Summary: IKEA has transformed how we furnish our homes, making stylish essentials far more accessible than in the past. Furnishing a home once demanded long hours of work, but today it takes only a fraction of the time. IKEA’s innovations have steadily reduced the effort needed to turn paychecks into furniture. The result is a world where comfort and style arrive faster and more abundantly than ever.

IKEA was started in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad and has been the world’s largest furniture retailer since 2008. The brand name is an acronym of Kamprad’s initials; Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village of Agunnaryd. There are 483 IKEA stores operating in 63 countries with 2024 sales of $52.87 billion. The IKEA website contains about 12,000 products. The world’s largest IKEA store is located in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. Much of IKEA’s furniture is designed to be assembled by the customer. The company claims that this helps reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air.

IKEA has been a leading innovator in making furniture abundant. We looked at four of its products that have remained essentially unchanged since 1985. In most cases, their retail prices are actually lower today than 40 years ago. But the bigger story is in time prices. Back in 1985, blue-collar workers earned $8.73 per hour. Today, they earn about $31.34.

Adjusting for wages, the time prices of these products have dropped by an average of 77.2 percent. Put differently, the time price to furnish one room in 1985 will furnish 4.4 rooms today.

Tip of the Hat: Jeremy Horpendahl

Find more of Gale’s work at his Substack, Gale Winds.