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“IKEA uses war psychology – confusion, camouflage, and attrition – to wear down and coerce shoppers, starting with the store layout.” Evidently the author does

“IKEA uses war psychology – confusion, camouflage, and attrition – to wear down and coerce shoppers, starting with the store layout.” Evidently the author does not like IKEA…which is perfectly fine. They are free to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. But to offer a counter perspective…I like IKEA. Sometimes we travel 90 minutes just to go hang out there and shop. It’s kinda fun and interesting and weird in a way that makes it different from ordinary shopping. I’m not saying that they’re the world’s most virtuous company or should be exempt from criticism, just that it’s odd to accuse them of using war psychology to beat their customers into submission when a _lot_ of people really enjoy the experience.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
10 years ago I would've agreed with you but now it feels different, also bland and cheap. Like what set it apart from their competitors has eroded.
- mc32 4y ago
  I don't love IKEA, but I feel the opposite. Whereas before I thought of them as "the disposable-furniture store," now I'm less dismissive of some of their options as they have gone ever so slightly "middlescale" and offer some middling furniture.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    And by my word I though ikea was bottom of the line but it turns out wayfair and Amazon can sell you much worse.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Or Walmart etc. Maybe 10 years ago, I bought an Ikea dresser for my bedroom and spent too much of a Saturday assembling it. At the time, I had some buyer's regret for not just having splurged on some expensive hardwood piece. But know what? It looks nice enough and does its job just fine. And I have a couple modernish Ikea chairs in another room which look quite nice and are very comfortable. I'm sure Ikea has bad stuff and better stuff and I only go every 2-3 years but don't really have complaints.
    - com2kid 4y ago
      This last summer I was trying to buy an outdoor dining set. Ikea's was all sold out. Really well designed piece, folds up nicely. All other folding outdoor dining sets are sold online only and have terrible reviews. Horrible horrible reviews. It turns out the price point for dining sets is as follows: 1. Whatever random product Target is selling this year for $100 2. Random product at Home Depot, which probably isn't in stock, for $250-$500, quality unknown. 3. Reasonable quality well designed piece at Ikea for $500 4. Costco's $2000 set. Ikea continues to success for very good reasons.
- YeBanKo 4y ago
  I have an old ikea shelf storage that I had to disassemble/assemble at least 3 times to move. I lost few small parts. I was able to order a replacement from their site free of charge by part number. There aren’t that many furniture companies, from which you can reorder parts that easily even for newer items.
  - benj111 4y ago
    I also like that they sell stuff for so long that you can buy replacements when things break. My mugs are IKEA some of them may be 20 years old. Same for plates. Even cutlery, I managed to get a matching set 10 years after the original.
  - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
    > was able to order a replacement from their site free of charge by part number I had the same experience with a belt clip for a knife by CRKT. 25+ year old knife discontinued who knows how long ago, and they sent me replacement parts free of charge. Good customer support wins customers, which I suspect is why many like IKEA.
jfengel 4y ago
They are free to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. For the moment. They are on the brink of bankruptcy. They may yet avoid it but it's gonna be close.
- Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
  Also, the author is British (the londonreconnections.com URL might be a clue) so BB&B is not an option. I know Reddit assumes everyone is American but HN should be better than that.
  - shultays 4y ago
    It is just an example and BB&B itself does not matter. You don't need to be an American or a British to understand BB&B is an alternative shop (and OP is not really suggesting that specific shop)
catiopatio 4y ago
I wonder what the split is; how many of the population find it exhausting vs enriching. The “war psychology” resonates with me, but I can’t stand spending time in an IKEA store; the experience is draining and frustrating, while everything they sell is disposable, cheap, off-gassing melamine and fiberboard. It breaks quickly, and you find yourself back at IKEA buying another cheap furniture piece. When I was young and poor, I hated IKEA even more after wasting time and hard-earned money there. Instead, I started buying used, high-quality furniture, made of natural materials, from second-hand furniture stores. Just as affordable, more durable, more enjoyable to own, and I was able to sell/give it on when I was less poor.
- tobyjsullivan 4y ago
  This raises an obvious question: if you hate the experience and you hate the products, then why are you at the store?
  - catiopatio 4y ago
    I’ve helped some friends shop there, since I drive a pickup.
    - vincnetas 4y ago
      Just wait for them at the caffeteria?
      - fest 4y ago
        When the local IKEA was opened, they made you go all the way through expo labyrinth just to get to cafeteria and there was even a security guard making sure nobody takes the obviously planned in shortcut from the beginning of expo hall to cafeteria. They did open up the shortcut after a few months though.
        boomboomsubban 4y ago
