Love IKEA but hate the drive?
It’s your lucky day.
We’re happy to announce our new Ikea® runner service to the Raleigh area. In the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that little blue & yellow addition to the nav links at the upper right of our site. It takes you to our beta page explaining how the service works.
We’re calling it “beta” because we’re working out the kinks, so we’ll need some patience. We also need some local folks who are excited enough about Ikea® to help blaze our trail. So far we’ve had a lot of interest and have several orders already placed for our first run on Sept. 26!
2 reasons why
The first: We posted recently that we’d been doing some research on Ikea® products. There is a lot of negative scoop out there about Ikea® products, and we wanted to see how valid it really was. Here’s what we found:
- Negatives
- particle board: this is the number one complaint: many of their products do use particle board, which has it’s own plusses and minuses. On the minus side, it is not as strong as plywood or solid wood. It is also vulnerable to degrading in moist environments.
- assembly: not everyone has time or wants to put their own furniture or cabinets together.
- getting it home: Ikea® shipping rates are expensive. We calculated out that delivery of a $330 bookcase would cost us $150 in shipping. If we went and got it ourselves, it would cost us a minimum of about $100 in gas. Not to mention time – basically a day out of your life, if not more. Our price for that would be about $67.
- Positives
- particle board: it’s cheaper than plywood or solid wood. As long as it is properly sealed and / or veneered, moisture issues are minimized.
- hardware: quality hardware products like Blum and Salice are used, so full extension drawer slides, soft closures on drawers, piston door stays are still options, like on more expensive cabinets.
- affordable: this is the number one positive; no question about this one. It’s built in to the whole Ikea® concept. A big part of what makes it affordable is its flat pack shipping. Meaning assembly is required.
- green: one trip to get it is greener than 20. It’s that simple. Assuming you already know what you want, the process is now simplified and relatively pain-free.
- sustainability: Ikea® is actively working toward sustainability goals in manufacturing including supply chain management, managed forest product sourcing and reduction of VOC adhesives. They’ve always been efficient at shipping – flat packing takes less space. Less space costs less. they aren’t perfect, but they are working on it.
- third party ratings: Consumer Reports findings indicate that Ikea® cabinet products are equal to most stock cabinet lines (even if the box is plywood), in terms of wear and tear, hardware quality and finish retention.
The second: We’re finding a ton of Ikea® fanatics in the triangle area, and decided that adding a runner service is the most environmentally responsible way to get it here. And it can be easier for the buyer than both direct shipping from the store and driving to get it yourself. For modern style lovers, you just can’t beat the price of Ikea®.
We’re removing the pain point and reducing the expense of getting it home. You get the Ikea® products you love, without the headache of the drive. Ecomod + Ikea® + you = win win win!
What about kitchen & bath design?
We still do it. Both custom products and Ikea® products. It can be very confusing putting together an order from Ikea® for a whole kitchen. If you either don’t want to do it, or need a hand, we can do it for you. We can also look your plan over if you just want a fresh eye to spot any glaring errors. Our hourly rates are reasonable, and better to be sure before you order.
[where: 27603]
Great idea, but if I assemble a living room order with some couches and end tables, for example, at $2,605 – the shipping is only $421 to my door.
If I use your service at 25% of the purchase price, then I’m paying $651.25 to then have to pick it up myself from you.
I think the bug you need to work out of your beta set up is how to actually save me money.
Excellent point, ek. We’ve adjusted our fee schedule to be the most cost effective for the most people. Since most folks are ordering in the $500 or less range, we can provide our best service and still recupe our costs with the rates we now have in place.
Our service includes attention to every single order, which means we’ll call you from the store if something you’ve ordered is out of stock, for example. We work with you then to select another color or another item of similar value, or we offer to try again on the next run. Also, in most cases, orders can be picked up the day after our run. One other difference to note is that we require no minimum price to place an order. Online ordering direct from Ikea stipulates a $90 minimum order.
Here is a link to our return and out-of-stock policies, as well as a link to our current rates effective October 1, 2008.
Hope this helps!
This is the greatest. I was just wondering if someone around here did this. I think the service is best suited to smaller things, like the $69 storage unit they wanted to charge me $118 to ship. If you’re ordering lots of big items, then yeah – go with IKEA shipping, that makes sense. But for the individual stuff (or things you can’t order online) this service sounds awesome. Besides, as I mentioned on the contact form, some of us – and by us I mean me – tend to overspend wildly when we go ourselves. Better to have responsible shoppers who will ONLY get what I need, LOL! Count me in for the next run!
Elisabeth makes good points as well. For the above example of a couch & end tables, many of those items can’t be ordered online. Which means the only other option is going to the store yourself, and bringing them home. Which also involves the logistics of how to move around large items like couches. It depends on what your personal pricetag for convenience is.
Elisabeth, we’re happy to help keep you under control! :D