IKEA comes to Winnipeg. The first thing to do is...

Lard Tunderin' Jeezus wrote:

The first thing to do [i]after[/i] they open is expand your landfill sites, to accommodate all the pressboard crap that they sell that's going to fall apart after a year of use.

A friend of mine just retired and sold out his furniture store business.  He said that people don't want quality furniture anymore.  They want cheap stuff that looks okay...until they want to toss it and get something new.  IKEA fits the bill perfectly.

Personally, I like good-quality furniture that will last for years...preferably decades.  I really appreciate hand-crafted work.

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Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

Frustrated Mess wrote:

It doesn't matter. Fifteen years from now it will be an empty shell.

 

 

With "it" being...what?  Earth? 

 

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Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

A coordinated campaign of domestic terror and sabotage.

 

Oh, you mean the first thing the city will do when ikea comes here.

"Earth will be what it is now. A stinking, rotting, landfill."

You should show some respect to the Earth. She is the only reason any of us live another second. When humans become too much for her to take she'll shake her back and we'll all be gone.

 

I forget who said it but I always liked the quote (which I will paraphrase as):

"Widening roads to deal with congestion is like loosening your belt to deal with obesity."

This just shows that perhaps Nick Ternette is right.  Winnipeg isn't a city (or at least, it won't be if we keep going this way).  It's a collection of suburbs with highways going to major retail outlets

Interesting...I guess it's a bad thing that almost all the furniture in my apartment is from IKEA... :(  The only things in my whole place that aren't is my dresser (got it second-hand from someone about 10 years ago), my son's captain's bed and mattress, the mattress and box spring on my own bed (given to me 10 years ago as well), and one couch in my living room (which came with my apartment).

Why is IKEA worse than any other furniture store?  (I'm not asking that in a sarcastic manner - I am genuinely asking for information.)  I thought they were at least somewhat okay because they don't use old-growth forests for their furniture, they replace trees they use, etc. 

And I don't know about anyone else, but I am still using some IKEA furniture (a desk and hutch) that I got when I was 10 years old (that's 26 years ago for those counting at home).  Other pieces are hand-me-downs from my mother, who bought them 20 years ago when my parents separated.  So I haven't noticed that it's bad quality or falls apart.

IKEA is basically the only furniture I can afford to buy, short of going to sweatshop emporiums like Walmart and Zellers and getting stuff there.  And that stuff DOES fall apart quickly, whereas I find that IKEA stuff is decently engineered to fit well.  The only bad experience I've had with IKEA is a children's bed I bought there once for my son.

Damn. That's a gala I'd like to be at. But I'm a little too far away now. I will make some inquiries and see what I can see.

 

 

Michelle wrote:

Why is IKEA worse than any other furniture store?  (I'm not asking that in a sarcastic manner - I am genuinely asking for information.)  I thought they were at least somewhat okay because they don't use old-growth forests for their furniture, they replace trees they use, etc. 

The worst of the Ikea products I've experienced were made of particle board. They disintegrated upon moving them - a coffee table losing its legs from regular use within a year, a wardrobe unable to be used after one move.

Their 'solid wood' products fared somewhat better, but both shelves and a bed died what I consider premature deaths. It seems to me that Swedish pine is considerably softer than its Canadian counterpart. 

I still have one piece of Ikea furniture in the house, nearly 20 years old. I believe it is Malaysian in origin - so it is made of rainforest woods and by third world labour; no different from any Walmart or Pier 1 imported product in terms of environmental impact.

And what of the environmental impact of Ikea products, shipped to their Big Box warehouses from factories on the other side of the world?

I imagine the Swedish workers are better paid than their Chinese counterparts, but in terms of the environment I can see little difference. 

It depends what you pay for.  Cheap IKEA furniture is usually of poor quality and will end up in the landfill.  On the other hand, I still have a lot of IKEA furniture I bought when I was less wealthy that has survived several moves.

Quote:

I do however with the same passionate fervour totally reject any
progressive activist that would link Israel to White Supremacists. It
wins us no friends and makes a laughing stock of real anti-racism. As
much as I deplore O'hara's characterization of Israel's position I do
agree with her that using the comparisions to white supremacy  is
pretty contemptible.

Municipalities have developed this destructive self-image of themselves that if they were teenagers we would send them to therapists. They believe they exist not for those who reside and pay taxes within them, but for foreign investors somewhere remote detached. Thus they sacrifice local, home grown businesses for the sprawl of big box retailers. As well, they fail to fully understand the value of land. Once land has been sold and developed for roads or so-called regional retail nodes, the land is gone no matter what other productive purpose it served whether agriculture, wet land, forest, habitat, whatever (all things we end up having to pay for. For example, a wet land provides the same service for free as does a $100 million storm water treatment plant).

In the next 20 years, people in cities all over the world will regret not having more undeveloped green spaces and agricultural land close to where they live. They will not regret having missed another consumer opportunity at  another Big Box store. 

Michelle wrote:

Why is IKEA worse than any other furniture store?

 

I have no issues with IKEA per se. The main issue here is that this particular store will be part of a new big-box development on the fringe an already sprawling city. As genstrike pointed out, planning in Winnipeg is atrotiously poorly done, and this new development will only make it worse.

The other issue is one of self-esteem. Many people in Winnipeg seem to think we are now "on the map" because the foreign-owned IKEA decided to set up shop. It's almost as if people want outsiders to noitce Winnipeg and what a "great" place it is instead of building our own community here.  No different than judging your own self-worth by whether or not the "cool" kids in school notice you.

I like Maria Vinka's rocking chair made from banana tree leaves. Waste not want not.

