Ikea

Hoperama

Hi all,
Have just put down a deposit on an apartment, won't be ready until November though. Was relying on Flatpack Ireland to deliver Ikea furniture when the time came, but they went bust last month. Does anyone know when Ikea is arriving in Dublin? Or if there are any other options for delivery? Cheers!

MorningStar

I wouldn't hold my breath on the store opening here. There is a lot of disputes about the place in Ballymun.

The IKEA stores do deliver to Ireland if you go over. If you ring the stores you can find out which ones. I think it's the ones in Scotland.

I bought IKEA stuff before and while it is cheap and cheerful it doesn't last. IMHO it isn't worth it you are better buying less good stuff as it will last. You really need to see the stuff in person as you will be surprised how cheap some of the stuff is. Don't get me wrong some of their stuff is good but you can't really tell from the catalogue.

edmund_f

Have no experience of Ikea, but when i was kitting out the house, my personal experience was that when you went down the country you seemed to get much better value for money. I got most of my stuff from retailers around Cork. Do not know if that is still the same case, as this was two years ago. Moral of the story is to go to some of these places, most of the better value ones will not bother to advertise on the web, ask anyone who has recently kitted out a house they may have some advice, perhaps even a thread here?

maeve49

I have to agree with MorningStar, you do really need to see the stuff IKEA has before buying it, my sister in Scotland had sent me over the catalogue as I going to go over and bring the car with me, I had picked out the stuff I wanted but when we went to the shop, some of the stuff looked awful - really cheap and badly made while other stuff looked great, you really would need to see it first. I wouldn't bank on the Ballymun shop opening anytime soon. If you have access to a car/van it might be worth your while driving over, I got the Ferry from Belfast to Stranraer (only 45 mins) and I think it cost about 100 euros return and there is an Ikea in Glasgow so you could probably do the round trip in one day if you had to!

fdevine

If youre set on IKEA stuff, there are organised coach trips to one of the Scottish stores. If you have a car, either go via Belfast/Larne to Scotland OR Dublin to Holyhead and go to Warrington.

Around the end of July, which isnt that far off, Argos do a catalogue clearance and usually have some good furniture deals.

As edmund f says, there can be good value to be had in the country. Friends of mine bought furniture in Roscommon at half the price of what they could have got in Dublin

copacetic

been looking into this stuff myself as have just moved into a new place.
ikea in glasgow are the only store that I can find that definitely deliver to
ireland at £120GBP/pallet of goods.

In general I have found the quality of the stuff I have seen to be high, similar
to say habitat, but at much better prices..

Andrew Duffy

Off topic, but Ikea owns Habitat, so it's unsurprising that the quality would be similar...

copacetic

isn't habitat an offshoot of conran and not ikea and aren't the irish one idependent
and not woned by habitat themselves?

or have ikea bought them all since?

Rew

Odd that people found the quality of Ikea stuff lacking. My parents spent ages in main land europe and bought a **** load of stuff in Ikea to bring home. All of it has been of the upmost quality and there ahs abeen no problems with any of it. If loads of little bits like pots, pans and lamps from there that are absoultly great.

okidoki987

I bought IKEA stuff before and while it is cheap and cheerful it doesn't last.

You must have been very unlucky.
I have 2 houses mostly furnished with Ikea stuff.
Find me better quality at the same price and I'll buy.
Their stuff is 1/10 of the price here!
If their stuff was rubbish, they wouldn't be doing so well would they?

Ikea owns Habitat

No they don't. Conran does.

You can fly to Glasgow any Wednesday for about 40 Euro with Ryanair but a train and taxi to get to Ikea. Better off going Aer Lingus (if they have a special on). 5 mins away in a taxi from the store. They deliver to Dublin at 100 gbp for the first 2 pallets (would fit a suite of furniture and mirrors etc)
and 50 gbp for the rest.

When they open here (if) the place will be mad!

MorningStar

okidoki987 wrote:

You must have been very unlucky.

