Comment 39218

By Meredith (registered) - website | Posted March 28, 2010 at 01:15:47

Ikea "upscale"? Hardly.

That said, I hear you. I got my own walnut dining set for peanuts.. from someone who thought the family heirloom just "didn't fit" into the house they were buying. Too bad for them...

With James North it's a bit different though.. If I walk into a house with that type of furniture you see through the window at Ricca's, you know that it's probably Nonna who lives there. And the other furniture sellers nearby (Hart and possibly the Salvation Army) have low-priced, low-quality furniture.

What I meant was that as the demographics of the surrounding area become more diverse in age and culture, new products will be required to serve that new demographic.

Sure, Ikea's cheap and has a bit more style than the average department store at competitive prices. But there's a market for not-Ikea as well. There's a market for solid wood, for one. There's a market for hand-made. There's a market for furniture resellers - antiques, mid-century modern, whatever. There's a market for new Canadian-made/locally made. There's a market for all sorts of other things besides just your "lasts for one move" particleboard/MDF, pine, or veneered flatpack furniture.

It doesn't have to mean prohibitively expensive for those who live nearby, though it probably will cost more than that $170 IKEA table... still, that type of specialty furniture isn't just purchased by those around it, but it's specialized enough that people will travel to buy it.

Wouldn't it be an amazing addition to an art distict to have some true craftspeople making furniture that's well-designed, carefully made, then creatively and playfully displayed?

Comment edited by Meredith on 2010-03-28 00:22:13

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose... being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." - G.B. Shaw

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