And they apparently teamed up with a housing developer to build affordable housing in England. Brown's Labour put $15 billion on social housing, and some of them look pretty good as far as I can tell.

I bought some furniture at IKEA in Halifax many years ago, when they first opened. It was solid pine. I recently went to an IKEA and noticed particle board and really flimsy designs. It ain't what it used to be. Better to attend auctions and get some solid furniture (if you are patient ).

As nice as handcrafted furniture is, I'm not as fussy about having a handcrafted desk lamp, handcrafted dish drainer, handcrafted cutlery, and so on.

I have two awesome cast iron dutch ovens from IKEA.  Both of them, together, were about a third of the price of similar pieces from Le Creuset.  Also, most of my pots and pans are from IKEA, and they've given me years of great service.

Why the hate on for IKEA?  They're not Walmart.

It depends on which dresser.

I looked for reasonably priced dressers that did not need a ton of work done to make them usable and not hideous for the wild girls for nearly two years before picking up a pair at the Ikea in Edmonton (trip there was for another reason).  They aren't particle board.  They're also not top quality, but median range for kids' furniture is fine.  The girls will either take them with them when they leave home or they will be donated so someone else gets some wear out of them. 

I prefer to buy used furniture - I have re-upholstered a couch and chair, bought an old, used china cabinet that needed some TLC, same with my dining room table, etc, etc.  Sadly, you can't always find just the thing you need that way - and garage sales are labour intensive.  Also, some of them should be called "garbage sales".

Ikea also has some really good kitchen wares and toys - including art supplies.  I like Ikea just fine.

How IKEA operates in America

Ikea workers in the US have just won union certification.  This is one very nasty company.  It is interesting that America is now becoming a destination for sweat shop employers because of its lack of employment standards. Ikea markets itself as a corporation that raises labor standards all along its supply chain through its corporate ethics policy.

Quote:

Union organizing won back the weekend for Tawanda Tarpley and her co-workers at an Ikea-owned furniture plant in Danville, Virginia.

Mandatory overtime at the Swedish-owned plant meant that last year she worked for three months without a single day off. The union raised such a stink about the mandatory overtime that curious Swedish journalists turned up in Virginia.

After scathing articles about conditions in the Swedwood plant appeared overseas, union woodworkers in Europe and Asia pressured the iconic Swedish brand.

Even Jon Stewart’s satirical “Daily Show” made an appearance, picking up a line from Machinists union organizer Bill Street, who painted the situation in Danville as an example of the U.S. turning into “Europe’s Mexico.”

Management backed down, and the Machinists (IAM) won 221-69 with a 91 percent turnout in a July 27 vote.

“We were fed up with wages, safety concerns, overall communication. We want to be treated with respect,” Tarpley said, adding that once, an angry supervisor threw a board at a co-worker.

IAM says Danville’s plant is the most dangerous furniture factory in the U.S., with 1,536 days lost from work due to injury since 2007.

OSHA fined the plant $13,500 for lying about its accident rates and hiding eight serious injuries.

Last year the company dropped pay all over the Swedwood plant. In the shipping department, starting pay went from $9.75 to $8 an hour.

Until the union drive goaded managers into making changes, nearly a third of the workforce was hired through a temporary agency. That changed, Tarpley said, “by us making it an issue—we wanted to have the front office hire some of them.”

They were successful in getting most of the temps hired permanently. Some had worked in the plant for years.

The working conditions in Danville are quite a contrast with Ikea’s unionized factories in Sweden, where starting workers make $19 hour and receive five weeks’ paid vacation.

POINT SYSTEM

 

The Ikea workers loathe their humiliating discipline system. If a worker accumulates nine points, he or she is fired.

Going to the restroom without permission costs a point. When Tarpley’s son was hit by a car, she had to leave early to go to the emergency room. She earned a half point. There’s no appealing it, she said.

A man collapsed from heat exhaustion during the recent heat wave (workers said the factory reaches 102 degrees inside). He was carried out on a stretcher—and assessed a point.

“It’s the most strict place I have ever worked," 63-year-old Janis Wilborne told the Los Angeles Times. Like many workers in Danville, she left the job in disgust.

The mandatory overtime drove many away. "I need money as bad as anybody, but I also need a life," Kylette Duncan told the paper. She left for a lower-paying retail job.

Workers say there is no formal training in the plant. They are taught by other workers who may have been there only a few weeks, who in turn were taught by untrained co-workers. “Nobody really knows what they’re doing,” said Tarpley.

Workers also complain of favoritism. Managers will hire family members and then quickly promote them over long-time workers, she said.

Black workers charged they get worse shifts and are passed over for promotions. Six claims are pending against the company for racial discrimination.

http://labornotes.org/2011/08/furniture-workers-win-ikea-union-drive-hel...

 

I fucking hate right to work states. That causes such hardship that I actually applaud my Republican Father in Laws employment standards when he had his own store

No the first thing to do is change the laws so that there are actual employment standards and workers rights.  Its hard for me to engage in boycotts because I buy less than most people and always look for local businesses that treat their employees well.  Ikea is not somewhere I would normally shop so my continuing to not shop there is meaningless in trying to ensure this company does not exploit its workers.

DaveW wrote:

al-Qa'bong wrote:

We go to IKEA whenever we're in Edmonchuck; it's exactly like the one in Nantes, which is the first, and only other one, we've been to.  .....

The one in Nantes is just off Salvador Allende boulevard .... I doubt the one in Edmonton is.

The closest thing Edmonton has to an Allende Boulevard is [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Ernest_Roper]Roper Road[/url]. Not sure where that is in relation to the Ikea.