The Wife and I took a trip to Burbank today, to do some shopping. We’re looking at a new love seat for the holidays and so we thought to go take a look at IKEA. We saw no signs, at all, of a recession or even an economic slowdown. The place was packed, and sales associates had customers waiting in line for help ordering furniture, cabinetry, and other stuff.
Now, I realize IKEA is not a high-end furniture store. But on the other hand, even mid-range furniture is not cheap, and furniture counts as a durable goods purchase. So I’m not real sure what’s up with that. I thought this was supposed to be a recession.
Even if it were cheap, it’d still be a positive indicator. People don’t even buy cheap furniture when things are bad. Furniture is almost always discretionary.
Could the crowding and lines partly be attributable to poor staffing? That’s been our experience with Ikea.