You Work for IKEA for Free

Why can't anyone copy IKEA? Every part of how it works is in plain sight and yet its largest operator still brought in around 41.5 billion euros last year while no competitor has come close. The obvious answer is scale. But scale is an outcome, not a cause, and it doesn't explain the oddities: furniture you build yourself, stores at the edge of town, a one-way path you can't skip, a warehouse you pick from yourself. Each choice sounds like a mistake on its own. This video follows the flat box through the whole business the product, the building, the route, the customer tests the theory against the strongest arguments that it's wrong, and ends with what you'd actually have to pay to run an IKEA. Questions this video answers: Why can't anyone copy IKEA? Why is IKEA furniture flat pack? Who invented flat-pack furniture at IKEA? Why are IKEA stores designed like a maze? Why are IKEA stores in the suburbs? What is the IKEA effect? Is IKEA's business model changing? Who owns IKEA? Is IKEA a franchise? Chapters 0:00 Why can't anyone copy IKEA? 1:23 Why is IKEA furniture flat pack? 3:03 Why are IKEA stores like a maze? 5:15 What is the IKEA effect? 8:11 Why has nobody copied IKEA? 9:39 Has IKEA actually been copied? 11:47 Who owns IKEA? 14:36 Why do people like building IKEA furniture? Sources Norton, Mochon & Ariely, "The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love" (Harvard DASH): https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/ha...[1].pdf Ingka Group, Annual Report Summary FY25: https://assets.site.ingka.com/ingka-c... IKEA, The IKEA franchise system: https://about.ikea.com/about-us/the-i... European Commission, IP/17/5343 — in-depth investigation into the Netherlands' tax treatment of Inter IKEA (2017): https://ec.europa.eu/commission/press... PwC EUDTG, EC decision to extend proceedings in Inter IKEA (2020): https://news.pwc.be/pwc-eudtg-newsale... CNBC, EU regulators to investigate Ikea's Dutch tax deals (2017): https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/18/eu-re... Wallpaper*, the Lövet leaf table: https://www.wallpaper.com/design-inte... The Local, IKEA ends its catalogue (2020): https://www.thelocal.se/20201207/end-... ---- Is IKEA's machine still uncopyable, or was it only ever built for a world of cheap suburbs and car-owning households that's now disappearing? Tell us in the comments. 3D model - "Generic passenger car pack" (https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gener...) by Comrade1280 (https://sketchfab.com/comrade1280), licensed under CC Attribution 4.0. Modified (interior rebuilt).