I gotta say I also wonder about the effect of it. I hate assembling their furniture and the only thing I really care about is the quality and longevity. Which often means that we don't get IKEA products, because their good quality products are often more expensive than their competition.

About the only reason we ever get IKEA furniture is because of how it's delivered. We have two 140cm wide beds so that we have plenty of space for co-sleeping with the offspring (this is semi-normal in Scandinavia), and the offspring also has IKEA beds. Why? Well because IKEA was the only company that delivered beds disassembled in a way that made it possible for us to get them upstairs. We talked with some of the neighbours, and, only one couple managed to get a 140cm wide bed upstairs, and they did it, by disassembling half the stair case and break down half a wall. Now I have no idea why IKEA is the only company that delivers a mattress that is rolled up and without air and bed frames that aren't already assembled around here, but that's just how it is. So it was either IKEA or a ton of trouble.