Talk:IKEA/Archive 3

BAD BAD

 * Ikea destroyed ten ancient tombs during new store construction in China


 * Most people here at english Wikipedia doesn't understand the language in this article. Is there a translation? I don't trust a headline before I have read the whole article.

Whaaaat?
This is one point in the Criticisms section: Former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has criticized IKEA for not depicting women assembling furniture in its instruction booklets, despite the fact that many sets of instructions do, in fact, show women - though not often. I'm sorry, whaaaaat? How can many sets show women - but not often? Either many of them do, or only a few do and not often. 64.73.35.238 (talk) 12:54, 13 June 2008 (UTC)


 * A reasonable portion of the instruction booklets include women in them however the women appear infrequently when they do appear. Dannysjgdf (talk) 05:53, 3 July 2008 (UTC)


 * So... they appear reasonably infrequently? -- Needscurry (talk) 22:28, 3 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I think it means a large number of women appear in the booklets, but infrequently so in comparison to the even larger number of males that appear.

Request for expert?
Just curious... Who exactly qualifies as an IKEA expert? I guess the point I'm trying to make is maybe that's not the appropriate S.O.S. tag for this article. Freddicus (talk) 17:45, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I used to work for IKEA Australia for 5 years, does that class me as an expert? Chap6595 (talk) 01:11, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

In the USA first?
Not according to the debut section:
 * 1958 Sweden &mdash; Älmhult
 * 1963 Norway &mdash; Asker (Nesbru)
 * 1969 Denmark &mdash; Copenhagen (Tåstrup)
 * 1973 Switzerland &mdash; Zürich (Spreitenbach)
 * 1974 Germany &mdash; Munich (Eching)
 * 1974 Japan &mdash; Kobe (joint venture with a Japanese department store, withdrew from the market in 1986 because of stagnant sales; an IKEA opened in Funabashi, Chiba in 2006 that included a distribution partnership with the Mitsubishi Corporation under the supervision of prominent account executive, Ai Kobayashi-Boswell.)
 * 1975 Australia &mdash; Sydney (Artarmon)


 * 1975 Hong Kong &mdash; Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui)
 * 1976 Canada &mdash; Dartmouth (Burnside Park) (Temporary North American market test store, closed in 1998. It was very successful. First permanent store was built in Richmond, British Columbia later in 1976.) Current number of stores: 11.
 * 1977 Austria &mdash; Vienna (Vösendorf)
 * 1978 Netherlands &mdash; Rotterdam (Sliedrecht)
 * 1978 Singapore &mdash; Queenstown
 * 1980 Spain &mdash; Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)
 * 1981 Iceland &mdash; Reykjavík
 * 1981 France &mdash; Paris (Bobigny)
 * 1983 Saudi Arabia &mdash; Jeddah
 * 1984 Belgium &mdash; Brussels (Zaventem and Ternat)
 * 1984 Kuwait &mdash; Kuwait City
 * 1985 United States &mdash; Philadelphia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.136.192.1 (talk) 18:52, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

The A in IKEA
On this page it says that the A derives from the county Agunnaryd, where the founder Ingvar Kamprad grew up. However on the page on Ingvar Kamprad himself Agunnaryd is referred to as a village. Should we change this or do we know what Agunnaryd really is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Caeser Syndrome (talk • contribs) 23:22, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Why has any information on IKEA Fansites been removed?
IKEA is somewhat unique as a furniture store with a fanatical following, but information about the fans surrounding IKEA and the websites, such as IKEAFANS.com and ikeahacker.blogspot.com has been consistently removed from this listing. Why? 71.253.192.33 (talk) 16:00, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is meant to be an encyclopedia, not a portal to other sites. It might be noteworthy to mention that the stores do have a broad fanbase, and that there are websites devoted to the, but there is no need to include them by name. If Wikipedia readers decide to investigate IKEA fansites, they can Google it like anyone else and find those same sites. --McDoobAU93 (talk) 16:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I second that. WP:EL explains in full detail what links are acceptable. I'd suggest using this as a reference if you add any further links. If you find a link that does comply with the guidelines it's unlikely it will be removed. :) Peteb16 (talk) 17:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation in China
According to this article:


 * IKEA is generally pronounced /i'ke.a/ but in many English-speaking areas, it is pronounced /ai'kiːə/, rhyming with the word "idea." As such, IKEA brought action in the Supreme Court of British Columbia successfully preventing a competitor in Victoria from using the name "Idea." It is generally pronounced /i'ke.a/ in Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan.


