I can't recall the last time I got a good ass kicking it was that long ago...I think it was the doctor who delivered me to be honest...He slapped my ass to make me breathe after pulling me from the womb...And I'm still looking for the bastard for some payback...But today...IKEA did it! Yes, IKEA kicked my ass, sort of.
It all started rather innocently with Faith declaring that she wanted to go to IKEA and get an office desk and chest of drawers the same as mine so we could share an office rather then her having to use the kitchen table. It sounded legit and I don't mind sharing my home office with her; Our new place has plenty of room so why not?
Off to IKEA we went, me thinking about a plate of Swedish meatballs, mashed potato, gravy and lingonberry jam and Faith thinking about office desks. You can see me below larking about in the warehouse with one of their IKEA hats on, all made out of plastic, and on sale for the low price of $3.50. Nope, I didn't buy it.
[Image removed]
We went straight to the food court thing and, after checking in on your covid safe apps on our phones, we had bite to eat. There was a bit of a wait to get in because they're limiting numbers but 10 meatballs and some mashed potato later I didn't mind too much.
...Then we shopped.
It wasn't much of a shopping expedition though, we went straight to the office section and wrote the numbers down for the items we wanted then headed out to the warehouse section to pick the items, process through the registers and were back in the car heading home pretty quickly. *That's my sort of IKEA trip...Nice and fast.
This is when the trouble started. It wasn't so bad at first, just the typical carry inside, unbox and sort parts process...But before long I was struggling with screws, cam locks, wooden dowels and IKEA instructions. All the while Faith was hovering over me helping. Well, that's what she called it anyway.
I'm not the sort of person who struggles with putting things together but this goddamned desk was a nightmare today and took way longer than it should have. I kept my cool, barely, and pushed on though and right now it's sitting here in the room looking good, and all completely structurally sound...But I'm not in the mood for the chest of drawers.
I actually opened it all up and pulled out the big bag of fixtures, multiple draw rails and runners and just sat there thinking, no more IKEA, no more!
To be honest I would have put it together if I had my cordless drill but I haven't moved all my tools over yet and a couple hours of hand screwing a gazillion screws wasn't filling me with joy...So, I left it for another day. Congratulations IKEA, you kicked my ass.
On another note, I also grabbed one of those gaming headsets with a microphone as I'm doing the VR HiveFest this year. It's not something I'll use much so I got a reasonably cheap one. When unboxing it something seemed a bit suspicious, it looked like it was already opened and...Sure enough, it had been. The cords were all over the place and the microphone thing was missing. Great, now I have to go back and exchange it which I'll do tomorrow. I'm a bit annoyed as @santigs and I were going to do a AltspaceVR test tonight...It'll have to do it on Monday now. So, the G-dog received a double ass-kicking this Sunday.
You should think about getting yourself to HiveFest if you can folks...It's free to register until the 7th December and only requires a small amount of effort on your part - It could be a lot of fun so have a think about it. Go to this website here.
Well, I'm off to make some dinner right now and to get settled in for my Sunday evening. A little food, a documentary on the taking of Berlin in World War Two and some reading is on the agenda. How about you? How has your Sunday been and what have you got done, or planned?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
Alright, I'm in. Just had a walk around. Looks good. Fun. Might even see if I have any friends with a headset I can borrow.
Could be good although I'm not a fan of this sort of thing. I've got an open mind though and why not right? It pays to get involved sometimes. See you there.
Oh man. Hand screwing some flat pack, that's hellish!!!
Yeah man, did the desk and buggered up my hand so fuck you chest of drawers you can wait. 🤣
It can wait till the power tools are in situ!!
Yeah man, I need Ryobi power. I'll get it sorted tomorrow...Or Faith will be on my back. 🙂
They don't like waiting for stuff like that to be done, that's for sure!!
When I said, fuck it I'm done, she got this doe-eyed look and pouted, battered her lashes...I'm like, nope, not happening, then she undid a couple buttons on her blouse and got a bit of cleavage out...That almost did it but I stuck to my guns. That IKEA can wait... 🤣
Hahaha, we all have our tools of the trade!!!
Thank the anime gods that I've yet to ever step foot on the cursed grounds known as Ikea.
Lol, you're not missing much. Just a bunch of people shuffling around as slow as possible like the walking dead, wailing kids, and a fuck load of home products with funny Swedish names. Good meatballs though.
Sounds like the perfect place to go to if I ever feel like throwing myself down a few sets of stairs.
