Changes at IKEA

Wah! The iconic IKEA catalogue is being "put to bed"! (see what I did there). ;) Is it ok to be sad about something so stupid?

I really used to love looking through it and tabbing every other page. It was like the poor man's Architectural Digest; you could actually afford the things that they showed. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have made this decision if Ingvar Kamprad was still alive, but times move on and I'm sure it was the fiscally prudent move. So boring. 

I want to buy emerald green bucket seats called "Sven", (or at least think that I will one night on the the couch until my husband shoots it down). Ya' know what I mean? 

Here's what it says in The Morning Brew: "While Nicolas Sparks is proof that books can make you cry, turns out catalogs can bring on the waterworks, too. Yesterday, Ikea made the "emotional but rational" decision to discontinue its iconic furniture catalog after a 70-year run.

The backstory: A mainstay of coffee tables everywhere, the notoriously thick lookbook is said to be the most widely distributed publication in the world—even more than the Bible. At its peak, Ikea produced 200 million copies in 32 different languages.

But the Bible doesn't compete with e-commerce. Online sales (up 45% last year) have become increasingly important to Ikea's business, and customers just weren't using the paper catalog as much as they used to."

OK, but really, what else is Corona going to take from us? It was a taste from home, and I'm going to miss it just like I miss going into the store and getting my Christmas supplies this time of year. Of course there are worse things to worry about, but I'm going to salute the IKEA catalogue for now and hope that I can grab 2021 when the virus calms down.