe. A different model.

kchoudhu 9y ago

No one? Ok. Rest in pieces.

drawkbox 9y ago

What a great entrepreneur and product guy. Kamprad should be very proud of what he built. Not many business owners today start from the aspect of frugality like he did. IKEA is a place that targets everyone but is priced at middle class or lower levels unlike most products today. That goes back to his roots. Mr Kamprad was renowned for his devotion to frugality, reportedly driving an old Volvo and travelling by economy class. In a 2016 interview with Swedish television channel TV4, Mr Kamprad said that it was "in the nature of Småland to be thrifty". "If you look at me now, I don't think I'm wearing anything that wasn't bought at a flea market," he said. Far away from Sweden, on a Saturday night me and my wife were in line buying some sheets at IKEA for beds we just setup from IKEA, and it was bustling with massive lines. His products have massive reach. IKEA is quite good at everything they do and are extremely efficient, except checkout on a Saturday but we grabbed some meatballs while waiting in line. Fun fact: IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd which is derived from founder's initials and hometown. [1] The driving idea behind IKEA was, and is, that anyone should be able to afford stylish, modernist furniture. Kamprad felt he was not just cutting costs and making money, but serving the people as well. [1] [1] https://sweden.se/business/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea/ https://sweden.se/business/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea/

alkonaut 9y ago
I believe that (name+place) was effectively the address of the business at the time it started.
kalleboo 9y ago
Some of the "frugality" stuff is just image - he also had a Porsche, lived in a very nice property in Switzerland for 40 years, and also owned a French vineyard (although he forced IKEA to sell the wine from the latter so he may have actually made money off of that one...)
- jokola 9y ago
  Give people cheap stuff, pretend to be one of them and they won't question anything you do. Seem like he invented the modern tech company decades early.

darkerside 9y ago

> Granted, he admits it was the "greatest mistake" of his life And if he didn't talk about it in that way, we'd probably have forgotten about it long ago. Ironic.

aridiculous 9y ago

I once was talking to a firefighter who was saying that these days house/apartment fires burn hotter and much more rapidly. Why? Because of cheap furniture (materials and construction). He didn’t have kind things to say about IKEA.

mullen 9y ago
Considering that the number of house fires are down between 30% - 50% in the developed world, I say we call it break even.

slac 9y ago

Mixed feelings here. Incredible entrepreneur that built an empire on solid product values. Masterfully executed through laser focus on logistics. Brought design and furniture to the masses. Shadowed by his Nazi roots which I never felt he apologized forcefully enough... And the fact the incredibly shadowy ikea tax structure makes it hard for anyone to compete against. Profiles itself as a Swedish company and uses the country for marketing purposes but has done everything it could to avoid taxes here. Also, the mountain of cash hidden in all the Dutch and Luxembourg trust funds coming from this tax structure is not being used to contribute back to society in a meaningful way like Gates and Buffett.

zkomp 9y ago
Tax evasion... did that not happen only after the swedish arrogant Socialists wanted to impose one extra tax that would only hit IKEA? I really think my country has been crazy a long time with the highest taxation in the world... Honestly, we need more companies leaving...
- robert_foss 9y ago
  Sorry, which tax was proposed that specifically targetted only IKEA?
  - jchb 9y ago
    It was not a specific tax that targeted IKEA. But there was a set of taxes and regulations that one could say targeted all major "owners of capital". Until 1989, the corporate tax was 52%. Yes there were various deductions, but still, 52%. Then a wealth tax of 2.5% on assets (all asset classes) over 1.6 million kronor - about $1.5 million in todays monetary value. This wealth tax could also be collected from a corporation when its liquid holdings exceeded double than that that of its debt. Add to that, a intense political debate about introducing the so called Employee Funds - a mechanism in where a large part of the collected corporate tax would be dedicated to buying shares in the taxed corporation, shares that would then be distributed among the employees with a goal of collective ownership. Perhaps indicative of the business climate in 1970s Sweden, Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Longstocking, famously wrote a short satirical story about her over 100% margin tax rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania.

chewyland 9y ago

I've been to 27 IKEAs in 27 different countries and have eaten 27 different hot dogs. I swear. I have seriously done this....

ajaimk 9y ago

Humor: I really want to see his coffin. It better arrive flat packed with self-assembly requirements.

unicornporn 9y ago

Ingvar was a fascist sympathizer with corporatist ideas. He stayed true to his nazi sympathies long after the atrocities of Nazi Germany became known to the world. He was once a very active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling[1][3]. As late as 2010 he hailed the Swedish fascist leader Per Engdahl[1][2]. He may have been an excellent business man (and tax evader), but please remembers these facts too. [1] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nya-avslojanden-om-kamprads-nazi-forflutna https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nya-avslojanden-om-kampra... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Engdahl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Engdahl [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Workers%27_Party_(Sweden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Workers%27_...

reader5000 9y ago
The man was a hero.
- contravariant 9y ago
  You're going to have to clarify that one a bit. Currently it looks like you're calling him a hero for being fascist.
orsenthil 9y ago
Some context also helps. ``` The tycoon revealed some elements of his past in a book in 1988, admitting that he was a close friend of the Swedish fascist activist Per Engdahl, and a member of his New Swedish Movement between 1942 and 1945. He said that his involvement was youthful "stupidity" and the "greatest mistake" of his life. ```
- alphonsegaston 9y ago
  The parent already pointed out that in a 2010 interview he expressed his unchanged admiration for Endghal. And he was also later show to have remained friends with him well into the 50s, exchanging correspondence and kind regards, a further misrepresentation of the length and character of their friendship. The 1988 “apology” was obviously just PR.

padrian2s 9y ago

I wonder what's with the id? ID 498407 http://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/gallery/image/ingvar-kamprad/a/80af310b-39bc-406c-85b6-9a0eedc9a4a5 http://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/gallery/image/ingvar-kamprad/...

azureio 9y ago

The thing I really really like about IKEA is the fact that you could look at and try out furniture for hours without any staff ever coming over to ask you if you needed anything.