Yeah, it will fullfill that desire easily. Who knows, you might get lucky and take out some people on the way down. 10 points for kids, 15 for adults.
Ahhhh... IKEA, where you go in to get a SINGLE thing... and walk out with a tummy full of meatballs, a carload of extra stuff, and missing several hours of your life.
Yes, pretty much how it went today although we managed to get away with only the desk and drawer unit. It was the assembly that did most of the ass kicking. 😉
Although the meatballs were pretty good, no complaints there.
I hate IKEA. It's just that little bit worse than Costco
Lol, don't get me started on Costco...Hellish.
When you work out that AltSpace thing, let me know how to set it up :)
Yep.
Ikea nightmares. Now I understand it all 😂
Yep, my little IKEA episode has left me in less than a social mood...We'll do our test soon though. 👍🏼
Dear @galenkp, Why do not Australians wear coronavirus masks? If you don't wear a mask in a crowded place in Korea, the fine is US $200.
IKEA furniture is not popular in Korea. Korean babies were injured a lot when they climbed onto IKEA furniture and the furniture broke.
So, IKEA furniture is rated as expensive and bad.
lol, False
That's like 12$ spent per Korean in a single year!
25% of all Koreans have visited an Ikea store in the past year and over 80% on the website.
In Fact
There are only 4 stores in the entire country, so you can imagine how busy they are given the above figures. The first one was the largest on the planet when built-in 2014 - it is truly a commercial marvel. When ikea opened up traffic to get into the place was so bad they had to hire busloads of traffic police.
The Ikea Korean workers are striking because they want as much money as Ikea workers in Europe. They are already well paid for big box store workers in Korea, so it's a nonsense argument.
Cheap and crappy flat-pack Korean furniture also exists (not saying all Ikea furniture or all Korean furniture is cheap and crappy). Korean made furniture also follows the rules of gravity and the top-heavy stuff can crush children who play on them when the furniture is not fixed to the walls properly.
Personally, I'd much rather be crushed by Ikea furniture than furniture made by some random Korean company, because I'm far more likely to receive fair compensation in any lawsuit.
The Korean furniture companies have been hit very hard by Ikea's success. They are lobbying the government to define Ikea as a grocery store so it will have to shut down every 2nd and 4th Sunday each month. Ikea's compromise was to shut down their tiny market in the front of the shop that sells Swedish food on holidays, lol.
So, IKEA furniture is NOT rated as expensive and bad.
Ah ok, this is interesting,
I wouldn't call IKEA bad per se so tend to agree with you, certain products are rubbish in my opinion though, but most are quite good. One gets what one pays for I guess.
Just about any furniture could cause harm to a kid and considering the low weights involved in IKEA furniture maybe it's less of a hazard?
We tend to use IKEA a fair amount but for lounge suites we tend to opt for a more expensive, and better quality, product. Things like I bought today are decent enough though and we have many kitchen utensils, bowls, plates and stuff which seems good enough. We're not fancy people so we're generally happy with IKEA stuff.
And then there's the meatballs! 😉
The hotdogs are awful, but the meatballs are awesome.
There was a tipping problem with a few Ikea designs, some actually come with fasteners to secure it to the wall. I think the high numbers were just due to popularity and Ikea furniture is essentially no more dangerous than any others.
I'm definitely not fancy either. The really cheap stuff from Ikea like those 10$ tables are often junk and look like junk. Their mid and high range stuff is great and I think it looks nice. My kitchen table and chairs have served me well and I have a few things from there I like. I even have an Ikea mattress that was quite expensive (I won't skimp on this), but really damn comfortable. The kitchen stuff is cool, too. I definitely have some.
Yeah, tethering certain furniture is not a bad thing when kids are around. We had a case here where a kid pulled a chest of drawers on himself, a two year old. Killed him,.poor little bugger. Tethering those massive TV's is good too, certainly in a house with kids.
We have loads of IKEA and most of my friends use it too, I agree with you that their mid-priced stuff is pretty good. My brother had a whole kitchen from IKEA and it worked perfectly, looked good and was price effective. It's good gear generally.
And them dem meatballs...🤣
Mine's not mounted or tethered, one day I'll probably regret it. I'm willing to bet Korean TVs injure more people here than Ikea furniture, but they would blame Chinese ones for being more dangerous in this regard. It's protectism.
I do like Ikea, and assembly can be entertaining. I've never got to the point of losing it due to frustration, but I've been close. I don't think I would want to assemble a kitchen or one of those giant closets. So many pieces.
