Cheap thrills

STOUGHTON -- When the Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA opened its first US store 20 years ago, the country wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

''An anomaly to furniture retailing," concluded HFD, a furniture trade publication, in an article called ''The IKEA impact."

''IKEA's main strength is that it is selling hype," one furniture manufacturer commented suspiciously.

Fast forward two decades, and it's hard to imagine a home furnishings company that's had more impact on design and home furnishings retailing than the anomaly called IKEA, which, as it turns out, has sold a whole lot more than just hype. Last year, IKEA's cash registers rang up more than$2 billion worth of products, among them such signature IKEA items as an $80 Poäng armchair; a $40 Billy bookcase; a $200 Klippan sofa; and the all-time IKEA bestseller, Glimma tea lights, $3 for a bag of 100. (Not to mention 371,041,280 Swedish meatballs, according to an IKEA bulletin dispatched Oct. 26.)

Now, as IKEA prepares to open its much-touted store Wednesday -- the second in New England, 27th in the United States, and 227th in the world -- this might be a good time to ask: Is IKEA good for us?

Certainly IKEA devotees think so -- just ask the legions of Bostonians who've gotten into the habit of schlepping to and from the IKEA stores in Elizabeth, N.J., and New Haven to stock up on Stensö dishes, Markör coffee tables, Flärke computer desks, and other umlaut-dotted, birch-veneered, flat-packed, high-design, build-it-yourself furniture and drop-dead-cheap accessories they can't live without.

Or ask the people who go wild, literally, when an IKEA opens in a new city. A few months ago, there was a near-riot at an IKEA in London when thousands stormed the doors for the midnight opening; five people were taken to the hospital. When Atlanta's first IKEA opened in June, the queue was so long ''it took several hours for people to get into the store," said the store manager Lynda Mee. ''The first guy was in line here for eight days. He came with a tent." (He had another incentive beside shopping -- a $4,000 IKEA gift card for being first in line.)

Still, there are plenty of big box stores that offer home goods with low prices, and people don't necessarily kill to get into them, which is what happened at an IKEA in Saudi Arabia last year where three people died in a stampede caused by a discount offer. What is the lure of IKEA, and what hath it wrought?

No doubt part of the attraction is its exoticism. In a nation of retail uniformity, IKEA, founded in Sweden in 1943, offers shoppers the pretense, at least, of being someplace else, and more interesting. It's not only the Swedish signage, restaurant menu, and the Scandinavian furniture design; but the strikingly un-American egalitarianism in the corporate structure: The curious way employees are referred to as ''co-workers," for example; the way IKEA designers with refreshingly unfamiliar names like Monica Löfven or Carina Bengs get acknowledged in the catalogs; the collegial we're-in-this-together spin to the marketing.

''Together we save money," IKEA's catalog tells customers. ''We do all we can to cut costs in the production process. You lend a hand by comparing and choosing, collecting what you want and taking it home."

But another factor is that somehow, whether by foresight or luck, IKEA's aesthetic seems to be in the right place at the right time in America.

''Now, we can definitely see that trends are going in our direction," says Lena Simonsson-Berge, a senior interior designer who has been with the company 30 years.

Among these trends are the fact that American homes are moving away from formality; Americans are staying home and entertaining more; they're increasingly interested in decorating, organizing, and do-it-yourself projects; they're buying second and third homes that they want to furnish inexpensively; they're buying furniture more often, as their tastes change; and they're infatuated with modernism.

''It seems like suddenly, or finally, from my point of view, America is open to not just traditional design, and the core of our business is modernism," says Mats Nilsson, a creative director of IKEA in the United States.

Some observers believe that IKEA has not only intersected with trends in American shopping and decorating, but influenced them.

''The main thing [IKEA has affected] is this whole take-it-home-today thing," says Mark McMenamin, senior editor for InFurniture, a trend magazine for the furniture business. ''They have really championed that, and set the bar extremely high for the traditional furniture industry. Immediate gratification is very important now, and a lot of businesses have gotten into same-day delivery because of that. A lot of people who buy from IKEA don't necessarily love that pared-down neo-Scandinavian style, but because they can get it today they are willing to learn to live with it."

''One thing I think IKEA really did was raise awareness of the way in which designers have a role in bringing the process to market," says Rosanne Somerson, professor of furniture design at Rhode Island School of Design. ''They featured the fact that this was design by designers. From my perspective, it elevated the whole awareness of design."

Particularly affordable design. ''The first time I walked into an IKEA eight years ago in Washington my husband and I looked at each other and thought, ''Wow. Europe has crossed the big sea'," said IKEA addict Mary Flannery of Nahant, founder of Raw Art Works, a nonprofit arts organization in Lynn for youth at risk. ''These were simple, well-thought-out interior spaces that you thought were only available to those with serious financial resources, and now we could be one of them. Now we were like, faux rich."

Frank Briel, manager of the Stoughton IKEA, believes IKEA introduced America to the notion that you don't have to hang on to furniture forever, but should change it often, to suit new tastes or whims. ''We definitely pioneered the idea of changing," Briel says. ''We made it affordable to change."

''In Swedish home furnishing, you are never done," Mats Nilsson says. ''A house is something that continuously grows. It's an ongoing process. Needs change, families change, and if nothing else you get bored."

And IKEA doesn't want that.

''What I love about IKEA is that it gives you a reason to go there," says Jerry Epperson, an industry analyst in Virginia. ''You can get your tableware, your silk plants, your wall decor, your lighting, your furniture. The scale is youthful. It's a popular place to socialize. It's a fun place to ditch your kids, or your husband. The signage tells you everything you need to know about a piece of furniture. And it's so organized. I've probably been to 40 IKEA stores and I've never been to one without buying something."

And this is precisely the problem with IKEA, some critics say: The philosophy of making things inexpensively and encouraging frequent redecorating contributes to a waste culture, excessive consumerism, and a growing design ''gluttony" in this country that desensitizes shoppers to quality, in favor of quantity.

''It's not just IKEA; Wal-Mart is right there along with it, even Pottery Barn and K-Mart," says Nazly Botas, design director for Jay Strongwater, a high-end home accessories firm in New York. ''But [IKEA] does contribute to the sense that we are a consumer society and the only way to maintain it is to have cheap products, and buy lots of them, and buy frequently. I was at IKEA a few weeks ago . . . and I was not at all impressed with the quality. They were selling crazy stuff -- crazy -- and I was like, what is that for?"

''To me it's an amazing emotional experience when I walk through IKEA and see how much stuff I can get for under $10 -- and these are all things I already own," says Steve Portigal, founder of Portigal Consulting, a California firm specializing in research, design, and business strategy.

''And yet I find myself thinking, 'This is a cool watering can,' and then fighting the urge to buy seconds and thirds. The low barrier to purchasing things, and the ease with which you can buy more of something you already have, doesn't make me feel very good," he says.