Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

Ikea’s real genius: making furniture disposable

We love it when things fall apart. It's an excuse to go shopping

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By all accounts, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad was my kind of guy: may he rest in peace (on an Askvoll standard double). Like me, he was a skinflint. For a multibillionaire to buy his clothes at flea markets and select his groceries from supermarket quick-sale shelves is charming. About his retail wares, I’m more ambivalent.

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Lionel Shriver
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Lionel Shriver
Lionel Shriver is a columnist at The Spectator and author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, among other books.

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