I would expect to pay $40 at most for a nightstand, and a quick look at Amazon confirms my guess. I would also expect it to last decades, and if it failed, to

I would expect to pay $40 at most for a nightstand, and a quick look at Amazon confirms my guess. I would also expect it to last decades, and if it failed, to fail in one of a few very predictable ways(Mostly fasteners stripping out of sawdustboard) which can be both repaired, and avoided at the design stage for not much extra money. I've never really experienced this "bad furniture" phenomena. Maybe because I have more thrift store than new cheap furniture, but I also wonder if style doesn't have to do with it. I mostly go for the fake rustic look, but I suspect more minimalist or Bauhaus stuff has more issues, since those styles are almost specifically meant to say "Look at the great material we use, this thing would totally fall apart if we took shortcuts". I also tend to go for the really cheap stuff, which I suspect might be more reliable than what is sold as mid range now. I have some drawers in the front room that are literally nonwoven fabric drawers, in a metal frame. I'm not sure what the failure mode would be other than directly taking a hard hit, it doesn't really have any of the weak points I'm used to seeing.