IKEA: What the hell are you thinking?!?

[AthenaAwakened]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/26/ikea-minimum-wage/11357843/

The privately held Ikea plans to raise its average minimum wage from $9.17 an hour to $10.76 starting January 1. The increase will affect about half of the 11,000 employees at its 38 U.S. stores

"It's driven from our vision of wanting to create a better everyday life for our coworkers," acting IKEA President Rob Olson said in an interview.

Olson says the chain's entry-level pay is already above the average of its competitors. It's also well above the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage. But IKEA, he says, wanted to ensure that its workers receive an adequate income based on the MIT living wage calculator, which estimates what a single adult should earn to afford basic expenses in each U.S. county.

The raise, he says, also will reduce employee turnover and bolster recruitment.

Critics say proposals to raise state and federal minimum wages often force employers to lay off workers or hire fewer people, and lead to price hikes that can hurt low-income Americans in particular.

But Olson says IKEA has no plans to raise prices, cut staff or reduce hiring. He says the company can absorb the pay increase partly because it has cut costs in recent years. The wage hike will narrow profit margins, Olson says, but it ultimately should benefit the bottom line.

 

[RavenSky]

Looks like I need to make the trip and buy some more Swedish meatballs to support this move (since I really don't need any more furniture)

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Looks like I need to make the trip and buy some more Swedish meatballs to support this move (since I really don't need any more furniture)

I may have to break a chair or something.

 

[credoconsolans]

The wage hike will narrow profit margins, Olson says, but it ultimately should benefit the bottom line.

THANK YOU, IKEA!

If only the rest of the corporations followed suit. Giving up a couple of the expensive perqs for their executives or not increasing profit margins for their investors each quarter - yet again - things might be better off for everyone in the long run.

 

[Jayjay]

Looks like I need to make the trip and buy some more Swedish meatballs to support this move (since I really don't need any more furniture)

I may have to break a chair or something.

IKEA appreciates the sentiment, but you know they'll just sell you a box of chair parts that are just as difficult to put together as your original, now broken chair.

 

[Bronzeage]

Looks like I need to make the trip and buy some more Swedish meatballs to support this move (since I really don't need any more furniture)

I may have to break a chair or something.

It's wonderful that IKEA wants to pay its employees a little more money. I always give credit for small improvements.

I firmly believe that in the future, IKEA will be seen as product of it's times, a manufacturer of disposable furniture, whose only appeal was the fact most of it could be taken home in the trunk of a car.

 

[Celldweller]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

 

[Bronzeage]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

 

[Toni]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

 

[Bronzeage]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

 

[Random Person]

The central issue is reflected in this quote:

The raise, he says, also will reduce employee turnover and bolster recruitment.

In this case the employer is benefited by hiring a work force that is a cut above a minimum wage work force. It's a market driven decision vs a benevolent one.

 

[Toni]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

 

[Bronzeage]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

Furniture that is made of wood has an almost infinite life span. After Hurricane Katrina, I repaired and restored several end tables which had floated around the house for a week or so. When people returned to view their ruined homes, there was a desperate need to salvage something from the wreckage. Lamps were the most common, followed by small tables. The pre-Katrina IKEA furniture of New Orleans is in a landfill.

Just to keep post on topic:
IKEA will be paying a little more for the same labor force. They will save money by retaining employees, instead of running newbies through the mill, just to see them quit in less than 90 days, because they can do just as well anywhere else. New employees are the least productive and a company with high turnover is trying to run a business with the least qualified work crew and overworked managers. It's such a common thing, it's part of the corporate culture. Upper management won't even consider higher starting pay or quick step raises. They are content with mediocre performance, because it's all they know.

 

[credoconsolans]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

Furniture that is made of wood has an almost infinite life span. After Hurricane Katrina, I repaired and restored several end tables which had floated around the house for a week or so. When people returned to view their ruined homes, there was a desperate need to salvage something from the wreckage. Lamps were the most common, followed by small tables. The pre-Katrina IKEA furniture of New Orleans is in a landfill.

But how many trees is IKEA saving as opposed to chopping down perfectly good oak trees to make solid oak furniture?

 

[SimpleDon]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/26/ikea-minimum-wage/11357843/

The privately held Ikea plans to raise its average minimum wage from $9.17 an hour to $10.76 starting January 1. The increase will affect about half of the 11,000 employees at its 38 U.S. stores

"It's driven from our vision of wanting to create a better everyday life for our coworkers," acting IKEA President Rob Olson said in an interview.

Olson says the chain's entry-level pay is already above the average of its competitors. It's also well above the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage. But IKEA, he says, wanted to ensure that its workers receive an adequate income based on the MIT living wage calculator, which estimates what a single adult should earn to afford basic expenses in each U.S. county.

The raise, he says, also will reduce employee turnover and bolster recruitment.

Critics say proposals to raise state and federal minimum wages often force employers to lay off workers or hire fewer people, and lead to price hikes that can hurt low-income Americans in particular.

But Olson says IKEA has no plans to raise prices, cut staff or reduce hiring. He says the company can absorb the pay increase partly because it has cut costs in recent years. The wage hike will narrow profit margins, Olson says, but it ultimately should benefit the bottom line.

Prepare for certain economic Armageddon! This will certainly result in many layoffs. Wages are costs that not only cause massive unemployment when they are raised, they also reduce God given profits, the sole reason for the existence of the economy, the life blood of capitalism.

