apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We have it!

My mom bought it for my son last christmas and its perfect!
We had another baby who needed the high chair so this was perfect. He uses the chair al of time to help me cook or to sneak into cabinets.

Yes -- we graduated our 3.5 year old into it when our 1 year old went into the TripTrap.

Works well -- she is almost 6 now, and it is still a good height.

Just wish it weren't IKEA.

mschatelaine - why do you wish it were not Ikea?

I saw this in a dining room set up in last years catalogue and fell in love with it, but it wasn't actually for sale down here yet. I bought one as soon as it was and my 3 year old and 5 year old both love it. It was intended for the 3 year old but his sister often usurps it.

tylr61:

I have always tried to be an ethical consumer, and I now know things about IKEA that cause me considerable concern.

Where do I start?

They are one of the biggest tax-dodgers on the face of the planet.

IKEA stores are owned by a Dutch non-profit, and so all profits from the sale of IKEA goods are channeled into what is now the world's largest charitable foundation (its estimated worth is $36 billion, $3 billion more that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Since it is Dutch, they do not have to report on any grants that they make, but in most jurisdictions, grant recipients are. The only grants made by this enormous trust were for a total of $3.4 million to the University of Lund, which rather begs the question of what is happening to all this money? Money that should be going to governments to fund education, healthcare, roads, and vital services is being diverted -- where exactly?

The Foundation is dedicated to promoting "innovations in architecture and interior design", particularly ironic given how much their pieces are "inspired" by the work of non-IKEA designer, and also that they have driven the middle range of their competition out of business.

The Kamprad family makes their money through the franchising fees, trademarks, etc., and these are stripped and expensed to such a degree that IKEA has been targeted by the Berne Declaration, a non-profit organization in Switzerland that promotes corporate responsibility, has formally criticized IKEA for its tax avoidance strategies. In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye “awards,” which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Further, they are not the "green" or socially responsible company they market themselves to be.

Their subcontracting and purchasing policies are as rapacious as Wal-Mart's, but they haven't gotten the same press attention because their marketing is superior.

Examples? They squeeze their suppliers and subcontractors the same way that Wal-Mart does... As a result, they knowingly have child workers in their supply chain (cheap labour), and do nothing about it. Their suppliers pay the workers manufacturing these goods the local minimum wage, at best (there were a number of cases in recent years where these workers were denied even those basic wages), the workers do not enjoy the same health and safety considerations they do in (western) Europe and North America.

IKEA is the single largest purchaser of lumber in the world, and although they make noises about purchasing only sustainably-harvested wood, the truth remains that they only have 11 inspectors to patrol where the wood comes from, which is wholly inadequate by their own reckoning. The majority of IKEA's lumber comes from Russia and the former Soviet Union, where illegal logging is rampant, and so it is probable that a portion of their lumber not sustainably harvested, although the question remains just how much. Needless to say, this is a big slap in the face of efforts to contain global warming.

As for all the other issues (and there are still a number of important issues, many of them ethical, economic and environmental), please refer to the book

http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-High-Cost-Discount-Culture/dp/159420215X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252160509&sr=8-1

So, in sum, if one has issues with Wal-Mart, one should have even more misgivings about IKEA.

It is no accident that Ingvar Kamprad -- the 5th wealthiest in the world - and the Waltons (of Wal-Mart) -- 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th wealthiest individuals in the world -- top the Forbes List of Billionaires; it is their similar rapacious business practices that landed them there.

i got one for my daughter when she was... oh, i can't remember now, maybe 5? we'd been using a portable booster in a regular chair and loved her having her own chair that was exactly the right height. She's 9.5 now and is still using it!