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.

Fryday

Contoured pillows. One of the first things I thought about when I woke up this morning. I lived with lower back pain for quite a few years. It kicked off when I was 17 or so. At some point I had to get rid of my soft mattress and I purchased a firm futon to rest on. It definitely helped me sleep better. Lately though, I've been waking with neck and upper back pain. At some point it occurred to me that I never cared about the pillows I was sleeping on. I always used whatever was around the house. We spend approximately a third of our lives sleeping though. Surely $50 for a pillow isn't much? Even $100. Then again, we spend thousands on televisions, and there's no way we spend more time in front of the TV then we do sleeping. At least I hope none of us (us being the human race as a whole) fit that category. Maybe our priorities are all messed up. Maybe we'd all be happier and healthier if we splashed out for a soft king-size Eiderdown pillow?