IKEA in the ACT? It's not all good news

Maya123 said :

“1825 interiors”
I bought a reasonably (but not super-cheap) priced bedroom armchair there, and several cushions. I think they look very nice. It wasn’t their typical white furniture, which wouldn’t suit my house. My house style is too modern and bright colours for most of 1825 interiors furniture to fit in, but it’s nice to go look at. My style is closer to the nearby Kings Furniture.

Yeah, that country look, for me anyway, seems twee in a a modern house. I’m sure it looks great in a 150 year old house in Yass though

“1825 interiors”
I bought a reasonably (but not super-cheap) priced bedroom armchair there, and several cushions. I think they look very nice. It wasn’t their typical white furniture, which wouldn’t suit my house. My house style is too modern and bright colours for most of 1825 interiors furniture to fit in, but it’s nice to go look at. My style is closer to the nearby Kings Furniture.

HenryBG said :

IKEA is good-quality cheap furniture.

Not sure how their focus on small furniture for putting in poky city apartments will work out in Canberra, but on the whole their stuff is way better than similar cheap rubbish, and has better design, too.

If you want anything more solid, but not super-expensive, I can’t get over what good value this stuff is:
http://www.1825interiors.com.au/

This stuff appears to be made in Vietnam and there is nothing wrong with that except the styles seem pitched to the American market.
There is a store at the DFO/Homemaker Hub at Fyshwick called Timberland Furniture and they custom build variations of their floor stock in Australia for a little extra.
The timbers are mainly Australian and the prices are about the same as imported stuff. The quality is excellent.
In my experience, imported furniture that is cheap falls to bits within 2 years. This suits a lot of people these days. The main problem is getting rid of it as no one wants it so one has to pay for it to be disposed of at the tip.

I thought this was a strange angle to take. You can’t spend your life feeling sorry for the person you’re NOT spending money with every time you buy something.

I’m all for supporting local businesses and local producers – to a point. But I’ll go far and wide for the best deal when it comes to the bigger stuff like furniture, appliances, electronics and cars.

About 80% of my furniture was purchased from Sydney IKEA outlets. I’ll admit the quality is not always brilliant – but it is extremely durable. Suits me (and I’m guessing most people) fine because I’m not looking at the top end of the market.

HenryBG said :

IKEA is good-quality cheap furniture.

Not sure how their focus on small furniture for putting in poky city apartments will work out in Canberra, but on the whole their stuff is way better than similar cheap rubbish, and has better design, too.

Sounds perfect for the latest generation of Australian dreams sitting on sub 500 blocks.

IKEA is good-quality cheap furniture.

Not sure how their focus on small furniture for putting in poky city apartments will work out in Canberra, but on the whole their stuff is way better than similar cheap rubbish, and has better design, too.

If you want anything more solid, but not super-expensive, I can’t get over what good value this stuff is:
http://www.1825interiors.com.au/

montana said :

My prediction is that IKEA Canberra will be the one to close down after about 2 years of trading.

By then, the novelty would have worn off and people will realise that their budget priced furniture is really no good at all.

The ACT Labor minority government wouldn’t let that happen.
The deal must have been good to get them there in the first place given the competition that the airport people would have giving.

IKEA’s not opening in Majura Park shopping centre.

It will open on the other side of Majura Road in the yet to be built Majura Parkway Estate.

My prediction is that IKEA Canberra will be the one to close down after about 2 years of trading.

By then, the novelty would have worn off and people will realise that their budget priced furniture is really no good at all.

Paul0075 said :

I can’t afford to shop at the other furniture stores, especially since Ozcro closed down a few months ago.

Ozcro closed down? That’s a real shame – they did some excellent work. We got an absolutely beautiful entertainment unit from them, custom made with tassie oak for substantially less then veneer crap from freedom or the like would have cost, and with a much shorter wait…. 🙁 Will have to make my own bookshelves now, i suppose–I was going to get them from Ozcro too…

Don’t forget the whole south coast market too. We were up at Ikea once and in the line were several people who make the trip from south of Ulladulla. The Bring it Home guys still have anything south/southwest/southeast of here.

bring it on. I can’t wait, but I think I’ll be waiting a few weeks ’till the excitement dies down, just like I did when costco came.

thatsnotme said :

dungfungus said :

I still have some CATT furniture from WA which was custom made with Jarrah. It is 30 years old. I tried to lift one item last week and I couldn’t. Stuff like this is now becoming collectable (like Fler).
I don’t think IKEA stuff will ever be collectable.

Does anyone seriously ever think IKEA stuff will be collectable? Was your custom made furniture considered expensive 30 years ago when you bought it?

Yes.

Out of production IKEA furniture is already highly collectible.

