Monday, May 24, 2010

IKEALDI

I'm a 30 year old male. I don't spend a lot of time looking around when I want to buy something. I never really did, though it has lessened again because of the internet. I made the decision to buy a contoured pillow sometime last week, as discussed in the post below this one. Then at some point during the week I received a recommendation about parts of IKEA's bedroom range. Jumped on the net, did some pillow research and decided on the IKEA 365+ FAST side/back sleeper. This $49.99 pillow was chosen because it was the most expensive. I didn't even really look at the benefits of this pillow compared to any of their other contoured pillows, save for choosing the firm over the soft version. There may be some hints at how to market to males in my age range in there somewhere.



There are IKEA products scattered throughout my current apartment. Both myself and my housemate have MALM drawers in our respective bedrooms. Then there's the bookshelves, bedside tables and dining table. Probably more that I don't know of. I like the look of a lot of the furniture at IKEA, actually. Their products are cheap yet durable, common yet elegant. In fact, I believe I could easily fill a household with items purchased from just IKEA and one other store: ALDI.


ALDI is a store I rarely visited before 2008, which is when I lived on the same street as the store in Melbourne's CBD. I do remember checking out one of the stores when I was over in Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. I figure the stores are largely the same throughout the world (over 10 countries so far from what I can tell). Cheap, no nonsense groceries. The fruit is always fresh. The meat and poultry always contains little fat and tastes great. I can't think of anywhere that I've seen beer and wine cheaper, either. Even the electronic products they sell are decent enough (especially for the price).




I don't care about the whole idea of buying Australian to support Australians. I care about the best deal for me, right now, on my budget. I think a lot of Australian companies can learn something from that.

3 comments:

  1. Common yet elegant? Sounds a bit onanistic, no?

    And I strongly dislike your final statement. Basically you just invited companies to outsource work to countries that exploit people (or children), because as long as you don't have to know about it and you save a few dollars, you are a happy man.

    Don't get me wrong, you know I love Aldi & I am all for saving money when I have $40pw maximum to spend on food. But maybe have a think about what you are saying when you make statements like that. Xo

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  2. Onanistic as in wanky?

    Fair for you to dislike my final statement, but if companies from overseas can source/manufacture cheap goods then surely Australian companies also can?

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  3. Yes wanky. But I was being wanky and saying that in a wanky way...

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