While I'm reading the Herald, I noticed an article saying that IKEA is coming to Auckland in 2008. I know it exists in Australia, alongside Freedom, but I hope that Freedom is able to hold its ground in NZ, as having bought furniture from both Freedom and IKEA, I can tell you two things: Freedom products are generally pretty good, and IKEA is disgusting crap, for which the company should be fined.
I seriously wonder how much of their product line IKEA will be able to peddle in NZ due to the country's strong consumer protection laws. Some of the stuff I have seen in the Palo Alto store would not seem to pass muster.
Let me also say that IKEA has the worst customer service of just about any large retailer I have ever been to. They tout their "low prices" (which by comparison aren't that much cheaper than Freedom's all things considered) but in return they expose the gruesome details of their supply chain management chaos to the customer. Back when I relocated here I went in to their Emeryville store (before the Paly Alty store opened) - a good hour and a bit drive - looking for a sofa. I asked after a certain model. They would not order it for me, just told me it'd come in "in a month"... I waited. I went back in. Still no sofa. "Another month" Yeah right. I bought something else, something I didn't really want. They sell you file cabinets that use non-standard sized hanging files, and then are simultaneously out of stock of hanging files. Come back in a month! For all of the hassle of big government goody-two-shoes fireworks-banning nanny states, I hope the folk that handle consumer protection in the NZ govt scrutinize IKEA closely.
While I'm ranting, I will admit that I have bought a few things from there that I still use... my JERKER desks were excellent value at $69 and very solid, and I have a few of the paper vertical lamps left over, in addition to my leather sofa and armchair. The coffee table and leather swivel office chair (the least comfortable thing ever and overpriced at $249) got sent to Goodwill at the last move, the chest of drawers actually bowed out at the sides and the drawers fell out. And this was representative of the furniture that I tried in store - opening and closing doors, slamming them, making sure that they were solid!
You see, IKEA is a symbol of much of what I dislike about the United States - consumption of crap. Personally, I think it's fine to lust after things - but only if they're quality, and will last. But all too often what you get here in this Mecca of consumer whore-ism is nine different versions of the same crap. Look at the potato chip industry. Every non-Frito-Lay brand expands their range to clone Frito Lay's uninspired offerings and then stops. As Leslie always says, "I don't want more choices, I just want nicer things." Well, IKEA has nine different kinds of crappy side table, desk or chest of drawers that will fall apart in 18 months. None of them are that stylish (you need to go to Freedom or Crate & Barrel for that), and for all IKEA's trumpeting about minimal packaging, minimal packaging on crappy furniture you'll have to throw away in a year is not that exciting.
I have a rant coming one day when I can write more coherently (i.e. when it isn't 3:30AM) than this one about excess in packaging and consumption too, but I'll leave this one here.
IKEA is originally a Swedish company, now apparently a world-wide juggernaut. But, the U.S. is not the biggest market for IKEA - that would be Germany (this from IKEA's website). So, you can't really blame this one on America. I live in Denver and don't recall ever seeing an IKEA ad, let alone a store (I checked - so far, I'm safe from their crap). If you want to rant about the U.S., there are plenty of viable targets, like McDonald's, President Bush, the pharmaceuticals industry, big oil, sue-happy litigants crowding the courtrooms, overt racism in pockets of the country, veiled racism all over the country - I could go on, but it would just depress me. Man, the U.S. sucks. But it's got some good points, too, which is probably why you're here, and not in New Zealand, eh?
Back to furniture: for a guy who dislikes the IKEA concept so much, sounds like you bought a lot of their crap. (To corroborate your experience, what little I have heard about IKEA has been largely negative.)
Anyway, aside from my nitpicking here, I've enjoyed what I've read on your blog. Keep up the good work, and stay away from IKEA! (And Visual Studio, for that matter... ;-)