Slashdot Mirror
Ikea's Stuff is Tough To Assemble, So It Bought a Startup To Do It For You (arstechnica.com)
One of the most popular jobs on TaskRabbit, a service that lets you hire workers for quick gigs, is assembling Ikea furniture. So perhaps it's no surprise that the Swedish retail giant has acquired the startup for an undisclosed price. From a report: For now, TaskRabbit services -- where each worker sets their own rates but the company takes 20 percent -- are available in 40 American cities and in London. The majority of its American workers (or "taskers" as the company dubs them) do not receive any health or retirement benefits, as is typical in so-called "gig economy" jobs. While TaskRabbit itself has not been sued in federal court by any of its workers so far, other companies in the industry have been -- numerous labor cases filed against Uber were recently heard at the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco. It seems unlikely that Swedish business culture will have any impact on TaskRabbit's workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are ad hoc contractors. Sweden, which generally lacks a similar "gig economy" environment, boasts universal public health care and housing and child care subsidies. Employees in Sweden are required to be provided a minimum of five weeks paid annual leave, and wages are typically set by annual collective bargaining. According to Ikea's statement, TaskRabbit will remain an independent company and will remain in San Francisco -- as such, its taskers aren't considered to be employees.
IKEA furniture isn't that difficult to put together. You just need to take your time, follow the directions and try not to misplace any of the small parts.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've assembled a few pieces of Ikea furniture in my lifetime and I've never found the task to be particularly difficult. Time consuming, yes... but not hard.
Ikea offers this service already, by the way.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I thought that being easy to assemble was one of the primary selling points of Ikea stuff.
If you are suffering from extreme cases of cat parasites, simple everyday tasks like assembling IKEA furniture can be a challenging. Considering how widespread this disease is, this service is much needed for all the disabled individuals.
Given that Ikea instructions don't typically have any words (other than the name of the product, and maybe some boilerplate text at the beginning), but the instructions themselves are usually just numbered diagrams, I'm wondering if what you got was not actually Ikea furniture at all.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
But I actually enjoy putting this stuff together. I am color blind, but I imagine it is like what other people get out of doing jigsaw puzzles. Except when I am done I have a piece of furniture instead of a picture with a bunch of wavy lines through it. Crappy furniture I admit, but still better than a crappy picture.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
What will prevent them from making their instructions more unclear in order to drive customers towards their new "service"?
My current apartment is full of IKEA products (wardrobe, computer desk, kitchen table, coffee table & TV unit). All bought in early 2014 and none has failed on me and its all still in good condition.
The apartment I had before this one (where I got rid of my furniture rather than move it cross country at great expense) was full of IKEA furniture as well and that stuff never failed me in all the years I owned it (I did replace the top of a computer desk but that was only because I needed a larger one)
In terns of how much use I get out of IKEA furniture vs what I paid for it, IKEA has represented good value to me.
When I hear someone complain about Ikea furniture being too hard to put together, it tells me immediately that they are an idiot (just like back in the 80s if their VCR flashed "12:00AM" continuously).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Wow, that summary sure editorialized. Task Rabbit, from what I can tell, sounds much more like a contractor than a "gig."
My mom would like their service; not that hard to assemble, but still easier than doing yourself.
I don't have a lot of flat pack stuff, but putting it together always makes me consider if I shouldn't just grab the kreg jig and screw everything together instead of using the dowels and bolts.
I am sorry but, what ? I have built table, beds, shelves, a swivel chair all from Ikea. Heck 5 months ago I unmounted them for a move a rebuilt them. They are not hard to mount and usually the visual instruction shows you all pieces with letter and steps of instructions by number... The few people I know which had a hard time was because they were not following simple steps : 1) have the proper tool 2) identify before even mounting the pieces and screws you have got by their picture/letter 3) read the damn instruction picture first 4) the real killer : be patient and methodical. I have known at least one person pulling an "homer simpson" (the one on the grill where people think he is an artist due to a ruined grill) and going like an idiot on a simple shelf because they thought of doing it the quick way.
