I’m assuming most people in the developed world know what Ikea is. It is the world’s largest furniture company, with inexpensive, efficiently designed, build-it-yourself furniture with funny product names. While there’s no elaborate window display like yesterday’s C&A, we feature a handsome facade. C&A is fast fashion, and Ikea is fast furniture.

The urban nature of this Ikea attracted a snap and a blog post. Perhaps smaller stores in the middle of the city might be common in Europe, but they are very different in the United States. We have giant blue and yellow warehouses in the suburbs.

I’ve shopped at Ikea longer than most people in the US. The first Ikea in America opened in the suburbs of Philadelphia just as I graduated from college nearly forty years ago. Like many others, my first apartment was furnished with Ikea. I still have a couple of Ikea pieces from it. Those products were made better back then, and I can’t find a modern equivalent. Who says Ikea doesn’t last?

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