All the millionaires we’ve known are frugal, regardless of background…
It is my opinion, when individuals are on a public forum they should attempt to use “less offensive” words.
IKEA is not for “poor people”, the furniture can be utilized for many purposes. Being inexpensive is one advantage, but being portable, temporary or modular are other advantages.
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My point was that you can’t use “frugal” as a euphemism for “poor.” Because they don’t mean the same thing. I don’t spend much money =/= I don’t have much money.
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I completely understand. We have to try our best as writers to use inclusive, thoughtful and compassionate language.
I have been trying my best as a reader to hold back and assume the best intentions. I’ve lost enough connections over wording over the past 20 years.
I signed onto Chowhound and eGullet in 2003. I joined Facebook in 2007, Twitter in 2009.
I didn’t start trying harder to not engage and not correct until the past 18 months. I don’t need more things to bother me.
Of course, this is largely an old-fashioned discussion board, in a time when most people like to polarize rather than discuss. I think the like button can validate but it can also increase the feelings of polarization and ostracism.
In the past, I know I have been the pedant and the language police (Canada has language police in Quebec, to police the use of French, English and other languages, it’s a not new term)
Ultimately , it is a whatever floats your boat or to each one’s own or You Do You.
I don’t want people who contribute a lot to leave the Board because they feel they’ve become ostracized.
I had a friend who left the WFD Facebook group, because a word which is a racial slur in Canada and the UK was being used by some posters in Massachusetts. Different spelling, different context, different etymology. Same pronunciation. I explained to him that it was a different word. He took a hard line that he could not be part of a group that would use that word. Nothing would change his mind. He might have enjoyed the FB group for a while.
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Reasonable minds can differ over the “best” part.
One aspect of IKEA I find really disturbing is the very open, unapologetic sense it creates in consumers: that they are merely monetized servants in a commissary system. Of course we’re ALL treated as monetized servants, but IMO, IKEA has taken it to Fritz Lang “Metropolis” levels.
I would also swap ‘poor’ out for ‘apathetically thrifty’.
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I took Ziv to mean, when we were “young and broke”.
I didn’t read into it more than that .
Many of my friends are lifelong Ikea shoppers. I mostly go for the snacks. But maybe I’ll check out their rug department.
I’m still using an Ikea cotton Madras duvet cover in my guest room, a duvet cover that I purchased in 1997.
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I vaguely recall that, but it’s been a few years. I think there are two types of folks who go online: those who are hell-bound to be offended by anything, always ready to feel attacked, and those who give others the benefit of the doubt.
I remember another member leaving in a huff bc they took someone’s annoyance with the lack of interest/sense of culinary adventure on an army base in Korea as a blanket criticism of the US military.
Bottom line: anyone who wants to be offended will find a way to feel offended.
I’m not saying that all their products are flimsy and cheap, but many are. It would make complete sense that there are gems among them. Sounds like you got one.
Is the same duvet cover still offered? For that matter, if they sold me a Kielsonrudmoldsonnendottir sofa 3 years ago, what are the chances I could buy another one next year, after the IPO for my shrimp-n-eggplant pizzaria (PizPrawn & More!)?
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Well worth doing, IMO.
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Gotta love those Ikea names.
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Oh I’m not saying that you were saying that. 
It was made in India. Nice Madras cotton. I doubt they’re selling anything like it now. I find most linens available in Canada right now are not high quality. Even the high thread count sheets are often junk.
I’ve always been focused on country of origin when I’ve shopped at Ikea and everywhere else. My 1997 pine tables were from Poland. We still have the wood chairs with spindles, you probably know the ones. The glue dried up, we re-glued them, they’ve lasted another 20 years.
I donated by Billy particle board Entertainment Unit to Furniture Bank in Toronto around 17 years after I purchased it. I’m still using a pine Billy bookcase I brought in Calgary in 1999, which has now moved with me through 6 apartments.
I had looked at Ikea at one point when I was buying a new bedroom set, but ultimately went the other route and had custom furniture made here in Ontario.
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Some people are more sensitive than others. I don’t think they’re looking to be offended but they can’t move past it when they are offended.
I know I’m bothered relatively easily.
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I think where I grew up we looked at being poor differently than some on this site. We looked at as being something that most of us were going to experience and some of us were going to remain in. My parents, my uncles, my aunts, most of my neighbors all spent time in poverty. We all had years where we were scrimping but still growing debts faster than we could pay off. There is no judgement in referring to oneself or ones friends as being poor. It is just a statement about ones financial condition.
I remember the recession of 1970 pretty clearly because things went from comfortable to austere in my home and stayed that way for a couple years. My family had moved from a 3 room tar paper shotgun shack to a small 3BR1BA home in 1965 and were doing well until the economy slowed and my father lost most of his work. That did not change the respect he was given from his neighbors, in part because most of them were struggling too but they just were not going to judge someone on his finances.
One other point I will make before I post this is that in each of my comments I note that I STILL shop at Ikea occasionally and so do most of my friends despite most of us being a bit more comfortable financially now.
I’m poor now that I’m old, retired, and sick.
I’m motoring in reverse.
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A relative has just furnished a new (divorce necessitated) 3 bedroom apartment mostly from careful selection at Ikea. Still pushing 5 digits. Would have gone much higher elsewhere.
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When I bought my first condo, I could only afford the oldest, tired’est, smallest unit in my hometown so I bought a new kitchen from Ikea and the cabinets alone cost around $2300. But they looked good to me. I had a bed already, so all I needed after the kitchen was an Ektorp couch and two bar stools and it was furnished for the first year.
I lived there for 10 years and scraping the money together for that initial purchase was the best financial decision I ever made. The fact that it was only 530 sq ft made it a bit easier to furnish down the road.
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I think it’s fair to call that condition “poverty”. I am lucky never to have known poverty in my life personally, but I now know that it has influenced me throughout my life. My father grew up in poverty, and my grandparents struggled with with money (making enough) most of their lives. Dad once told my brother and me that for dinner he once had seven bowls of rice. I was impressed, but later my older brother asked me, “Did it even occur to you that he ate seven bowls of rice because there wasn’t anything else to eat?” I think the specter of empty cupboards haunted my dad, and he and my mom passed frugality on to my brother and me.
Mom was a little luckier. Money wasn’t much easier to come by for her family, but they ran a small grocery store, so food was always available. Not a lot, and they didn’t allow themselves to eat anything but the scraps (I’m talking meat, where my mother’s father did most of the butchering, and produce, which was mostly stuff that would have been tossed at the end of the day anyway), but at least they were not food insecure.
Had it existed then, Ikea would have been too fancy for either side of my family in the old days. Used Ikea goods would have been more in their range of affordability. In spite of their poverty, I don’t know if they ever felt poor.
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Excellent point. Both “afford” and “poor” are personally defined states of mind.
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Did anyone suggest that the MA posters stop using the term as non-american members of the group found it offensive? Maybe that would have changed his mind.
(For eg some folks here might suggest the use of “makrut” in place of “kaffir” for the lime leaves, even though the latter isn’t a personal insult to most participants, but it is a recognized slur elsewhere.)
Sadly this is also a way to excuse people that cause legitimate offense, by blaming (gaslighting) those who object.
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