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A comment on IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed. Parent comment

Re:IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from bei... by tweetle_beetle on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @06:44AM (#25927053)
My understanding is that that is only the case for items which are bought as components. Items which are bought complete inside a single box have to be replaced as such. For example, the assembly guide for the classic Billy has no item numbers listed apart from connectors - https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/assembly_instructions/billy-bookc...

Coincidentally this appears to be changing as of yesterday - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796429

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Re:IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from bei... by t0mas88 on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:37AM (#25928061)
Calling everything a connector is a bit disingenuous. If you look at the PDF it has 8 part numbers listed, which is a number for all of the small parts. Also the doors, doorknobs, hinges etc are all available to order.

What's left are shelves and the two wooden sides of the bookcase itself. The shelves can be ordered: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/billy-extra-shelf-white-1026529...

So I would rephrase your "no item numbers apart from connectors" to "everything can be replaced except for the two sides of the main body". And even those you can get by ordering a new cabinet without any doors or extras, since that's basically the sides + a number of shelfs.

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Re:IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from bei... by tweetle_beetle on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @11:15AM (#25930030)
You can buy extra shelves as a form of accessory to the main unit - it just so happens that these accessories are equivalent to the ones that come with it. Fair enough, but IKEA sells them to augment your purchase, not as spares.

This is clear because, as you say, you cannot buy the sides, or the unique bottom piece on its own. And the piece which is most likely to degrade is the one which has many connectors pushed into particle board potentially multiple times - the sides.

Maybe it was a poor example, but I think my point still stands. There are many other furniture products for which no spares are sold, or happen to be available to purchase for other reasons.

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