"The humorist Sandra Tsing Loh once described her generational cohort as "today's young, highly trained, downwardly mobile professionals: 'dumpies.' We're just emerging from years of college only to learn that there are no jobs available for people with our advanced qualifications," and thus no route to ownership of all their hoped-for lifestyle accoutrements. No, she's not a millennial, but rather what she calls a "late boomer" in an essay that dates from the mid-nineties -"
"IKEA could expand so far out of its native Sweden thanks to the success of products like the LACK coffee table, the subject of the new Primal Space video above. Though small in scale and highly unprepossessing in appearance (and, let's face it, a visual byword for cheap furnishings second only to the number-one-selling BILLY bookshelf) it's long been a steady seller the world over, not least because its price, just under the equivalent of ten euros when introduced in 1981, has never been raised."
Sandra Tsing Loh labeled a generational cohort 'dumpies': highly trained, downwardly mobile professionals emerging from college into scarce-job markets and unable to attain expected lifestyle ownership. Ingvar Kamprad's arrival in Southern California and the cry "Halogen! Impossible Price: $29!" helped catalyze a new market niche. IKEA scaled globally through products such as the LACK coffee table, priced just under ten euros at its 1981 introduction and never raised. IKEA achieved affordability by flat-packed design, non-warping particle board, honeycomb paper reinforcement for strength with minimal material, and engineered leg-folding machinery.
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