On consumption

IKEA is the consumer's dream (or nightmare) come true. We are a consumeristic society, at least some people think so. So we usually don't think twice about buying things. But there are those of us who try to limit our consumption to conserve resources (like green paper).

In most stores spending more than you intend takes a fair amount of justification ($200 isn't that much, right, and we really do need a pink laundrybascket that sings christmas carols) . It is usually only when we walk into a store that sells something we are passionate about that we go off the deep end.

But in Ikea it is all so easy. Walk into the store and you will soon need things you didn't know existed. Everything in the store is so...practical...and cheap. It's almost impossible to say no. You suddenly need everything. And it all seems so cool. It's like a little club. Everyone there is in on the secret (we're going to spend a lot and consume a lot because it feels good, makes sense, and...) And so you find yourself wrestling a cart full of heavy boxes and lots of little packages filled with all your new cool stuff. Then you begin to realize...wait theres no way a dresser could fit into a box that small.


2 hours later you're on the carpet in you living room surrounded by piles of little pieces--screws, nails, brackets, gizmos, gadgets, slats, slits, slices, slabs, hunks, doodads, and a hundred other things.

The breakdown begins...yeah it was cheap, but not if I pay myself $20 an hour to put it together...I might as well have gone to a real furniture store. Whats this piece-oh that's nothing...where is that darn piece...oops...it doesn't look like the picture...is that drawer suposed to go there...

Then it ends up in the dumpster...true consumerism. You didn't even have to use it to buy and discard it. The ironic thing is they have this program where they try to get you to buy reusable bags to save the disposable ones...ha, one more thing for the trash.