Ikea buys Taskrabbit, suggesting an end to the pain of flatpack furniture
Have a stranger come and get confused by allen keys and strange instructions instead
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Ikea might be about to kill the pain of flatpack furniture.
In the future, you might be able to have someone else come round and attempt to put together your tables and bookcases instead – so long as you pay.
The home company has bought TaskRabbit, a platform that lets users hire people with odd jobs. And it appears that it is moving towards having one of the main parts of those odd jobs being the assembly of Ikea furniture.
It could mean that Ikea will allow you to come to the store, pick out your flat, long cardboard box of furniture – and instead of just wrestling with it yourself, being able to ask for someone to come to your house and put it together.
TaskRabbit will continue to operate as a separate company within the Ikea group. But it will be able to work more closely with Ikea than before.
Last year, the two companies worked together to run a trial in London stores that allowed people to pay to have someone put their furniture together.
The decision had been made to "make our customers' lives a little bit easier", said Ikea president and chief executive Jesper Brodin, who suggested that he was aware that his furniture might be cheap and nice but could sometimes lead to complexity and confusion. "We need to develop the business faster and in a more flexible way," he said.
Not all of the work is expected to be in flatpack furniture, but helping out with general tasks around the home – some of which might include Ikea products, and some might not.
John Lewis, for instance, allows people to hire plumbers and builders, as part of its home offering. And even Ikea offers home delivery – though until now it has been expensive and still required people to put together the furniture themselves.
TaskRabbit was founded in the US in 2008. It is one of the key companies in the "gig economy" – allowing people to advertise their services or find jobs, working on a freelance basis and according to what customers need.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments