According to Ramsey Solutions, over half of Americans are reportedly struggling to pay their bills, and nearly half are struggling to pay for necessities like groceries—the cost of which has risen drastically over the last few years.
Even stores once known for being affordable, like Dollar Tree, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell have come under scrutiny for raising their prices, making their products less accessible to customers.
IKEA, which is commonly looked at as an affordable DIY-style furniture store, is currently under the same spotlight thanks to a viral TikTok by Mark @loljustmark, who has nearly 90,000 followers.
In his video, which was viewed 787,000 times, Mark shows just how expensive IKEA is. “Am I the only one who noticed dhow crazy IKEA has gotten?” Mark questions before explaining that he was perusing the site when he stumbled on a couch that caught his eye due to the price tag.
“I always thought that IKEA was an entry-level store to people who are first furnishing their apartments, people who want an affordable option to begin with,” he says.
He says the price tags on some of IKEA’s products now seem nonsensical.
He then shows the online listing for sofa in question, asking viewers to “guess how much this sofa up here costs.”
“I would pay $600, maybe $700 for this,” he says before revealing the $1,599 price tag.
Mark then shows a similar sofa being sold by Living Spaces for “half the price,” $895.
He continues to “put it in perspective” for viewers by showing another similar sofa being sold by West Elm for $850.
Mark moves onto another IKEA sofa. This sofa is “genuine leather” and “pretty big,” concluding he would pay $1,000-$1,100 for it. He then reveals its actual price, $2,500. He again shows a similar sofa being offered by Living Spaces for the “much cheaper” price of $895 and genuine leather sofas being sold by Article and West Elm for “much less than what IKEA is selling it for.”
Mark says the sofa prices piqued his interest, prompting him to price-check some other items, like a dining table and coffee table. Those items, he says, are also way overpriced, especially considering they are not solid wood.
“IKEA, how are you pricing these items? And who’s buying them?” Mark questions. “I don’t know how the corporate team is pricing these items, but this is definitely not the affordable IKEA that I know.”
@loljustmark IKEA what r we doing #greenscreen #ikea #homedecor #furniture #fyp ♬ original sound – loljustmark
The Daily Dot reached out to Mark via email and TikTok comment and to IKEA U.S. via press email.
In 2022, it was reported that IKEA raised its prices by up to a whopping 80% to “offset inflation and supply shortages.” Another TikToker who stitched Mark’s video, Jillian (@jilian.dee), found that the $1,599 couch used to be $799 in 2019.
Viewers expressed disappointment in the brand and shared where they’d prefer to spend their money.
“Living Spaces is the new IKEA without the meatballs. Castlery rocks!” @dezigngirl08 exclaimed.
“WHO is dropping $1600 on a couch at IKEA?? If you’re spending that much.. go somewhere that makes sense?” @wtf_isthis added.
Some others, remarking on how out of touch IKEA seems, include “Ikea is forgetting their place” and “Ikea thinks its crate and barrel now.”