 * /i'ke.a/: Suggested
 * /ai'kiːə/: U.S.
 * /i'ke.a/: Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan
 * http://forvo.com/search/ikea recorded examples

However, I have heard people pronounce it like /i'ki.a/ in China and Taiwan countless of times. -- Toytoy (talk) 07:50, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

According to the Chinese version of Wikipedia:


 * 受中文譯名影響，香港和臺灣則讀為ee-KEE-ah（/i'ki:a/）.
 * Influenced by its Chinese name, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is pronounced ee-KEE-ah (/i'ki:a/). (my fairly accurate translation)

It's a big big big world! -- Toytoy (talk) 08:00, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

According to the Japanese version of Wikipedia:


 * 日本でのカタカナ表記は「イケア」であるが、
 * In Japan, IKEA is transliterated as "イケア" (i-KE-a).


 * アメリカ、カナダやオーストラリアなど英語圏では「アイキア」と発音するなど、
 * The U.S., Canada and Australia (the English-speaking world) pronounce /ai'kiːə/.


 * 各国で少しずつ違っている.
 * Most other countries are about the same pronunciation.


 * ドイツやオランダでの発音は日本同様「イケア」である.
 * In Germany and Netherlands, the pronunciation is the same as Japanese pronunciation.


 * なお、中華人民共和国における表記は「宜家家居」である.
 * In PRC, the name is written as 「宜家家居」 (yi2 jia1 jia1 jue1 <- umlaut u).
 * 宜 fit 家 home 家 house 居 living.

That's all folks. -- Toytoy (talk) 08:34, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

British English or American English?
If a page is about a country within the EU, should it be written in British English or American English?KillerKat 22:46, 26 August 2008 (UTC)


 * International English, obviously. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Plagiarism
The corporate structure section of the article blatantly plagiarizes the article in The Economist linked as a reference. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.139.192.2 (talk) 04:33, 3 January 2009 (UTC)


 * If that's still the case, tag it with close paraphrase. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

IKEA in popular culture
I see the section was removed. Why? Why wasn't it transferred to a new article? Was an interesting collection. And wiki is not paper.62.218.221.47


 * I came here looking for this type of information and was surprised to not see any popular culture information here. Please restore this information.  Its too bad these trivia/list nuts are ruining wiki.HK747 (talk) 20:03, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it's people who don't like Wikipedia getting lampooned like this who are "ruining wiki". Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Penis-dog image?
Wasn't there a controversy last year where a picture of a dog in the catalogue that people thought was displaying a penis? I found a link here. --Thaddius (talk) 13:06, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Is that really important enough to warrant inclusion in the article? Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I just can't believe someone would be sad enough to contact IKEA about it. However, I agree with 'Chris Cunningham'. I don't think that's important enough really. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 15:56, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Anna the automated assistant collects email addresses.
So after finding that IKEA's online automated "call center girl" Anna is completely useless, i asked some goofy questions, as probably many of you may have already done. At one point, i just somehow thought of asking "Do you keep logs?", at which Anna replied that yes, they record every "conversation", and would i be interested in a copy? I replied "yes", Anna asked me for a mail address, i gave the address of one throw-away account at yopmail.com (basically a site where you can have an instantaneous account made for you, with a plausibly looking user name, and that you later discard). Well, i never got the email (the yopmail account works, i've tested it from some other place). I was wondering if anyone had stumbled upon this "feature" also (or known by some other means), and if they tried it and whether or not it worked. 89.152.243.179 (talk) 03:54, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This isn't a forum for discussing the subject. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Exactly, that's something to contact IKEA customer services about Chevymontecarlo (talk) 15:52, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Criticisms
I was wondering if it would be pertinent in the criticisms section to add in a note about the 'disposability' of IKEA furniture, and their short lifespan. IKEA's furniture is objectively cheap, but it's also made of plywood and fiberboard, which makes it's terribly short lived. Many people agree about this and it's quite commonly accepted. 75.61.137.58 (talk) 23:28, 25 June 2008 (UTC)


 * If "many people" agree, then it shouldn't be difficult to find reliable sources to back it up. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Short life span? That's something new to me. I bought a (king sized) bed in IKEA back in 1992 and I still had it in use last year and it was in relatively good condition. I doubt 15 years would be considered a short life span. Norum (talk) 09:16, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Can someone change the location photo?
The IKEA in Dublin, Ireland has opened so Ireland should be green —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.101.187.244 (talk) 15:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Erroneous statement
There is an incorrect statement in the text.