Some of the sets look nice. I think everyone likes the showrooms.
They've hit on a winning formula really, it's all quite ingenious. I watched a documentary on their manufacturing process and systems some time ago and found it very interesting. I used to work in a GM auto plant so am not unfamiliar with inventive systems and was very impressed with what IKEA have put together. There's a series called Mega Factories which showcases various places. Pretty clever stuff.
I'm going to get that drawer unit done tomorrow night as I'm picking up my cordless power drill to screw it all together my wife will be happy. 🙂
Nice to meet you! @abitcoinskeptic, are you a foreigner living in korea?
I wish you understand because I'm not good at English. I think there is a side where I exaggerated the bad reviews of IKEA furniture.
However, it is also true that the evaluation of IKEA furniture by Koreans is lowering.
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=298873
Hello. I understand it was an exaggeration. I'm a foreigner living in Korea.
I'm not sure about the results of Ikea customer satisfaction surveys (I doubt they would make that public), but you are right about negative press. There is no doubt they have been attacked by the local competition. But money speaks best and 30% in a year, wow! I should get me some equity.
Actually, the issue reminds me of what happened to Costco Korea. A decade later, we have E-mart Traders and Lotte Big Mart. Guess what Korea's love the warehouse model.
Impressively Korea managed to chase out Walmart. That was really good in my opinion. We don't want their business model here.
I mentioned they were on strike. However, Korea is not Europe. Korea is Korea and companies and workers in Korea should be treated according to Korean laws and standards. If these are unfair it's an issue for Korea, not Ikea.
I think the Korean economy is doomed if workers start demanding European wages.
I don't blame them for wanting $15 an hour but why should Ikea have to pay double minimum wage?
Emart, Homeplus, etc. all pay similarly to Ikea in Korea. Working on the floor at Ikea is not a good career opportunity.
So they aren't all paid minimum wage. Seems like the union leader is lying. Typical. God, I hate unions.
From my point of view, it seems that Korean workers are asking for wage increases because Ikea is getting more and more profits in Korea.
I think it is natural for workers to demand better treatment and wages as companies get more and more profits.
I can't answer because I'm not sure about that part.
Emart and Homeplus have many services that provide free stock items to employees. Offer coupons to purchase products to employees.
Instead of paying a minimum wage, Emart and Homeplus offers free stock items to employees.
Masks are not law here and Aussies aren't too keen on wearing them to be honest, ever. Some will wear them but a very small percentage. I've yet to wear one through this entire pandemic scenario. Melbourne had a mask law a while back when their second wave hit but since then it is an option.
IKEA is reasonably popular here I guess but one needs to pick and choose the items as some are just rubbish in my opinion; It's certainly not Natuzzi quality. I'm not sure if it's classed as expensive here or not but I don't think it's too costly. The worst part is the assembly of it for me. Hate it, which is odd considering I like building things.
I was surprised that Australia had not made it legal to wear a mask.
I agree with you. IKEA is cheap and not of bad quality. However, Koreans are currently complaining about IKEA's business ethics.
Ah yes, complaints about business ethics of a company will always spill over to affect people's impressions of the product I guess. One goes with the other.
I don't think a company can get as big as IKEA without stepping on some toes, real or perceived, so hopefully it gets sorted out if they are being unethical and if not unethical, well, maybe people need to change their perceptions. Time will straighten it out I hope.
When IKEA furniture first came to Korea, Koreans were fascinated by the European-style prefabricated furniture they encountered. Koreans were the first to see prefab furniture and were fascinated by it. This is because Korean furniture at the time was not prefabricated like IKEA furniture.
The prices of IKEA furniture were cheaper than those of Korean furniture.
As you say, IKEA furniture is affordable and usable. However, the current Korean furniture has also produced new Korean style furniture by imitating the style of IKEA furniture. As the quality and price competitiveness of Korean furniture improves, the popularity of IKEA furniture is relatively decreasing.
Nooo a double ass kicking 🤣 Yep those IKEA things can be painful to put together.
Hand screwing that desk was a pain...Not doing it anymore,I went on strike. Well, had to make dinner, but there's no way I'm doing the drawers without my cordless.
I can't believe you didn't buy the hat! What's not to love?
Lol...In hot weather my head would sweat down to a walnut in size...Need air flow.
I've never been in an IKEA, but aside from the meatballs it doesn't sound very appealing.