If their stuff was rubbish, they wouldn't be doing so well would they?

Ikea is not quality furniture just different standrads I guess. Anything put together by the customer with an allen key just can't be.

Bargintown does pretty well here and they sell cr*p. You can sell crap and do well very easily. Ikea uses the fashion retail model but with furniture, cheap goods sold for high margins but with the added bonus of a longish shelf life

okidoki987

cheap goods sold for high margins

High margins and Ikea don't really go in the same sentence.
One of the great things about Ikea is the prices.
Their quality is as good as anything you will get in Classic Furniture or any of these type of stores. When (IF) Ikea open here, most of these places may go bust. There are however 3 reasons why they mighn't.
(A) Ikea don't really do a huge range of suites
(B) People will get hacked off with the Q's and say "bugger this I'll pay the extra 500 yoyo's to shop in peace".
(C) They all bring their prices down

MorningStar

okidoki987 wrote:

High margins and Ikea don't really go in the same sentence.
One of the great things about Ikea is the prices.
Their quality is as good as anything you will get in Classic Furniture or any of these type of stores.

Ikeas makes about 20-30% margin on most of it's items. A supermarket makes about 10-15% a wholesale makes about 4%. That's a high margin
I agree the quality is about the same standard as Classic but that's a cr*p standard. Joints are glue and staples. We just think differently about standards.
Well Foko and ID design didn't last and their designs were similar so you could be right but they were also expensive.

Andrew Duffy

okidoki987 wrote:

No they don't. Conran does.

Unless you want to be incredibly picky, yes it does. The Storehouse Group, consisting of Habitat and Mothercare, is entirely owned by IKEA's parent group, IKANO.

Rew

MorningStar wrote:

Anything put together by the customer with an allen key just can't be.

Thats a pretty sweeping generalisation. Just coz its customer put together dosn't mean its crap.

okidoki987

That's why they can keep the prices down because you assemble it yourself.
They have the best instructions of any flat pack company I have used.

Rew

okidoki987 wrote:

That's why they can keep the prices down because you assemble it yourself.
They have the best instructions of any flat pack company I have used.

Not to mention they bits all fit together properly. I bought a Sony TV and had to take a saw to parts of the stand to get it to go together. Even at that the screws were too short to put the plastic fronts on the legs...

MorningStar

Rew wrote:

Thats a pretty sweeping generalisation. Just coz its customer put together dosn't mean its crap.

I never said it was cr*p because you put it together yourself. Just that it's not top quality. I own flat pack stuff too but not as my main furniture. Most of Ikea's stuff is made using chipboard and plastic venier. I don't think you can call that's quality or stuff that will last.

okidoki987 wrote:

That's why they can keep the prices down because you assemble it yourself.
They have the best instructions of any flat pack company I have used.

I don't mean to sound condecending but I work with a lot a retail companies and have a fair knowledge on this. Ikea are cheap mainly due to size of stores low staff and cheap product and high margins. Being flat pack allows efficient sizes low staff and cheap products so it's not as simple as self esmebly mean cheap. The building design is really key as it makes people buy. You would not believe the money Ikea spend on psychology.

GP

MorningStar wrote:

I never said it was cr*p because you put it together yourself. Just that it's not top quality. I own flat pack stuff too but not as my main furniture. Most of Ikea's stuff is made using chipboard and plastic venier. I don't think you can call that's quality or stuff that will last.



I don't mean to sound condecending but I work with a lot a retail companies and have a fair knowledge on this. Ikea are cheap mainly due to size of stores low staff and cheap product and high margins. Being flat pack allows efficient sizes low staff and cheap products so it's not as simple as self esmebly mean cheap. The building design is really key as it makes people buy. You would not believe the money Ikea spend on psychology.