This is the incorrect statement,

"The company which was originated in Smaland, United Kingdom, distributes its products through its retail outlets"

It should be Sweden not "United Kingdom" (look it up). The article states this correctly elsewhere which means that it is contradicting itself. Perhaps someone could correct it?

12.154.44.15 (talk) 14:36, 13 August 2009 (UTC) Thomas Wikman (Swedish) 12.154.44.15 (talk) 14:36, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Ethical Issues
I think IKEA's involvement in supporting child labor should be discussed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.147.63.247 (talk) 02:38, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

What about this? IKEA accused of exploiting child workers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.147.111.115 (talk) 21:38, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

No history section?
Seems a bit odd that this is omitted entirely. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:34, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I thought that too. Maybe there's not much information avaliable on this subject? Chevymontecarlo (talk) 15:53, 30 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You guys beat me to the punch. Pretty much nothing between 1943 and 1990. - Richfife (talk) 02:47, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * This may be as good as it gets: History page from Ikea site - Richfife (talk) 18:31, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Operations map
The world map of where IKEA operates is outdated. It now operates in the Republic of Ireland since 2007. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.27.15.61 (talk) 14:19, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

In Popular Culture
Mentioned in 2009 movie Funny People Seen in the Amazing Race (season ?) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cooly123 (talk • contribs) 16:18, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Requesting semi-protection
I'm requesting semi-protection to give this page a breather as the ever-changing IP editors won't desist in entering the unreliable information about gun restrictions, and have started spamming it into multiple sections and crying censorship. Hopefully semi-protection will force them to talk, rather than using the article as their soapbox. Fences &amp;  Windows  19:38, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

This is the first time you've mentioned talking about the documented material added. Until this point, you've just been removing documented source material that has been added in good faith. No need to jump to semi-protection, why didn't you just start talking about the edits? Be that as it may, the added material is sourced appropriately and comes from verbal and written communication from IKEA. The floor is yours to respond to that. . . 68.40.214.161 (talk) 20:08, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It's not properly documented as it isn't in a reliable source; your forum doesn't have a reputation for fact-checking so it is disallowed as a source. Until you can present a reliable source it isn't going in. Also see WP:UNDUE for why not every last piece of information deserves coverage in an article.
 * 68.6.144.200 and others have had two weeks to discuss this on their talk pages or on the article talk, but they've chosen not to. Instead they recruited other editors including yourself to add the material and resorted to petty insults. We needed semi-protection because there were too many IP editors, none of them were discussing the edits, and the editing was getting out of control. The first edit that added material about firearms was a blatant attack, and you spammed the material including a link to a website you'd just set up called "IKEA hates guns" into three paragraphs.. An uninvolved administrator assessed the situation and agreed with semi-protection.
 * p.s. You can tell your forum buddies that I edit Wikipedia out of the goodness of my heart, as my cheque from IKEA "got lost in the post". Same thing happened with Mossad and Pfizer, the bastards. p.p.s. Wikipedia editors are actually mostly libertarians and Ayn Rand fanboys. Us pinko commie criminal-loving bed-wetters are in a minority. Fences  &amp;  Windows  00:29, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

I think this page reads a bit too much like an Ikea advertisment - I think its neutrality is definitely questionable. Thanks John in Brisbane 220.233.46.194 (talk) 09:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

"Verdanagate"
The section on Verdanagate puzzles me. It starts off by saying that "IKEA caused a minor flap in the graphic design world in 2009 when it changed the font used in its catalog from Ikea Sans to Verdana, expressing a desire to unify its branding between print and web media", but it doesn't explain why this was controversial. There's a paragraph about the controversy, but I can't tell why it was a controversial decision. Is Verdana a horrible font? Is it because the font was devised by Microsoft? Is it because designers simply did not like Ikea changing from one font to another? I can't tell from the article and that confuses me and makes me scared. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:03, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, you could try reading the references. :-) I have no idea why it's noteworthy enough for mention, but an AfD determined that there should be some information on it on WP. A later merge discussion let to a redirect here. If you want to expand it a bit, feel free....--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:09, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Pomeroy pointed out a problem with the article, not the sources. Thus, "read the sources" is not a sufficient dismissal of the complaint. I have added an explanation from a source. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 08:50, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Targeting Who?
"IKEA has run other commercials targeting the gay community as well as a commercial featuring a transgender woman."

Is that the one where the "woman" walks out of the bathroom and hits himself in the crotch? And then it ends? Is that supposed to be "targeting" the LGBT community in a good way, as in "we want you to be customers" ?