        Did you try to go directly to the cafeteria and were refused? I'd bet the security guard was there to prevent people walking backwards through the store and stealing, though I assume they purposefully placed him in an area to make people think they couldn't walk directly to the cafeteria.
kergonath 4y ago
You can like it and still be conscious of the lengths they go to in order to keep you engaged longer and spending more. Personally, I like it every now and then, but it is exhausting, or expensive, or both.
zppln 4y ago
As someone who lives close to an Ikea store and can got here spontaneously it's kind of fun to observe people there. A lot of people have to travel quite a bit to visit the store as you say, so when they go make sure to try to get everything they need. Couple this with a couple of hungry kids and you have recipe for disaster. In my experience things usually start to fall apart around the bedlinen section. By the bathroom section couples are often full passive aggressive towards each other. Thankfully the flower section soon follows and appear to pick people up so they can make it through the registers.
- fhars 4y ago
  Your description remineded me of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33201033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33201033
memsom 4y ago
I love IKEA. I even visited an IKEA whilst in Norway just to see how it stacked up to the UK.
chaostheory 4y ago
I love IKEA. They offer an affordable place to hang out at with good design. Is it the best design? Of course not, but it’s one that you and most people can also afford at all stages of life including our high school and college years. in many cases it neither looks nor feels cheap. At the very least, it looks decent and is functional for a fair amount of time
benj111 4y ago
I like IKEA, but I still agree with the metaphor. The layout is fine for a mooch, if you go for 1 specific thing, it's terrible.
puyoxyz 4y ago
You go to get furniture and end up with meatballs and a giant shark plushie
wincy 4y ago
I also love IKEA, as it’s a great place to take my young wheelchair using daughter to get practice. IKEA is one of the most wheelchair accessible places we’ve been to. We often see other people in wheelchairs as well, I think precisely because they take accessibility seriously. She’ll exclaim “like me! Like me!” And propel herself over and compliment anyone in a wheelchair on their dress or ask them about their prosthetic leg, which so far people tend to be very kind and gracious to a little girl coming up and asking them personal questions. It’s also great because she can basically “do all the activities” at IKEA, she can see all the furniture, go into all the display rooms, and even the dining area is wide open and accessible. She just turned four and her favorite part is the “turbo boosts” where I give her a good push and she careens down the aisles at IKEA, using her brakes to stop herself. Braking is a super important skill for a little girl in a wheelie!
- poofsoda 4y ago
  This is so wholesome and I love it!!
- justjoinedtosay 4y ago
  This is one of the most wholesome and touching messages I've read here in a long time, to the point that I created an account just for this useless reply. You sound like a wonderful parent, and I've just gained a newfound appreciation for IKEA after reading this. I wish you and your daughter the best.
comfypotato 4y ago
In defense of the author, I think it’s a joke. You’ve opened my mind to the idea that it’s not a joke. Either way, they made me laugh. It’s a funny way to look at IKEA. Regardless, as you pointed out, it’s a unique experience.
dividedbyzero 4y ago
A few years ago I started meticulously planning each Ikea trip, with a checklist of things in the right order so we'd be able to breeze through there, I know most of the shortcuts and we buy other random junk only if it's something we really honestly forgot to put on the list. It's given me headspace to do some people watching and there really is what I call the trek of despair as couples and families are travelling the long, long trail set out for them by the Ikea psychologists. Some people aren't very sensitive to the general mood in their environment and I guess you wouldn't necessarily be stressed out if you are like that, and also not too budget-constrained and/or easily tempted, but for most people, the trail of many decisions is a tough one. You can't easily come back for something because it takes half a day to do this, so each decision not to get something matters, and every meter of the way there are a couple of microdecisions to make, and the sheer number of decisions is a pretty strong stressor. It's also physically exhausting, our Ikea is quite large, I get tons of steps on my Apple Watch each time I go there, all at a pretty slow pace because others are stalling for arguments (giving you more time to start your own ones), it's really quite insidious and I'm certain none of this is an accident. It feels a lot more engineered than a typical supermarket and I know some of the psych work that goes into laying out a supermarket and those people don't leave much to chance, so I think it's reasonable to expect Ikea as a company that started exerting super tight control on their brand experience before almost anyone else in that segment and who builds their own stores will do that to an even higher degree. I guess if this leaves you wholly unaffected and unbothered (big if, a lot of this is very subconscious) then you're a big outlier. Most people certainly soak up the vibe and get stressed out to varying degrees. It's actually quite striking if you have to go there on Christmas Eve (I once had) and find the whole store pretty much empty, it completely transforms the feel of the space into something pretty fun and positive. It's a weird, weird place.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago

