宜家倾城的秘密

    宜家家居是面向99%人群的大众零售商。

    至少，这是这家瑞典家具和家居用品巨头的前任CEO安德斯•达尔维格在其著作《宜家之道》（The Ikea Edge）中试图传达的讯息。他在书中开宗明义地告诉读者：“宜家家居和所有企业一样，都致力于专业和利润。但这并不是一家的终点。宜家孜孜以求的是一个社会公益性目标：为人们创造更好的日常生活。”

    如今占领华尔街运动正进行得如火如荼，在这样的日子里，我们很容易对一家大公司发出的此类讯息嗤之以鼻。但读完这本书之后，你很难不相信他的这番话。部分原因是，宜家家居的目标称不上好大喜功：它只是希望能让普通百姓能够用上价格低廉的优质家居，从而改善生活品质。我们大多数人（除非你属于1%人群）应该都亲身体验过宜家的这一承诺。

    《宜家之道》这本书的相当一部分都是在诠释，该公司具体是如何设法提供价格低得离谱的家具，以至于顾客不可能不揣着一条长长的收据单离开店铺。我曾经带着一个装有100只茶蜡的袋子，从宜家驱车回家。这并不是因为我正在广泛地收集蜡烛——我没有这个癖好——而仅仅是因为这包茶蜡仅仅3.99美元（每只茶蜡还不到4美分！）。我确信有过这种经历的绝非我一人。

    Ikea is the retailer for the 99%.

    Or at least that's the point Anders Dahlvig, the former CEO of the Swedish furniture and home goods giant, is trying to make in The Ikea Edge. Early on in the book he tells the reader, "Like any business, Ikea strove for professionalism and profits. But this was never an end in itself. The company has a social ambition that feels genuine: to create a better everyday life for people."

    In these days of Occupy Wall Street, it's easy to scoff at that kind of message from a big company. But by the end of the book, it's hard not to believe him. In part that's because the company's objective isn't that grandiose: to improve ordinary people's lives by giving them the option of decent quality furniture at low prices. And most of us, unless you're part of the 1%, have experienced this part of the Ikea promise firsthand.

    Much of The Ikea Edge is spent explaining how the company manages to offer ridiculously low prices that make it impossible to leave the store without a lengthy receipt. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have driven home from Ikea with a bag of 100 tea lights not because I have an extensive candle collection -- I don't -- but simply because the price tag was $3.99. (Each one is less than 4 cents!)