IKEA Secrets That Cost You Money | How to Shop Smart at IKEA

IKEA Secrets That Cost You Money hi everyone it's Nick welcome or welcome back to my channel okay in today's video we are going to talk about Ikea secrets and how you can save money when shopping at Ikea because I have done lots and lots of videos on Ikea and I have done a lot of research on Ikea and I even have some inside sources that have told me how Ikea functions as a business and I think it's a very interesting and genius business by the way but they do some interesting tricks that I think encourage you to spend more money than you probably intended to and also kind of mess with your perception of value to make you buy items thinking they're a screaming good deal when sometimes they're not that great of a value so I'm going to be sharing some Ikea secrets that I have learned over the years with you all today so that you can buy better items at a better price when shopping at Ikea so let's get going okay the first The Cheapest Things at IKEA Aren't The Best tip I have for you all is to be mindful of the Ikea price ladder and to not always buy the cheapest items so how Ikea actually designs this furniture is very different than a lot of other retailers so typically other retailers design a Furniture piece like say a couch or something like that and then they you know figure out the constant materials and labor and construction and all that stuff and then they will mark it up and then they they will figure out what the price is going to be so Ikea will actually start at price and then they will build their product and to make sure that they hit that certain price point and that's actually revolutionary compared to how other retailers do business but then also what ik will do which other retailers do too but they will then put all their product line in a price ladder so they will have a really cheap coffee table and they have a mid price and then they'll have some expensive options and they'll move through that price ladder now I would say and this is where we're moving away into my own opinion that those lower tiered items that sort of entry level low low price items are not really the best items for you to be purchasing at Ikea and oftentimes I think that Ikea's sweet spot for value is those mid price items I also oftentimes don't recommend those high-end items but we'll get to that in a second so let's talk about those low end items right I'm thinking items like the Lac side table right like it's it's ten dollars US for a side table but just like an outrageously good price for a side table obviously ten dollars the regolit is a good example what is that a light fixture for five bucks I mean these items are very very cheap but it's important to understand the psychology behind why they are so cheap yes Ikea sells a lot of these products but I don't think they make that much money on these products what they do is they design these items so cheap so that you think that Ikea always equals a good value that's really the intention behind those really cheap items because if you were to go okay Ikea can sell a 10 table or a hot dog for 65 cents right if they can sell some of this stuff really cheap then Ikea must always be a good value and therefore you're going to always have that relationship with Ikea to think that everything that I'm buying is probably a really good price but that's not necessarily true so the low end items usually are fiberboard they're usually lacking on Style in my personal opinion that's obviously my taste you don't have to agree but they're usually really really simple everything is made of particle board and it usually is prone oftentimes to sort of quality issues and shipping or whatever I know someone's gonna say I have had a Lack table since 1984 and it's still going strong good for you but just inherently it's just going to be different if you have a lag table that gets dented when you move and it starts to show the particle board through that is going to wear differently than something like a solid wood piece of furniture it just is frankly that's just the truth so that's why I usually don't always recommend the really sort of cheap items that are really just designed to mess with your head I actually think the better value is going to be in those mid price items so for example looking at a Lac coffee table you're looking at the price it should be 39.99 U.S which is an amazing deal for a coffee obviously forty dollars for a coffee table is obviously cheap unless you're going for you know pick it up at a flea market or someone gifts it to you or find a coffee table on the side of the road you're probably not going to get a price that low new from a retailer for less than 40 bucks that's just reality but I would say going into the 70 price point or even going even higher into the 100 150 price point you're going to start to move into real wood veneer as opposed to just going with a particle board and sometimes you're even going to get some solid wood construction so you're still going to get a really good price on products it's going to come with more longevity and oftentimes it is also just going to look better in your home and it's going to feel better when you have it if we look at something like the nunar or even looking at the lasabo you're going to deal with more interesting shape to your coffee table it's going to be a little bit more of an interesting design and in the case of the lesabo you're going to start to get an ash veneer and you're going to get legs and solid Birch which is just going to be a more beautiful natural looking item and yes I know someone's gonna say okay oh big Revelation a 40 item is not going to be as good as 150 item true that criticism is fair but it's also because I just think it's really important to understand why that item is forty dollars it's not necessarily there because they're expected to sell a bazillion of them and make a ton of money it's there to just mess with your head but actually the real value the real sweet spot is coming in at that higher price point obviously that in my is just a little bit more of my opinion but I just think spending that little bit extra especially pieces of furniture that you hope to be with you for longer than six months or a year oftentimes is worth it now when you know I have to also add that when we're talking about value and a good price that's obviously dependent on sort of your budget so I can say like a Tesla is a great value but if you don't have money to buy a Tesla then it doesn't really matter if it's a good deal or a great price do you know what I mean like that really depends on your own personal circumstance but I would say if your price point is in that lack area then I would rather personally find something on Facebook Marketplace buy used