Scandinavian design is timeless and regularly cycles popularity, the same can’t be said for the lumbering chunks of of timber with lathe turned legs the local Canberra market is used to.

I have purchased Australian (custom) made furniture and have plenty of IKEA too. I doubt I will have an issue moving any of the IKEA furniture in future.. the second hand market for well maintained IKEA furniture is huge.

I won’t be shedding a tear for the Canberra market that has been pumping out the same mediocrity for 20+ years.

There’s a reason people have been happy to make 6+ hour round trips to IKEA in Sydney.

dungfungus said :

I still have some CATT furniture from WA which was custom made with Jarrah. It is 30 years old. I tried to lift one item last week and I couldn’t. Stuff like this is now becoming collectable (like Fler).
I don’t think IKEA stuff will ever be collectable.

Does anyone seriously ever think IKEA stuff will be collectable? Was your custom made furniture considered expensive 30 years ago when you bought it?

Comparing hand crafted solid hardwood furniture to flat pack stuff designed to appeal to people on a budget just makes no sense. If I go and buy a new Hyundai or Toyota, I’m not expecting it to turn into a classic 30 years down the track. If I’m buying a Ferrari or Austin Martin though, perhaps I can expect that.

dungfungus said :

Maya123 said :

bigfeet said :

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing. Buy good quality and you will get twenty years. But very good quality and it will last a lifetime. It is hardly a high turn-over item.

Seriously, what are you people doing to (or on) your furniture that you need to regularly replace it?

Ha ha, great entry. Even cheap furniture if looked after will last a long time. My cheap lounge lasted over twenty years, and I only sold it when I wanted a larger, more stylish one. It wasn’t thrown out; it went to a new home as it still had years in it. Presuming that is the new owners treat it as well as I did.

If you want cheap, long lasting furniture it can often be found in second-hand shops. It might need a bit of initial work, but then it will last years; some of it a lifetime and beyond. I bought some second-hand furniture thirty years ago, repaired and did it up and it will outlive me and likely the next owner too. Solid wood, not chipboard.

I still have some CATT furniture from WA which was custom made with Jarrah. It is 30 years old. I tried to lift one item last week and I couldn’t. Stuff like this is now becoming collectable (like Fler).
I don’t think IKEA stuff will ever be collectable.

I just googled CATT furniture. Very retro/funky. Probably a good investment.

Maya123 said :

bigfeet said :

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing. Buy good quality and you will get twenty years. But very good quality and it will last a lifetime. It is hardly a high turn-over item.

Seriously, what are you people doing to (or on) your furniture that you need to regularly replace it?

Ha ha, great entry. Even cheap furniture if looked after will last a long time. My cheap lounge lasted over twenty years, and I only sold it when I wanted a larger, more stylish one. It wasn’t thrown out; it went to a new home as it still had years in it. Presuming that is the new owners treat it as well as I did.

If you want cheap, long lasting furniture it can often be found in second-hand shops. It might need a bit of initial work, but then it will last years; some of it a lifetime and beyond. I bought some second-hand furniture thirty years ago, repaired and did it up and it will outlive me and likely the next owner too. Solid wood, not chipboard.

I still have some CATT furniture from WA which was custom made with Jarrah. It is 30 years old. I tried to lift one item last week and I couldn’t. Stuff like this is now becoming collectable (like Fler).
I don’t think IKEA stuff will ever be collectable.

bigfeet said :

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing. Buy good quality and you will get twenty years. But very good quality and it will last a lifetime. It is hardly a high turn-over item.

Seriously, what are you people doing to (or on) your furniture that you need to regularly replace it?

Ha ha, great entry. Even cheap furniture if looked after will last a long time. My cheap lounge lasted over twenty years, and I only sold it when I wanted a larger, more stylish one. It wasn’t thrown out; it went to a new home as it still had years in it. Presuming that is the new owners treat it as well as I did.

If you want cheap, long lasting furniture it can often be found in second-hand shops. It might need a bit of initial work, but then it will last years; some of it a lifetime and beyond. I bought some second-hand furniture thirty years ago, repaired and did it up and it will outlive me and likely the next owner too. Solid wood, not chipboard.

thefionahamer said :

Maybe the Bring it Home guys can take stuff to Wagga, Yass and Goulburn from Canberra, rather than to Canberra from Sydney.

The Bring It Home guys should switch to assembling Ikea products. I can never follow those illustrations and phoning someone to come around and decipher those illustrations to produce what you see in the store display would surely be a winner.

bigfeet said :

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing.

We bought part of a kitchen and half our bookshelves a few years ago, and the rest of it late last year – the kitchen all screwed together without fuss and it all matches the old stuff. If we changed our mind tomorrow and wanted to turn a cupboard into a set of drawers, change the whole kitchen to a different colour or turn a bookshelf into a glass-door display cabinet we could go back and buy the bits and do it.