If you are slow and methodical usually you can mount it in the time you tell you you would on the instruction.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
While it's true that Ikea sells a lot of particle board stuff, it's not remotely difficult to find actual wood furniture at Ikea as well. It usually costs more than the particle board or metal stuff, but even that is still often cheaper than buying something from elsewhere that looks just as good.
I can count on exactly one finger the number of times a piece of Ikea furniture has broken on me... it was years after I had bought it, and it got damaged during a move. I was able to get the necessary parts to replace it from Ikea for just a few bucks.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
This is the same reason fast food restaurants exist; people are too lazy or don't have time to do it themselves.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
Maybe their bicycles and accessories are harder to assemble than their furniture?
#DeleteFacebook
In what way it is tough? It sure requires some effort from you, but, from an intellectual point of view, you just have to have a modicum of common sense, and a capacity to follow instructions. It is not tough, but you have to work.
A number of the pieces I had in my previous apartment where moved multiple times over their life and didn't fail.
And when I moved out, a lot of it was sold/given to friends and family and it made it to their place without failures. (I had a large IKEA Expedit shelving unit that moved house at least 3-4 times and is still going strong at the house of a family member last I saw it)
Ikea's Stuff is Tough To Assemble
Do people genuinely have that much trouble assembling Ikea? My seven-year-old boy just built a bunch of cupboards for his room. All I had to do was some of the final hammering and screw tightening.
Is this really something grownups struggle with?
If Ikea's products are tough to assemble, they should not buy a startup to build it for you. They should buy a startup to make it *EASY* to assemble.
99% of the comments on here are about how easy Ikea is to assemble, and how dumb their customers are. Nobody noticed that TaskRabbit is charging 20% for this service?!?! That seems a little steep, doesn't it?
Ikea assembly should be an official Olympic Sport like the curling or synchronized swimming. It requires patience, manual dexterity and determination. Talar svenska är frivilligt.
Well, I make an n of 2. Kids, pets, family. Tons of Ikea furniture that's moved house twice and state once. Spent six weeks in storage. All back together, all still perfectly functional. In fact, I've always thought that ease of disassembly meant Ikea furniture was easier to handle in a move since everything can be broken down to flat pieces.
You should be sterilized and banned from voting.
Yep.. Ikea products are definitely hard to assemble. Not only that, the assembly instructions are poorly written/illustrated.
But do I want to pay $120 for someone to assemble my $100 desk? HELL NO!!! Are you stupid? The simple answer is that I buy my stuffs from somewhere else.
... unless you're fucking retarded.
But then given that Russia just brainwashed an entire country's worth of rednecks into electing a serial-bankrupt paedophile over Twitter, anything is possible really :-(
Take into account the time you need to screw Ikea stuff together. Or the money you need to pay for the startup.
Then consider that you wind up with extremely heavy chip wood furniture that won't survive a move. Also, the heaviness makes disposal in the country I live an avoidable expense.
Ask yourself whether you want to be surrounded by exactly the same furniture your neighbor has. Crooked doors included.
Suddenly paying twice the amount for good looking light furniture that you can take with you to your new home doesn't seem such a bad idea.
I ditched Ikea for these very reasons.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
IKEA furniture isn't that difficult to put together. You just need to take your time, follow the directions and try not to misplace any of the small parts.
For us millennials its appears that assembling IKEA furniture has become some kind of rite of passage, and a true sign of 'adulting'.
And would you believe it, most of us completely suck at it. I've helped so many friends construct some basic things because the whole idea of screwing a few bits of chip board together completely terrifies them. Millennials by and large are just not practical people.
So the fact that there exists a service where you can summon someone from the internet to assemble your IKEA furniture for you doesn't really surprise me at all.
if you can get through your basic lego, you should be able to put together ikea stuff. jeez...
probably these people are just lazy and rather pay then do it themselves.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Many of the things are strong enough. Not strong, but strong enough to do it's duty. When you move and it survives, you where lucky, but don't count on it. That way you won't be disappointed when it breaks.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
If you're too stupid to put together IKEA furniture; you don't deserve to be allowed to propagate your inferior genes.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Should probably be locked up in a mental institute for feeble minded people. C'mon. I have been assembling my Mom's IKEA furniture since I was probably 12 year old kid.