 

[Bronzeage]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

Furniture that is made of wood has an almost infinite life span. After Hurricane Katrina, I repaired and restored several end tables which had floated around the house for a week or so. When people returned to view their ruined homes, there was a desperate need to salvage something from the wreckage. Lamps were the most common, followed by small tables. The pre-Katrina IKEA furniture of New Orleans is in a landfill.

But how many trees is IKEA saving as opposed to chopping down perfectly good oak trees to make solid oak furniture?

How many trees is IKEA saving? IKEA furniture is made from wood fiber which is held together by the most ferocious adhesives known to man and most of them are formaldehyde based. The wood comes from somewhere. I'm not sure what exactly a perfectly good oak tree is, but I would consider a 40 year old straight trunked, high crown oak to be pretty close. That would make some very nice, long lasting furniture. If the forest is properly managed, it is also a renewable resource with an unusual added benefit. A tree factory actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere.

There will always be a market for low cost, convenient furniture, but there is no need to delude ourselves about what it really costs, beyond the price tag.

 

[Toni]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

Furniture that is made of wood has an almost infinite life span. After Hurricane Katrina, I repaired and restored several end tables which had floated around the house for a week or so. When people returned to view their ruined homes, there was a desperate need to salvage something from the wreckage. Lamps were the most common, followed by small tables. The pre-Katrina IKEA furniture of New Orleans is in a landfill.

But how many trees is IKEA saving as opposed to chopping down perfectly good oak trees to make solid oak furniture?

How many trees is IKEA saving? IKEA furniture is made from wood fiber which is held together by the most ferocious adhesives known to man and most of them are formaldehyde based. The wood comes from somewhere. I'm not sure what exactly a perfectly good oak tree is, but I would consider a 40 year old straight trunked, high crown oak to be pretty close. That would make some very nice, long lasting furniture. If the forest is properly managed, it is also a renewable resource with an unusual added benefit. A tree factory actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere.

There will always be a market for low cost, convenient furniture, but there is no need to delude ourselves about what it really costs, beyond the price tag.

^^This^^

 

[SimpleDon]

My nephew is working for Amazon in one of their warehouses. He is just working there for the summer. He will return to college in the fall. But his position is a full time one, most of the people who he was trained with were in their 30's and even a few in their 50's. Company wide they average only eighteen months at Amazon, but warehouse workers average less. Runners in the warehouse walk about 20 miles a shift.

My nephew is a very bright, social person. He has worked there for about a month and he has already gotten a promotion. He now earns a little more than $12 an hour. He is a sorter and now is an assistant foreman.

I don't have any conclusions from all of this. I don't really know what I think about it. $12 an hour is a reasonable wage for summer work for a nineteen year old college student who left it too late to apply for an internship. He won't make the same mistake next year.

 

[fromderinside]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/26/ikea-minimum-wage/11357843/

But Olson says IKEA has no plans to raise prices, cut staff or reduce hiring. He says the company can absorb the pay increase partly because it has cut costs in recent years. The wage hike will narrow profit margins, Olson says, but it ultimately should benefit the bottom line.

Is anyone buying the claim that margins will be decreased given that retention and productivity will climb at IKEA? One can't put things that are bad (short term profit margins) in one sack and things that are good (long term retention and productivity increase) into another and make what looks to be charitable claims.

Its as Random Person puts it.

In this case the employer is benefited by hiring a work force that is a cut above a minimum wage work force. It's a market driven decision vs a benevolent one.

The rest of these posts are just IKEA bias blather.

BTW RavenSky, IKEA sells several dishes with meatballs.

 

[gmbteach]

This is clearly a sinister plot by Obama to import illegal Swede's into the moral decay of our once Christian nation.

More likely a sinister plot to fill the apartments of young professionals with formaldehyde.

Yeah, this whole thread is making it harder for me to hate Ikea as much as I do. But I am strong: I can do it!

I give credit where credit is due. IKEA is based on a brilliant marketing plan. Sell furniture which doesn't need to be delivered in a truck and can be carried upstairs by one person. It's the TV dinner of furniture. It's just another example of selling convenience at the cost of quality.

I understand the appeal to a certain niche. But that business model is what is keeping my old, cheap, crappy furniture in my house instead of migrating to the starter homes of various young adult offspring. I should be able to off load my discarded belongings to the next generation instead of assuming the guilt of sending it to the landfill where it belongs.

Furniture that is made of wood has an almost infinite life span. After Hurricane Katrina, I repaired and restored several end tables which had floated around the house for a week or so. When people returned to view their ruined homes, there was a desperate need to salvage something from the wreckage. Lamps were the most common, followed by small tables. The pre-Katrina IKEA furniture of New Orleans is in a landfill.

But how many trees is IKEA saving as opposed to chopping down perfectly good oak trees to make solid oak furniture?

I am looking around my living room while reading this and see, 2 IKEA chairs, 3 IKEA end tables, a wooden coffee table, some elcheapo IKEA knockoff bookcases, a wooden tv cabinet and a refinished pine dining table. Off all of this furniture, the dining table is the oldest and my favourite. It would be over 40 years old as my parents got it when we first moved to Nerang in 1970. It has now been handed down to me. So give me OAK or WOODEN furniture any day.