10 years ago I would've agreed with you but now it feels different, also bland and cheap. Like what set it apart from their competitors has eroded.

mc32 4y ago
I don't love IKEA, but I feel the opposite. Whereas before I thought of them as "the disposable-furniture store," now I'm less dismissive of some of their options as they have gone ever so slightly "middlescale" and offer some middling furniture.
- bombcar 4y ago
  And by my word I though ikea was bottom of the line but it turns out wayfair and Amazon can sell you much worse.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Or Walmart etc. Maybe 10 years ago, I bought an Ikea dresser for my bedroom and spent too much of a Saturday assembling it. At the time, I had some buyer's regret for not just having splurged on some expensive hardwood piece. But know what? It looks nice enough and does its job just fine. And I have a couple modernish Ikea chairs in another room which look quite nice and are very comfortable. I'm sure Ikea has bad stuff and better stuff and I only go every 2-3 years but don't really have complaints.
  - com2kid 4y ago
    This last summer I was trying to buy an outdoor dining set. Ikea's was all sold out. Really well designed piece, folds up nicely. All other folding outdoor dining sets are sold online only and have terrible reviews. Horrible horrible reviews. It turns out the price point for dining sets is as follows: 1. Whatever random product Target is selling this year for $100 2. Random product at Home Depot, which probably isn't in stock, for $250-$500, quality unknown. 3. Reasonable quality well designed piece at Ikea for $500 4. Costco's $2000 set. Ikea continues to success for very good reasons.
YeBanKo 4y ago
I have an old ikea shelf storage that I had to disassemble/assemble at least 3 times to move. I lost few small parts. I was able to order a replacement from their site free of charge by part number. There aren’t that many furniture companies, from which you can reorder parts that easily even for newer items.
- benj111 4y ago
  I also like that they sell stuff for so long that you can buy replacements when things break. My mugs are IKEA some of them may be 20 years old. Same for plates. Even cutlery, I managed to get a matching set 10 years after the original.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
  > was able to order a replacement from their site free of charge by part number I had the same experience with a belt clip for a knife by CRKT. 25+ year old knife discontinued who knows how long ago, and they sent me replacement parts free of charge. Good customer support wins customers, which I suspect is why many like IKEA.

jfengel 4y ago

They are free to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. For the moment. They are on the brink of bankruptcy. They may yet avoid it but it's gonna be close.

Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
Also, the author is British (the londonreconnections.com URL might be a clue) so BB&B is not an option. I know Reddit assumes everyone is American but HN should be better than that.
- shultays 4y ago
  It is just an example and BB&B itself does not matter. You don't need to be an American or a British to understand BB&B is an alternative shop (and OP is not really suggesting that specific shop)

catiopatio 4y ago

I wonder what the split is; how many of the population find it exhausting vs enriching. The “war psychology” resonates with me, but I can’t stand spending time in an IKEA store; the experience is draining and frustrating, while everything they sell is disposable, cheap, off-gassing melamine and fiberboard. It breaks quickly, and you find yourself back at IKEA buying another cheap furniture piece. When I was young and poor, I hated IKEA even more after wasting time and hard-earned money there. Instead, I started buying used, high-quality furniture, made of natural materials, from second-hand furniture stores. Just as affordable, more durable, more enjoyable to own, and I was able to sell/give it on when I was less poor.

tobyjsullivan 4y ago
This raises an obvious question: if you hate the experience and you hate the products, then why are you at the store?
- catiopatio 4y ago
  I’ve helped some friends shop there, since I drive a pickup.
  - vincnetas 4y ago
    Just wait for them at the caffeteria?
    - fest 4y ago
      When the local IKEA was opened, they made you go all the way through expo labyrinth just to get to cafeteria and there was even a security guard making sure nobody takes the obviously planned in shortcut from the beginning of expo hall to cafeteria. They did open up the shortcut after a few months though.
      - boomboomsubban 4y ago
        Did you try to go directly to the cafeteria and were refused? I'd bet the security guard was there to prevent people walking backwards through the store and stealing, though I assume they purposefully placed him in an area to make people think they couldn't walk directly to the cafeteria.

