Not having an IKEA anywhere near me, but hearing it’s praises, I decided to poke around their website to see if there is anything I like. But it seems that a lot of their stock isn’t available to order online.
I realize things like cabinets, large furniture pieces, etc… would be unpractical and expensive to ship, but why don’t they sell more of their smaller things like lamps, small shelves, various storage containers, etc…?
Based on the abysmal quality of their merchandise, I doubt much of their stock would withstand transport.
I would guess because their furniture is too heavy for UPS, FedEx or USPS…
I have an Ikea bed. Solid pine. It’s held up quite well over the past decade and a half.
Pulling orders for shipping is suprisingly expensive. Their model is that customers pull their own items from the warehouse which reduces overhead.
BTW: I think Ikea has pretty good quality overall, especially given the prices.
IKEA quality varies, but some it is very nice. You’ll get my EKTORP couch with the fully machine washable upholstery from my cold, dead hands.
I can understand why they don’t do online ordering, but I don’t get why they don’t offer local ship-from-store. Since IKEAs generally deliver locally for a flat fee (in Long Island it’s $100 for any amount of merchandise) and store inventory can be checked online, I don’t see why you can’t request a delivery without stepping into the store.
In addition to the previous point about IKEA being a DIY shopping experience, if you could order everything online, then you couldn’t wander through their store and spontaneously buy everything. IKEA put a lot of planning into making their stores a place where you go and walk through the entire store and sit and eat Swedish meatballs. An equivalent online store would undermine that effort.
I think shipping might be an issue, since they would have to come to some sort of long-term, wide-scope agreement with the third-party shippers who deliver the merchandise. You can’t, after all, expect FedEx or UPS to accommodate a steady stream of 100lb. sofas or dining room tables.
My Ektorp is from IKEA, purchased online.
We have bought things from Ikea online, not in the US though. The quality has been fine. Much better than some supposedly high quality wooden children’s furniture we got from elsewhere.
is that based on personal experience? Because this is a bit of a meme among people who never had an IKEA piece in their home ever, and it has always sounded a bit like sour grapes to me. I’ve had an couch that broke down prematurely, yes. But I’ve had two other couches, two matresses,(my ex kept the other one 
) a kitchen, and and a LOT of other furniture in the past 15 years that was excellent. Not just “excellent for the price” but just plain excellent.
Ditto the follow up remarks about Ikea quality. I’ve had Ikea stuff for years and never had any of it break down or anything like that.
-FrL-
Quality is subjective. I’ve got lots of stuff from Ikea, but it’s touch and go. It’s about below Wal-Mart on some things, about par on others, still much better on others, and very damn good on others.
In the end, you get what you pay for. My plastic cutting mats? Fantastic; I don’t bother with my heavy maple cutting board any more. Their knives? Absolute garbage. Some wooden furniture? This is a tough one: wood is great, but the fastening and fittings are kind of shoddy, which makes the piece kind of shoddy.
I guess a lot has to do with what you call quality. I don’t define quality as “does it look nice,” but rather, “is it well-built; does it serve its purpose; is it aesthetic; all in relation to the price.” But then I’m an engineer, so we’re strange that way.
The people in this thread defending Ikea’s quality haven’t been saying it “looks nice.” They’ve been saying the pieces hold up over time, don’t break, stay put together, etc.
As an engineer, though, you probably have a more refined idea about what is well-built, so I’m not surprised if you can see problems the rest of us can’t.
-FrL-
I think IKEA employ exceptional designers, across the board. The fabrication of their stuff can be hit and miss, though. Had good experiences with their kitchens, which look nice and wear OK. Stuff like dressers, chest of drawers - anything to do with drawers really, can be shocking.
What’s the alternative though? It’s a massive hike in price to get to real quality, last a lifetime furniture.
It can also depend where you live. I have an IKEA nearby, and was able to order a queen-size bed frame (which came in a surprisingly small but heavy box) as well as a huge assortment of modular shelving components to construct an entire wall worth of book/dvd-shelves/entertainment center/miscellaneous storage.
In both cases, the stuff was delivered by a local freight company, rather than UPS or FedEx. I imagine that shipping via this method is limited to a certain radius from each location.
Why not? Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, all those places have online shopping.
The thing is, too, when you buy something from IKEA, they are kind of anal about packaging it in as small a box as possible, to make it possible to cart home in your car. So I think they are so vehemently about in-person shopping that they really try to make it a pleasant experience.
For me, I prefer that. I don’t love online shipping anyway. It’s about 2.5 hours from us, so it’s not like we’re going every week, but when we go, we hit Woodbury Commons and also Trader Joe’s (which is one of the closest ones nearby) and it makes a day trip.
I have also found that their furniture holds up pretty well. I wonder what people do to their furniture to make it break down anyway. I don’t have any kids so that might be it but I have made beds and dressers last for years and years before replacing them out of a sense of aesthetics rather than damage. I don’t have a lot of IKEA stuff, but what I have has held up.
Some pieces do, some don’t. Their big wardrobe pieces are mostly particleboard. Fine if they’re permanently installed, but really sketchy if you want to move them to a new place. I figure most of my IKEA stuff, even the lousy pieces, will last as long as I actually want to own them. They’re not heirloom pieces to hand down to my grandkids, but they’ll last long enough.
Yes, Ikea’s particleboard furniture generally doesn’t move well.
Heirlooms to be handed down? I have noticed that that seems to be an ideal in the USA. It isn’t however, over here anymore. Nobody wants old furniture, and a piece has to be really worthwhile (either over 100 years old, OR by A Big Name Designer, and bloody expensive to begin with) to even begin to merit the label “antique” . Otherwise, an old dresser is just an old unpractical unstylish thing that is lucky if it ends up in the toolshed.
Furniture is bought for 10, to 30 years. Ikea fits that concept like a glove.
If they sold only their meatballs online they’d make an extra $10,000,000 per fiscal year.
And thats just from me.
They do sell those meatballs frozen in their food shops to take home.