I'ev bought a kitchen form them and theire pretty good. Kitchen caracasses worldwide are made with chipboard coverd with melamine / laminates. The reason isn't that the product they sell is cheap, but that IKEA is very big and they can negotiate the best deals. Compared to the crap sold in Ireland as "the latest and greatest", there's no comparison. Ikea's combination of prices, availabitlity and MOST IMPORTANTLY customer care makes it the best option or me to buy goods.

The only reason that the local kitchen's don't come flat packed is because they have a smaller turnover of kitchens and can store the carcasses.

I took 4 months looking around here first at kitchens and they're the biggest sharks out. Once again people are being fleeced because they "think" they know about kitchens and they believe the hype. The arrogance of these companies is unbelievable. As with most things here, they act as if they are doing the customer a favour by selling them their over-priced products.

You could do a lot worse than IKEA products I think.

GP
p.s what's the difference between a 19year old apprentice drilling the screws to assemble the kitchen carcasses at the local kitchen supplier or doing it yourself on the IKEA carcasses?? the holes are in the same place and all you have to do is push the button. I don't think that means it's bad quality.

Dellgirl

You would not believe the money Ikea spend on psychology

Youre right ....not until i see evidence like you obviously have. Share please.

MorningStar

Blingarella wrote:

Youre right ....not until i see evidence like you obviously have. Share please.

Sorry I should have been very specific . The "likes" of Ikea deal with lots of consultants on various subjects. Do you need evidence that they use interior designers to decide the look of their displays? They use a lot of differnt types of people and the science of psychology is applied in many places in their buildings. Don't believe me but you would be nieve to think the lack of windows and winding path through the store is for your ease and not to make you buy more.

GP wrote:

You could do a lot worse than IKEA products I think.

I agree you could do worse but that doesn't make Ikea great. The stuff is fine but nobody can call it top quality.

What's with this rehashed anyway?

Dellgirl

Sorry I should have been very specific . The "likes" of Ikea deal with lots of consultants on various subjects. Do you need evidence that they use interior designers to decide the look of their displays? They use a lot of differnt types of people and the science of psychology is applied in many places in their buildings. Don't believe me but you would be nieve to think the lack of windows and winding path through the store is for your ease and not to make you buy more

Dont make it sound like i was being pedantic. You were so cock sure I thought you had seen a report on it. If someone said they were carving their own furniture, I bet some treehugger would be on telling us about the trees pain. Put a poll up for IKEA quality or not?
My Aunt used to always say "the likes of you" when we were bould - which was often.

MorningStar

Blingarella wrote:

Dont make it sound like i was being pedantic. You were so cock sure I thought you had seen a report on it. If someone said they were carving their own furniture, I bet some treehugger would be on telling us about the trees pain. Put a poll up for IKEA quality or not?
My Aunt used to always say "the likes of you" when we were bould - which was often.

I am not your Aunt so don't project
You sounded pedantic, the reason I am sure is becasue I meet these people when on clients' sites. There are a lot of studies on colour and layout and the effect it has on customers.
I have no idea why you are mentioning tree hugers but they aren't impressed with Ikea for lots of reason.
I don't need a poll to decide that I don't think the quality of Ikea furniture is top quality. I own antiques,flat packs,moulded plastic, 70's-90s mass produced etc... Handmade well designed furniture lasts and is generally my preference. For a computer desk a flat pack generally suits the job. If all your furniture was Ikea I doubt it would all last past 5 years but some stuff would. Cheap and cheerful is what is expected, I could have bought 6 Ikea chairs and a table for the price of 2 of my dining chairs. My choice

Attol

In my room I have the following from Ikea:

Futon(base and mattress)
Desk
Bedside cabinet
Coffee table type thing for holding my tv
Wardrobe
2 plant pots
Cork notice board
Picture frames
Hanging thingy for coats etc.
Ornamental glass globe
Storage things like boxes etc.
Blinds
Lamp
Mirror

The only complaints I have about any of it is that I didn't know how to put the futon base together properly so one part of it creaks a bit. Also my dad put the wardrobe doors on the wrong way round so now my wardrobe doesn't close.