You could, if you were completely bat-poo mental, spend two or three days at Ikea and furnish an entire house with just about everything you need; crockery, cutlery, glasses, mugs, utensils, beds, linen, towels, toys, tables, chairs, couches, light fixtures, rugs, bbqs, bookshelves etc etc plus an entire kitchen including appliances.

I’m no blubbering fan-boy either, having spent days conquering shopping lists (literally) 2 feet long (our last trip involved eleven fully loaded large flat-bed trolleys) and installing an entire kitchen I actually convulse and scream uncontrollably when I notice my wife browsing Ikea.com. But it’s all there in one spot, there’s loads of options, it works and it’s cheap.

Holden Caulfield said :

MEAT BALLS!

What, no bacon & egg rolls? How un-Australian is that?

bigfeet said :

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing. Buy good quality and you will get twenty years. But very good quality and it will last a lifetime. It is hardly a high turn-over item.

Seriously, what are you people doing to (or on) your furniture that you need to regularly replace it?

Ikea sell a lot more than just furniture.

Mysteryman said :

I
As for Bring it Home – it’s unfortunate for them, but that’s life in a capitalist world. I hope they can continue to be successful in other ways.

I remember reading a story about them when news of Ikea first broke. As others mentioned, they always new the day would come. They also weren’t doing this full time – it was work on top of their regular jobs, and they weren’t crying over spilled milk. It seemed like they were satisfied that they’d been able to keep this service going for as long as they had.

Mysteryman said :

I’m looking forward to IKEA opening here for the following reasons:

1. I can afford most IKEA products.

2. I can’t afford most of the products sold by “local” retailers.

…

I wanted a nice sofa, so looked around Canberra for what I had in mind. Nearest I could find was $2500, and it wasn’t very close to what I wanted.

IKEA had exactly what I wanted, for $429.

Yeah, I could have bought SIX sofas from IKEA for the same price as one Canberran sofa.

So I drove down to Sydney on a long weekend to buy the IKEA sofa I wanted, and at the register the lady ask me “what’s your postcode?”

“2602” I said.

“Oh” she said. “You’re from Canberra. I wonder why we get so many of you down here on long weekends.”

I’m looking forward to IKEA opening here for the following reasons:

1. I can afford most IKEA products.

2. I can’t afford most of the products sold by “local” retailers.

IKEA aren’t going to put the more expensive furniture retailers out of business. They cater to a different market. What they will do is provide an alternative to the pitiful range currently available for those who are interested in less expensive furniture/goods. And hopefully they’ll do it with service that puts the locals to shame.

As for Bring it Home – it’s unfortunate for them, but that’s life in a capitalist world. I hope they can continue to be successful in other ways.

Holden Caulfield said :

MEAT BALLS!

Horsemeat Balls!!!!

dungfungus said :

arescarti42 said :

As others have said, we live in a market economy and this is how it works. Business models go out of date and firms fail all the time. It’s called progress.

The bottom line is Ikea is the world’s biggest retailer of flat-packed particle board c$#p because it’s really good at it.

Best comment ever on this issue. Seriously.
Joe Hockey could use you as a media adviser right now.

My advice to Joe Hockey is don’t talk to the media.

I’ve used the “Ikea Taxi” in Europe – they charged a flat fee and it was great – these guys should still offer the service locally and regionally as a lot of the IKEA stuff is just too big and heavy to handle in a car. How about offering an IKEA contruction service as well – saves fighting with allen keys and screwdrives especially if you are on your own.

I have always failed to understand what the fuss is all about.

It’s furniture. Why do you need a regular supplier? You buy an item and then keep it for about a decade and replace it when it is failing. Buy good quality and you will get twenty years. But very good quality and it will last a lifetime. It is hardly a high turn-over item.

Seriously, what are you people doing to (or on) your furniture that you need to regularly replace it?

watto23 said :

If a business can’t compete on quality or price why should it still exist to rort customers?

I agree.

Interesting that there’s so much noise about support local grocers, though.

arescarti42 said :

As others have said, we live in a market economy and this is how it works. Business models go out of date and firms fail all the time. It’s called progress.

The bottom line is Ikea is the world’s biggest retailer of flat-packed particle board c$#p because it’s really good at it.

Best comment ever on this issue. Seriously.
Joe Hockey could use you as a media adviser right now.

As others have said, we live in a market economy and this is how it works. Business models go out of date and firms fail all the time. It’s called progress.

The bottom line is Ikea is the world’s biggest retailer of flat-packed particle board c$#p because it’s really good at it.

