>these tables and bookcases aren't, and aren't intended to be, heirloom pieces

It would be nice to be able to buy higher quality furniture, but it is expensive! One might desire a bookcase now, and not be able to find or afford a quality-made alternative. Ikea is a great resource for younger people setting up a home, or for budget-minded consumers. What is the alternative? Cinder-blocks and plywood?

Searching Craigslist (or garage sales) for bargains can pay off, but it takes time, and a degree of knowledge about the item in question. I personally prefer a garage sale to Craigslist, because I can still find the occassional bargain there - a motivated seller who underestimates the value of what they are selling. Craigslist pricing is too saavy usually, and when you come across a deal, several other people are right there too, giving the seller pause to reconsider the value.

Ultimately, higher-end products can't be supported on the incomes of lower-end consumers. All of the notions about sustainibility and quality are great... if we can just provide people with the means to be a market for that, it would be a great thing.

IKEA is NOT as bad as Wal-Mart. IKEA treats their employees better for one, and it doesn't edge out local businesses to the same degree because it operates in a narrower market-niche. You can't buy diapers, beer, eggs, medication and a cabinet at IKEA.

In my opinion, cheaply made and short-lived consumer goods are the symptom, not the disease.

We always buy vintage here on Planet Cheapskate. We've been using our 1932 GE monitor refrigerator for about 20 years now. Never a problem, and is more energy efficient than a new fridge. And our 1928 stove is a dream. Not to mention our 40's electrolux vacuum cleaner (I bought a new hose for it on ebay, but other than that, has been a champ). I don't understand people who buy crap. It's expensive, no matter what you paid for it--for the environment, the workers who made it, you (what's your time worth, going to Target to shop for yet another piece of junk?). Thanks for the opportunity to spout off on a favorite rant.

I imagine someone in the mid-50's complaining "Why, I had to switch from my wind-up Victrola to a newfangled electric model and now they're moving everything over to LP record players. They're just trying to sucker me!"

Or for slightly more contemporary references, replace "a salesclerk snottily informed us that Best Buy would be stopping the sale of VHS tapes within weeks" with "a clerk snottily informed us the store would stop selling LP discs" and replace the idea of phonographs with CD players and you have some idea how ludicrous your charges are.

There's nothing snotty about Best Buy's decision. It's a much better value to you to buy a DVD, which won't wear out and has infinately superior audio/video quality, than to hang on to your VHS tapes that can be chewed up in the machine or, at the very least, will wear out with usage. Also, a Blue Ray player will play your current DVDs quite nicely and upgrade the image quality when you watch them.

Televisions go from analog to digital. Home entertainment goes from phonographs and VCRs to CDs and Blue Rays. It's not about suckering you into spending more money, it's about improving the quality of entertainment.

The bookcases are perfect after over a decade, the chest of drawers does have drawers that sag. Or maybe my wife has too many sweaters.

Also, I don't all furniture stores name their lines? It might be to help personalize them, but I suspect it is because people want chairs that match their tables and bookcases and everything having a similar design and the easiest way to show which pieces are designed to go together is to give them all the same name.

If you really think about the money spent on disposable furniture and appliances you would realize that buying quality actually saves money. I must have spent thousands on vacuum cleaners in my lifetime before I finally broke down and spent the money to buy a Dyson vacuum at Target (no less!).

In my early years my furniture was more disposable, but as I got older I went for quality. I do still have an Ikea bookcase in my office, white laminate over fiberboard that has held up for nearly twenty years. But the bookcases in my living room are cherry bought from Ethan Allen. I too have done the antiques fair circuit and have the 100 year old mahogany china cabinet and buffet in my dining area.

It makes me sad to think that our society has become so focussed on disposable items. We have become a nation of instant gratification with little mind for fine craftsmanship or history. And where do all these disposable items go but to dumps and landfills where they don't break down. At least with quality it can be passed down or reused by others.

When you try to tell someone or share social or political concerns, if it does not effect them personally they just don't care and will not react. We have over two hundred years to show how slow America moves in its own best interests. I have pasted this article on, and I can tell you before hand that but a few will get back to me and say lets talk about it.

It's about 200 years old. Sadly though there are no more Shakers. I also have a 1907 Stickley Mission china closet. Suck it, peasants.

IKEA is a triumph of advertising. Not all their stuff is of good quality, and some of their manufacturing processes are un-earth-friendly. But ... they aren't worse than any other furniture manufacturer, are they?

I don't approve of "disposable" furniture, and so the blatant push to "toss that out and get a new one!" marketing is offensive, but IKEA is hardly the inventor of that idea.

And there are plenty of IKEA products that *are* sustainable, or at least lean that way over their competitors'. I remember seeing plans for an award-winning house designed to be earth-friendly and efficient (no vinyl siding, no heavy chemical finishes on the floors, no melamine. etc). The kitchen cabinets were beautiful maplewood units from IKEA.

We have 6 "Billy" bookcases, that we purchased well over a decade ago. They have been taken apart and reassembled more than once, moved across country, bolted together (and unbolted), and had the back bases cut away to allow hem to rest against a wall over a heat register. They still hold our books without sagging, and look great. We'll probably keep them another decade or more.

Compare that with our much more expensive coffee table form Basset, which probably cost as much as all the bookcases combined. We bought that 5 years ago. The wood laminate has peeled off the sides of the table top in several places, the laminate top is chipped, bubbled, and scratched. It looks completely heinous and cheap, and I'd toss it today, if I didn't feel guilty about both the expense and the wastefulness of such an act. (And plus, if the higher-end store made such crap, where could I go to get a truly good quality piece of furniture, without it costing a year's college tuition?) Given the obvious inferior quality of the materials, I can't imagine this table was produced responsibly.