The only problems are with putting the pieces together because I really suck at it. My parents basically furnished most of the house with Ikea products when we moved to England and it's all doing it's job. Ikea is handy because you can get everything you need and it caters for all tastes at reasonable prices. If you don't like it then fair enough but I honestly don't see how people can debate the quality of the items. You can get totally basic furniture there that won't last long and you can get decent quality items that are made of high quality materials and (depending on how well it was put together) will last a very, very long time.

A Dub in Glasgo

Have the big IKEA in Braehead near me but I have never found the inclination to furnish my place with them. I bought some large picture frames once and I detest the store layout with the oneway system!!

I would consider buying their Billy bookcases for my DVDs though

Attol

We didn't have a choice really. My dad was trying to save money by hiring a small moving van. Most of our furniiture didn't fit in it, hence the Ikea spree once we got to England.

MorningStar

Has flat pack Ireland closed? I can't seem to find it anymore

iguana

Habitat was created by Terence Conran (now Sir Terence Conran). Habitat and its associated brands were sold in 1992 to the Stichting Ingka Foundation None other than the owners of the IKEA brand.

tcs

Yup I believe so - they've closed. With Ikea delivering themselves (Glasgow store anyway), don't suppose there was as much demand for flatpackireland.

AndyWarhol

What is it with people's obsession with a Swedish furniture company? Why do people want their house to look just like everybody else's?

Anyway, I was reading today's Daily Telegraph on IKEA.

I've cut'n pasted my favourite bit:

"It is DIY in its most minimalist form, but people feel that they have been responsible for making the change in their homes and improved their environment. Ikea design buys into mass culture. It is immediately appealing. It is easy and accessible without the challenge.

"But it's depressing thinking about the inherent blandness of Ikea homes. From Preston to Plymouth, homes have the same look, the Ikea look - no soul or character."

Obviously, the masses are lured by the catalogue; the far-reaching mailshot - the bright greens and oranges and pristine whiteness in the pictures and the children's furniture such as the Lomsk swivel chair, which is shaped like an egg and fitted with a pull-down hood that creates a magical kiddie capsule.

The people who live in the catalogue rooms have kept everything lovely and clean and the earthenware bowls which cost only £1 have yet to be chipped.

Neither do these people in the pictures have one baby strapped to their chest, a crying three-year-old on the end of their arm and a surly, can-kicking 12-year-old asking for a Carlos computer table. "

Ah yes, I love a bit of Torygraph opinion!

GP

AndyWarhol wrote:

What is it with people's obsession with a Swedish furniture company? Why do people want their house to look just like everybody else's?

as opposed to the originality of the furniture in erm.... wait let me think of a place in Ireland that has "different" furniture...hmmmm strange I can't really think of one.

I find it quite funny you say everyone has the same furniture and yet 90% of people here live in the SAME type of house. 2 up 2 down and they all look the same form the outside.

I guess you could always go the route of commissioning a onece off leather couch for 20 000. Of course no one else but you will know because..................... it looks like any other couch.

cuckoo

I've only visited one Ikea (near Berlin), and it was an amazing display of manipulation. The huge creche inside the door so customers could deposit their offspring, the winding path, the carefully sited bins of cheap kids toys that the children who weren't left in the creche could pester power for and be kept quiet with for a while. And the canteen with the really cheap swedish meatballs and free refills of tea, coffee and soft drinks. The free ickle pencils to take note of the codes and the paper measuring tape. A lot of thought has gone into the 'ikea experience'.

But, i'd buy furniture there. It'd be an organised, quasi-military operation, i'd go there first thing in a morning mid week and i'd shake and rattle the display range carefully - i noticed a big difference in the quality between some of the ranges that really surprised me.

And, the bedlinen range is fabulous, 100% cotton in a wide range of colours and finishes - really good quality stuff. I'm very happy with the big bag of home accessories that i bought there.

As others have said above, there'll be scenes like the beach invasion from 'saving private ryan' if it ever opens in Ireland.