because Lord knows there's probably a billion of them on Facebook Marketplace and if you are thinking of getting something new think about going into that mid-level because I think that's where your sweet spot is now getting to my next point the high level really expensive luxury Ikea stuff I also don't think it's actually a great deal so let's talk about that so IKEA Halo Effect my second Point here is what I'm going to call sort of the Ikea halo effect so building on that first point Ikea being Geniuses at that perception of value question of Ikea always being such a screaming good deal I don't often think that Ikea's high-end stuff is always the best price in town and the best value around so again Ikea with the 65 hot dogs and the like whatever cheap frozen yogurt dessert or whatever they basically give you the idea that Ikea is always such a good value so when you go to buy one of the more expensive premium options I think you think that's going to be such a great deal but when you compare it to other similarly priced products and from other retailers sometimes those products are actually cheaper than Ikea's high-end stuff or you're going to get much better quality so sticking with coffee tables for a second let's compare the Ikea Stockholm to this coffee table from article okay so in the Ikea Stockholm you're dealing with a table top that is a walnut veneer and you're dealing with solid wood leg Construction in those legs from Ikea okay so Walnut is a more expensive wood okay it's just it's a more premium wood it's just more expensive that's just the thing so Walnut is going to be a little more expensive so you might say okay well what's the problem the problem here which isn't really a problem if you love this Stockholm then go for them I think it's a bad deal necessarily but it's 330 U.S if you compare it to article you're dealing with a coffee table that is very similar in style but it's 350 and it's actually right now on sale at 299 so if you're able to find a deal on article which is more frequently running deals than Ikea is then you can actually get this table for even cheaper so if you compare the 330 table from Ikea to the 350 at article I think they're both a similar value now you may prefer the Ikea one and that is totally fine I'm not saying that particular one is a bad deal I'm just saying that a lot of people go to IKEA buying the Stockholm thinking they're getting a screaming good deal compared to other retailers and actually at that higher level Ikea isn't actually oftentimes cheaper than the competitors they're usually the same price and sometimes they might even be more expensive so here's another one where actually Ikea works out to be a little bit more expensive for a very different coach I give you but let's talk about the visca force now this is a beautiful sofa I talked about this in my recent Ikea what's new at IKEA video that I just did beautiful sofa I think it's really interesting lovely gorgeous rolled arms and it is a full leather sofa it also has solid wooden legs it's also 18.99 right this is a 1900 sofa now that's not necessarily the worst price I've ever seen for a sofa of course not I'm not saying it's a bad deal necessarily and if you love this sofa that's awesome but again let's compare it to a retailer like article article has a Sven sofa which is a very very popular sofa in this beautiful leather and this one actually goes for 16.99 so this is actually 200 cheaper for the two and a half seater than what Ikea has I will say with the article sofa you're also getting a kiln dried solid wood construction which if you saw my how to buy a couch video from forever ago that was something that definitely signals a higher quality couch while you are going to be getting more particle board laminated veneer Lumber with Ikea Ikea also says they use top grain leather well article says that they use full alanine leather which I'm not a leather expert but I would say that the more detail around what you're getting from article tells me and again I'm a person who does not own both couches but I will bet that the article couch is probably going to wear in a lot better and be a much more higher quality construction again for 200 less than what you would be getting if you went with the Ikea version the Ikea couch isn't a bad couch it's a beautiful couch it's a great couch and obviously these couches are very very different but I do think in the end the better value has got to go with article but this halo effect the secret that Ikea has is that they are just able through all those little ways like the Lac table and the hot dogs they're always going to give tell you that everything that Ikea does is a really great value and that's not Open the Wallet actually true okay next up we need to talk about the Lower Landing as soon as you exit the showroom upstairs so there's an interesting term that I have heard from people that work in Ikea my sources will remain anonymous called open the wallet which is when you walk down that top floor and you enter in to the lower level be very mindful I now say to myself open the wallet whenever I go downstairs at Ikea because they put the shopping carts in the baskets right as soon as you get down on there but notice that as soon as you enter in to the marketplace downstairs and that whole kind of downstairs area notice that you're probably going to see some items everyday essential items that are clever that are smart that are usually a really really good value and that can be a great place for you to buy items in stock up can also be a place that you should be very mindful that they're really trying to get you to put something in that cart the first thing you put in the cart is the most important thing at Ikea for you to put in the cart because they know that if you put one thing in the cart then you know we put some tea lights in the cart already so now that you're going through you know you might as well buy some pillows and you might as well buy a bedding set you might as well buy some sheets you might as well buy some towels and before you know it you've walked out spending 700 at Ikea and you don't know how you did it but it's because you put that first item in what started with those tea lights which are such a great deal turns into all those other different items that you threw in your cards that you didn't necessarily need so be mindful of the fact that this is a trick that Ikea plays on you to put something in that cart as soon as you walk in so watch out you're gonna see seasonal items you're going to see straws in the summer you're going to see what else you're going to see there yeah straws a bag clip napkins right they have really good deals it's high quality stuff it's good stuff I'm not saying don't get it just be mindful of the fact that it's there for