kergonath 4y ago

You can like it and still be conscious of the lengths they go to in order to keep you engaged longer and spending more. Personally, I like it every now and then, but it is exhausting, or expensive, or both.

zppln 4y ago

As someone who lives close to an Ikea store and can got here spontaneously it's kind of fun to observe people there. A lot of people have to travel quite a bit to visit the store as you say, so when they go make sure to try to get everything they need. Couple this with a couple of hungry kids and you have recipe for disaster. In my experience things usually start to fall apart around the bedlinen section. By the bathroom section couples are often full passive aggressive towards each other. Thankfully the flower section soon follows and appear to pick people up so they can make it through the registers.

fhars 4y ago
Your description remineded me of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33201033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33201033

memsom 4y ago

I love IKEA. I even visited an IKEA whilst in Norway just to see how it stacked up to the UK.

chaostheory 4y ago

I love IKEA. They offer an affordable place to hang out at with good design. Is it the best design? Of course not, but it’s one that you and most people can also afford at all stages of life including our high school and college years. in many cases it neither looks nor feels cheap. At the very least, it looks decent and is functional for a fair amount of time

benj111 4y ago

I like IKEA, but I still agree with the metaphor. The layout is fine for a mooch, if you go for 1 specific thing, it's terrible.

puyoxyz 4y ago

You go to get furniture and end up with meatballs and a giant shark plushie

wincy 4y ago

I also love IKEA, as it’s a great place to take my young wheelchair using daughter to get practice. IKEA is one of the most wheelchair accessible places we’ve been to. We often see other people in wheelchairs as well, I think precisely because they take accessibility seriously. She’ll exclaim “like me! Like me!” And propel herself over and compliment anyone in a wheelchair on their dress or ask them about their prosthetic leg, which so far people tend to be very kind and gracious to a little girl coming up and asking them personal questions. It’s also great because she can basically “do all the activities” at IKEA, she can see all the furniture, go into all the display rooms, and even the dining area is wide open and accessible. She just turned four and her favorite part is the “turbo boosts” where I give her a good push and she careens down the aisles at IKEA, using her brakes to stop herself. Braking is a super important skill for a little girl in a wheelie!

poofsoda 4y ago
This is so wholesome and I love it!!
justjoinedtosay 4y ago
This is one of the most wholesome and touching messages I've read here in a long time, to the point that I created an account just for this useless reply. You sound like a wonderful parent, and I've just gained a newfound appreciation for IKEA after reading this. I wish you and your daughter the best.

comfypotato 4y ago

In defense of the author, I think it’s a joke. You’ve opened my mind to the idea that it’s not a joke. Either way, they made me laugh. It’s a funny way to look at IKEA. Regardless, as you pointed out, it’s a unique experience.

dividedbyzero 4y ago

A few years ago I started meticulously planning each Ikea trip, with a checklist of things in the right order so we'd be able to breeze through there, I know most of the shortcuts and we buy other random junk only if it's something we really honestly forgot to put on the list. It's given me headspace to do some people watching and there really is what I call the trek of despair as couples and families are travelling the long, long trail set out for them by the Ikea psychologists. Some people aren't very sensitive to the general mood in their environment and I guess you wouldn't necessarily be stressed out if you are like that, and also not too budget-constrained and/or easily tempted, but for most people, the trail of many decisions is a tough one. You can't easily come back for something because it takes half a day to do this, so each decision not to get something matters, and every meter of the way there are a couple of microdecisions to make, and the sheer number of decisions is a pretty strong stressor. It's also physically exhausting, our Ikea is quite large, I get tons of steps on my Apple Watch each time I go there, all at a pretty slow pace because others are stalling for arguments (giving you more time to start your own ones), it's really quite insidious and I'm certain none of this is an accident. It feels a lot more engineered than a typical supermarket and I know some of the psych work that goes into laying out a supermarket and those people don't leave much to chance, so I think it's reasonable to expect Ikea as a company that started exerting super tight control on their brand experience before almost anyone else in that segment and who builds their own stores will do that to an even higher degree. I guess if this leaves you wholly unaffected and unbothered (big if, a lot of this is very subconscious) then you're a big outlier. Most people certainly soak up the vibe and get stressed out to varying degrees. It's actually quite striking if you have to go there on Christmas Eve (I once had) and find the whole store pretty much empty, it completely transforms the feel of the space into something pretty fun and positive. It's a weird, weird place.