I think IKEA has recently dropped their price for home delivery in the US by a lot. I think it was maximum $50 or less? I don't recall exactly, but I know when I bought IKEA furniture 10 years ago it wound up being more practical to borrow a pickup and drive three hours each way than to ship it, and they seem to have corrected that at least.

They actually do home delivery in Japan for ￥3,000, or roughly $30 USD: https://www.ikea.com/ms/en_JP/customer_service/ikea_services...

Ikea does delivery here in the United States, but their delivery service has a bad reputation.

There are small businesses that have been created around this. I found a business that would purchase, deliver, and assemble items from Ikea. All I had to do was send them a copy of my Ikea shopping list.

In my particular case, they purchased items at the Elizabeth, NJ location, which has a 3.3% sales tax [1]. If I didn't use their service, I would have had to shop at Ikea Brooklyn, which has an 8.8% sales tax [2].

[1] http://www.sale-tax.com/ElizabethNJ [2] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/business-nys-sales-t...

Yes, Ikea delivery is wonky in the US. Ikea themselves will deliver, but the cost is based on how far you are from the nearest store, and it's not cheap. Some of those third-party delivery services are good, but none of them are cheap.

Ikea stores give me nightmares. You can get in, but you can't get out again. What I really want is to be able to order stuff from Ikea online so I don't have to set foot in their store, and have it delivered quickly for a low flat fee. They probably should think about doing some kind of partnership with Amazon to make this happen.

(edit: added link) https://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/service-offer/delivery.html?ic...

Is Ikea actually providing that service or are they merely reselling local logistics companies? When I had a kitchen installed "by Ikea" here in Germany, it was done by contractors who have every bit the impression of being completely unaffiliated.

I get IKEA deliveries to my Bulgarian village 1-2/month. Have been for years.

To inside the home, or a central drop off point?

France lets you rent one of their trucks for 2,3,4 hours.

But I guess that’s less efficient than having one bigger truck go around the neighbourhood.

You can rent a Uhaul for $20/day + gas. The problem isn't the delivery. It's that a lot of buyers don't want to wrestle a washing machine into and out of a truck. If you don't move stuff that big or bigger on the regular it makes it harder.