a reason and designed to get you to spend more money because if you open the wallet and you buy one item you're probably gonna walk out with 10. okay the next secret that The Price of Labour (The IKEA Effect) Ikea has of how they trick you into spending more money is going to be not factoring the price of Labor so there's a couple of things I want to talk about here the first thing is people notoriously underestimate the cost of Labor right it's like if you if you work in an office and you have a meeting and you're like God that wasn't if you ever done the math on like there's 12 people in that stupid meeting and you're like there's 12 people how much these people all get paid we were here for an hour how much did this meeting cost us no one ever really does that cost analysis because everybody underestimate their own labor and how much there is a cost to time so when you're dealing with Ikea well you need to be really aware aware of is that if you are buying something add on the fact that your time is involved there they have essentially created that price point being so low because they've essentially outsourced the cost of the putting the thing together to you you're doing that work what that does for them is they are able to get that cost very far down so remember that coffee table I mentioned about article okay we compared the difference of 20 bucks now factor in the fact that with the article table it comes fully assembled while the Ikea one you're sitting there with the Allen key for the next couple hours maybe not that because it doesn't take that long it's it is just a coffee table but still it's gonna take you longer than you think and you should really factor in to that price when you're buying from Ikea so what I like to do is if I'm buying something particularly complex like if you're buying a section A packs if you're buying you know some items that are really tricky that have a lot of different components put together consider factoring into your pricing when you go in with your budget of what you're going to spend comparing it to other similar retailers really factor in how much it's going to cost you to have that built for you so again it could take you five six hours to put together like a simple Pax wardrobe think of what it would cost if you say were to hire a taskrabbit which is owned by Ikea to actually put that together for you and I bet you're gonna find that differential between what Ikea cost and the Pax wardrobe might not be that great versus going with another similarly priced sort of similar retailer that does a lot of the assembly for you there's another trick that they're playing on you when they're talking about you building your own products and that is called the Ikea effect which is that they have done studies to find that when a person is involved in sort of putting together or partially working on the construction of a project it actually matters more and is more meaningful to the person so what I mean by that is that if someone comes in and they bring you your table and they just plug it into your dining room that's fine but when you go and actually build it yourself or even if you just do some of that work yourself it actually is more meaningful and you will actually like it more genius they've tricked you into building your own coffee table and because it's been studied the Ikea effect whatever it will be more meaningful to you because you actually played a part in your labor constructing that dining room table so yeah pretty sneaky but it's a way for you to love the products you have and they got you to build it yourself I mean it's absolutely genius from a business perspective but it's something to be mindful when you're actually making a decision over what you're buying at Ikea and comparing it to other retailers okay IKEA Upgrade Companies the other Ikea secret which I don't think they really talk well I guess they don't really talk about it on purpose and that is that there is lots of companies that will modify Ikea for pretty good prices in my opinion so I want to talk about the pricing in a second but basically what I mean by upgrade companies is you can buy the section system the besto system The Good Morgan system which is the bathroom vanity the pack system you can buy lots of different systems from Ikea and let's say if you get a little bit bored of the door fronts or whatever you can change them out and actually there are other retailers that are out there that are usually online companies they will send you their systems that are compatible with the Ikea ones so there's all these amazing companies on I did an entire video on it by the way semi handmade is one kitch is another Norris Interiors right Bens there's lots of different ones that are out there and they've taken couches or you know kitchen boxes or they've taken vanities whatever and they are able to ship you slip covers or they're able to ship you the door fronts whatever to actually modify basic Ikea products now I will say because inevitably people always talk about price and how sort of these options compare to Ikea pricing they are more expensive than Ikea that's for sure they are more expensive to go with a customized because typically these ones are a little bit higher quality they're obviously going to not be working with the same numbers as Ikea so the cost is going to be much higher on them and that's why these are going to be more expensive than going with your base Ikea but if you start to compare them versus going with you know custom Cabinetry or something completely built in or something custom you know you're really going to be seeing a much better price point by going with sort of these middle of the road options so I would place them in the price Spectrum somewhere between base Ikea and going completely custom which for a lot of people depending on where you sit and where your kind of budget is might be just that kind of Goldilocks which might actually just be perfect for you okay so that's it for me for today you guys there's a couple of things that you know I didn't include in this video like the Ikea family program which I think you can get like a free coffee and there's some other benefits which are kind of cool also the as is section but I feel like those aren't really like Secrets like I think people kind of know about those things already which are you know great ways for you to save money or get some additional benefits going to Ikea but I want to talk about stuff stuff around like how Ikea does business and how that sort of affects the psychology of how they get you to buy more which I think is so interesting thank you to all my patrons for supporting me I'm gonna link here to the IKEA upgrade companies that I mentioned earlier and I hope to see you over in that video so thanks a lot bye