TheListUpdater (talk) 22:10, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

There's a better one too, where they talk about "change" while showing a tasteful montage of a transgender woman going into the hospital (presumably where she has her GRS) and then, afterwards, shopping at Ikea and getting a bunch of new stuff to "change" her home furnishings. I am trans myself and it is quite tastefully done and made me smile. IKEA is okay in my book. --anonymous trans woman, 22:02, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

IKEA or Ikea
Is there anyone who can tell me, why you on English Wikipedia spell "IKEA" with capital letters, while on the Swedish Wikipedia spell "IKEA": Ikea (with small letters). Why should IKEA spell IKEA and not Ikea? /Hollac16 (talk) 16:45, 30 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, I'm usually the first to convert uppercased brand names to lowercase no matter how the company spells it (RUEHL No.925 to Ruehl No.925 for instance), but English Wikipedia guideline MOS:ALLCAPS suggests that 'acronyms and initialisms' remain capitalized. "IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd)" seems to qualify as an initialism.  Best, CliffC (talk) 17:34, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Place of Registration
IKEA is a Dutch, not Swedish, corporation. Since people often mistake this fact, it is important to stress it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.233.151.177 (talk) 20:26, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * No, IKEA is a Swedish company, registered in the Netherlands for tax reasons. P. S. Burton  (talk)  14:59, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
 * IKEA is not a Swedish company. It is founded in Sweeden, but is today a Dutch company. Please, read the whole introduction. --Rerumirf (talk) 20:41, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You're both wrong. It's a multinational corporation, headquartered in the Netherlands, founded in Sweden. 120.147.67.15 (talk) 10:52, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Third largest consumer of wood in the world?
Keep seeing this asserted: is it true? If so, should it not be mentioned in the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.177.2.38 (talk) 14:33, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Corporate structure
It has now been revealed by the SVT programme Uppdrag granskning that Inter Ikea is owned by Inter Ikea Holding SA which is in turn owned by the Liechtenstein-based Interogo Foundation which is controlled by Ingvar Kamprad who has never relinquished his control of the company. Kamprad has confirmed the existence of the foundation and the information has already been added to the Swedish language Wikipedia article about IKEA. I therefore think that it would be relevant to update the Corporate Structure section. Björn Knutson (talk) 20:41, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Pronunciation
>In some languages (such as Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Greek, Spanish and Korean), "IKEA" is pronounced something like [iˈke.a][citation needed], but in English it is /aɪˈkiː.ə/, similar to the word "idea."

It's pronounced like [iˈke.a] in probably ALL latin alphabet based languages BUT English. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.53.252.100 (talk) 10:58, 14 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Not to mention Greek and Cyrillic. —Tamfang (talk) 20:09, 20 February 2011 (UTC)


 * That is the beauty of English, our idiosyncratic, non-conformist way of pronouncing nearly every letter, whilst being blissfully unaware that anyone else does it differently, since we anglophones find it impossible to learn any other language while simultaneously whining and muttering that some people speak ours fluently albeit imperfectly.
 * Ah, English. Varlaam (talk) 18:28, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Criticism section
This section is awful and needs serious pruning, and has been tagged as such for a long time. We need to integrate anything encyclopedic into the main text of the article, and the rest should just go. --John (talk) 08:02, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Liechtenstein
"Liechtenstein" is misspelled as "Lichtenstein" in the flowchart but is spelled correctly in the body of the article. Dave Andrew (talk) 21:21, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

IKEA - Racism against Gypsies
June 2012 - The Croydon branch of IKEA has admitted carrying out racial profiling of visitors to their store in an attempt to exclude Gypsies from their car park. Articles appear in the Dailey Mail, the Guardian and Huffington post. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.147.235.194 (talk) 14:29, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * It would be helpful if you can directly to the articles in question.--174.93.167.177 (talk) 18:08, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Not the only company that is doing it. Most of them do it, because gypsies are mostly thieves. Norum 23:33, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

the Netherlands Antilles
the entire references can be removed as those traceable organizations are now in Curaçao and Sint Maarten which are a special municipalities of The Netherlands Markthemac (talk) 02:07, 24 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Curaçao and Sint Maarten are not special municipalities of The Netherlands.--Patrick (talk) 23:28, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * They are, the Netherlands Antilles no longer exist.Iamthestig (talk) 11:48, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Sint Maarten is; however, Curaçao is not, it is a country within The Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is not the same as The Kingdom of the Netherlands.--145.94.253.193 (talk) 19:01, 19 June 2013 (UTC)