Well they might be, and they might not be. The old saying "you get what you pay for" ought to be "you get at most what you pay for". If you buy the expensive

Well they might be, and they might not be. The old saying "you get what you pay for" ought to be "you get at most what you pay for". If you buy the expensive product, it might be higher quality, or it might be the cheap junk with a shiny logo. I bought a small dining table and 4 chairs from a nearby store that specializes in Scandinavian furniture. I ended up mixing and matching 2 pairs of chairs because I liked the contrast of 2 different styles at different sides of the table. Anyhow, fast forward about 15 years and 4 house moves and the table and 2 of the chairs are rock solid. The other 2 chairs are wobbly junk that I've repeatedly tried to fix but am about to give up on. The table and 2 good chairs were made in Denmark, the 2 shit chairs were made in Malaysia and are just "Scandinavian style" I guess. So yeah, decent stuff is still out there, but perhaps it's harder than ever to parse the marketplace and figure out which items are the high-quality ones. Even if you go to a store with lots of quality stuff, they might have some junk mixed in as they try to expand their market.