I have a theory that no matter how many tools you own, the one that will make any given job easy is always going to be somewhere else. ..
Yep, pretty much sums it up, not very appealing. Although it's the people there that make it that way for me, far too many of them, the showroom itself isn't too bad although they guide you around like a mouse in a maze to ensure you walk past every single item in the store. One way in and out essentially.
Hmm, yeah that the rule of tool the one you need is elsewhere.
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Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
Well I have a wall unit that I bought over 30 years ago and have disassembled and reassembled multiple times over the years.
From IKEA? That's pretty good going for sure!
Yes, from Ikea and I have put it together in different layouts over the years. There are sides that go together with tops and bottoms. I have solid doors and glass doors with a lot of shelves that I can place at whatever height I want.
Here is the current layout, the brighter white unit taking up most of the picture.
That's pretty impressive to be honest, and great value for money I'd say! We have a couple of their shelving units, the square box ones, that have moved around from place to place. They're still going strong. I haven't pulled them apart though.
The last move was 3500km across Canada, so disassembled in Calgary and then put together here in London, ON.
Built IKEA tough! (That used to be the TONKA phrase but it seems to work.) 😀
Nice hat! I'm just looking at this Ikea store and really missing my days of roaming around one. It's the kind of place that I could get lost in for hours.
I'm still wishing for them to develop a technology where I can just remove items from a box, wave a magic wand and ta da!
Yeah, it's really weird you know, no matter what I wear I make it look good.
😂
So I see!!🙃😉😂
Lol, clearly I'm joking...Not everything looks good on me. :)
🤣
Lol, the chef. Damn, I used to love the Muppet Show!
Me too! He's the Swedish chef! From my ventures to Sweden i noticed most of my American Patriots don't know the difference between Sweden and Switzerland! Sad but true.... but the Swiss don't do the meatballs the same! I know that much! hahaha
I've never set foot in an IKEA. I have assembled IKEA furniture. I get it with the ass kicking, I really do.
Have you ever met @tripode? Just a funny coincidence...
Don´t look at me, IKEA kick all the asses.
When I use furniture from there, in my clients designs, I add to the budget a person to do it for me (maybe an ikea employee or a worker of trust). Anybody got time for that
I haven't met @tripode although have had a few chats back and forth.
Maybe we´ll all meet in the HiveFest!
Well, I'll be there, so if you are we may bump into each other.
Yeeeeeesssss😊
I am usually pretty handy putting together shelves and desks from a pack of parts. But there was one desk a friend helped with that almost beat us. There we were, thinking to ourselves that we were a couple of smart college graduates so what was our problem. We got it figured out eventually though.
I think it's a mental blank at times...That's what happened on the weekend. Those bloody drawer runners got me...I had the thing oriented wrong though and so there's me going WTF is going on here. I got there in the end. 😆
Hahaha, sorry this made me laugh, because of the 'helping' part mainly.. I have had so many situations in my life with several ex boyfriends (over the years, of course lol) that all said no no let me do it.. and then, after 1 or 2 pages things went downhill. It just never works without these tools if you use a screwdriver these things get ruined usually. One time an ex screwed together my bed, the whole room was filled with my stuff could barely walk, he messed up the stupid screws while he had them placed in the wrong holes !!! And then he left, the a=hole (he really was btw haha) and there I was alone with a bed that I couldn't use in a room filled with boxes and nowhere to walk. A friend (girl!) came over and we both managed to fix it after a long struggle. Damn...
My boyfriend seriously hates everything from IKEA but at least he uses tools to screw them together so that's like half of the annoyance :)
It's ok to laugh, some moments need a healthy injection of laughter.
I got that desk together with hand tools but drew the line there. Only last night I got the chest of drawers together and it went so much more smoothly as I used my cordless drill. It's really quite simple, one just needs a method, lay out the parts (don't lose any) and getting them in the right holes also works well. I think that boyfriend who abandoned you to that bed construction is probably better off gone wouldn't you say? I mean, any bloke that can't put together a bed, doesn't deserve to use it. :)
Lol, that's honestly the least important reason that I'm better off without him :) hahaha... But yeah, you're right there!
Of course, but I don't know the real reasons so just made one up. 🙂
😂😂 i can imagine how it hurts 😅😅. Well i'm with you, let's go get him.
I've also been in such position before, that was when i bought a new phone. Damn! I was struggling to find the sim slot. Checking the phone manual and even had to Google about the phone. It was fucking stressful 😪😩😩