Why do Americans spend tens of millions of dollars on something completely unneeded?

[MacLawn]

I was thinking a living room sofa. But ours is about 60 years old, got from wife's mother who got from her mother. That's the way we do things. And these goodwill, Salvation Army, used shops. We totally furnished our house in Mississippi for - $700!! Bed was given to us, but that's all. Young couple nowadays can do mighty good at these places! From kitchen ware to you name it. Wish these junque stores had been around when we got married.

 

[bcp]

I just noticed there is thread titled "Raised Bed Maker" in the Build-it-yourself forum.



Bruce

 

[JDgreen227]

Our bed is a king sized type with drawers built into the frame and the height makes a box spring redundant. Most places that would sell us a new mattress would prefer we purchased a matching box spring. Another member here remarked on the obscene price of furniture...SO TRUE!! Which is why I am a frequent Goodwill shopper...the attachment shows the entertainment center I purchased at the local Goodwill for $39.99 and tax, has 4 solid oak doors and 2 drawers (not shown) and after I add two shelves and reinstall the doors and drawers it will be used as a wardrobe in our bedroom. How much do you think something like this cost new?

 

[jinman]

I once dated a girl whose parents had all their living room and dining room funiture covered in that clear diamond-pattern plastic that they came out with in the '60s. It was okay on car seats, but just horrible on home furniture. I can still hear the crackle it made when you sat down on it. I bet they spent hundreds of dollars having that stuff put on their funiture.

 

[westcliffe01]

When I moved from South Africa to Germany one of the items that was simply not practical to take along was the bed. So on arriving in Germany, our container was going to take 6 months, so we went looking for a new bed. The Germans don't believe in box spring or base anything. They have bed frames and lattice style supports for the foam or latex mattresses. The most basic lattice systems are the ones that have wooden "leaves" with certain of them doubled up and clips that can be slid out to adjust the stiffness. Close together = soft and wide apart = stiff. Then they had fancy motorized ones that make it comfortable to sip up in bed, or watch tv from a reclined position. Or you could elevate your feet. We got a middle of the range motorized lattice system, seperate controls for the left and the right side of the bed and high quality latex mattresses. That came to an unbelievable $1500 (to me at least an insane amount of money).

3 years and a divorce later, I find myself in Michigan and I am still in possession of the German bed. My new wife over the years hinted that she wanted her "own" bed, that some other woman had never slept in and I resisted for the longest time because of how ridiculous the prices were for what in my opinion were quite poor quality mattresses and bases. Finally we had an Ikea open about an hours drive away and we finally got a new european bed, and the wife has regretted the day, since the new expensive bed is not nearly as comfortable as the old one... Such is life...