Boston Globe on the IKEA impact:
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.Posted by rv at November 3, 2005 10:28 AM to home