I have never seen an IKEA store and will be checking it out with interest. From the photographs I have seen I have gained the impression it is modern, but a little flimsy looking and bland. But I will make a final judgement when I see it. I hope it isn’t all white.

Personally I find Ikea furniture expensive and about the same quality as fantastic Furniture. I usually find better quality for the same price elsewhere. I do like some of their homewares though and the food.

Ikea is suitable for a good income first time out of home type situation… and Canberra gets a brand new lot each year.

“Even the larger chain stores like Fantastic Furniture may see a drop in sales given that IKEA is delivering a similar product at similar prices, paired with the novelty of it being a fresh new brand.”

Excellent!

I cannot wait for Ikea. FF is rubbish with even worse customer service.

Maybe the Bring it Home guys can take stuff to Wagga, Yass and Goulburn from Canberra, rather than to Canberra from Sydney.

Disclosing firstly that I am a fan of Ikea, and will be shopping at their new store, I must ask if you have sought affordable furniture options in those locally-owned, independent furniture stores. We have. There are none to be found.
Even Bring it Home charge an incredible amount for their services. Some friends and I did a quick calculation recently of how much we could undercut their prices and still make a profit.
Small business is not an automatic licence to squeeze blood out of an already dry stone of a market.

I can’t afford to shop at the other furniture stores, especially since Ozcro closed down a few months ago. IKEA is better quality than the cheap c#$p that’s offered by Fantastic and some of the other discount furniture places for less money. So I for one can’t wait for IKEA to open here.

It is sad the Bring It Home guys will no long have a working business model, however they stated recently in an interview they knew it’d eventually happen. Perhaps they could offer to deliver around Canberra, and do the assembly and installation for people instead.

IKEA opening is not all doom and gloom, they cater for a very specific market, and many of the stores in Canberra that sell furniture aren’t going for that kind of dollar.

The population size criteria that Ikea supposedly adhere too is just urban legend, surely? Why would they restrict their business model like that? Nothing has been bypassed here, it’s a clear move towards expanding into new markets. The Canberra store is said to be a blueprint for future smaller stores as it is the first single-level design.

Bring it Home would have seen the writing on the wall a few years ago. In any case, Ikea delivery services are usually handled by contractors and Michael and Loyzek are reportedly in negotiations to secure the local contract.

Plenty of people don’t like Ikea, are not in a position to assemble their own or desire something of better quality. Local furniture stores will just have to adapt to the new market forces.

This kind of logic says we should never allow anyone to build anything because it’s always taking away someone’s job. It’s called capitalism, not protectionism. If the existing businesses want to compete they will obviously need to step up their game. Ikea and furniture sales isn’t some Woolies /Coles type mono/duopoly.

As an anecdote my wife and I were looking for bedside tables about a year ago, every single furniture place in Canberra we found had the same dark stained wood with the created imperfection marks and gouges all from a south east Asian country, every single one.

So it’s hardly surprising that people in Canberra are crying out for someplace that isn’t just a reseller.

MEAT BALLS!

dungfungus said :

I would like to know what incentives and concessions the government have given them to open in Canberra as IKEA appear to have by-passed the normal criteria they would require to expand into a regional area.
Thank you for acknowledging that the jobs “created” will be to the detriment of employees of existing retailing businesses. There will be more empty shops in Fyshwick, no doubt.
Governments never seem to understand this.

Do you ever support anything?
If a business can’t compete on quality or price why should it still exist to rort customers? Some of those independant furniture shops have provided me woeful business, woeful pricing and woeful service over the years. Now Ikea is coming and i’m somehow meant to support the independant businesses, because there is competition. Businesses need to adpat and change to environments all the time.

Some furniture businesses might suffer, but maybe the existing businesses at Majura park will benefit and need to hire more people. Maybe businesses will adapt to a different retail model and actually improve their sales and hire more staff. You have no facts, evidence or proof that opening an Ikea will close any business down. I’m sure one probably will, but i doubt it will be as many staff as Ikea hires.

The government has made no concessions at all, except for providing the land to build on. In fact i think the government wanted them to build somewhere near a town centre but none of the land was suitable. The land they are building on has low value and appeal so it makes good sense and good use of that land.

Also Ikea knows exactly how much business they get from Canberra unless people lie about their postcodes. Build a store in Canberra and they will gain all that business and more from people who can’t be bothered travelling, plus business from people who would travel but Sydney is too far, so only go occasionally when in Sydney. Plus its going to be a smaller store with less stock on shelves.

I would like to know what incentives and concessions the government have given them to open in Canberra as IKEA appear to have by-passed the normal criteria they would require to expand into a regional area.
Thank you for acknowledging that the jobs “created” will be to the detriment of employees of existing retailing businesses. There will be more empty shops in Fyshwick, no doubt.
Governments never seem to understand this.