That's a fair point and a trend I have definitely noticed as well. The price quality ratio isn't what it used. The founder died 5 years ago, I wonder if it's related. He was a notorious penny pincher.
It also depends on the region. Here in HK, Ikea is very expensive (about double the price I used to see in France), to the point where it's cheaper to get a wardrobe custom made in good quality plywood exactly according to our dimensions than to buy a wardrobe that's close to the dimensions we need in Ikea.
In Japan it was the only place I found with good reasonably priced furniture, especially for larger sofas and beds. Nitori was good quality but a bit more expensive and everything was low and small. Besides that, there seemed to be absolute junk for low prices and high end handmade stuff for very high prices. I simply wasn’t anywhere else with stuff in the midrange.
Now I love close to France and Ikea is definitely the best value for midrange. Some of the German chains are pretty good too (but still 30% more comparing similar quality).
Yup, lived in Japan before moving here and definitely matches my experience :) The one other store besides Nitori and Ikea was Muji. I bought a few furniture from them which was decent. Definitely more adapted to the Japanese market in term of dimensions.
