Where Can I Find a Decent Couch?

Most furniture these days is not built to last. No one expects a chair from Ikea, Wayfair, or even the pricier West Elm to survive for generations. Yet if you walk into an antique furniture store or thrift shop, even mass-produced tables and chairs considered lower-end when they were made are still standing strong.

The dining room table I grew up with is the same one my father ate dinner on with his parents. It’s made of solid wood and, while it has some nicks on the surface after 70 years of wear, the table will surely last another generation or two. My parents, unfortunately, are unwilling to part with the table, so when I recently moved, I had to buy a new one for my family.

Where did I look? I searched online for “real wood dining table.” I ended up buying one from a West Elm competitor. One year later, the table looks worse for wear than my parents’ piece.

“The stuff today is built to last a short amount of time. The stuff they built back in the day is designed to last generations,” said antique furniture dealer Pete Mack, who’s worked in the business for 30 years. He told AARP Experience Counts that social media trends and the ease of buying online have changed expectations and created a “disposable society.”

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“Market demand and desirability is driven by what people see in magazines and online and on home improvement shows,” Mack said. “Folks don’t really want grandma’s antiques anymore.”

This fast-paced trend market means that customers today are willing to exchange an old bookshelf for a new one every few years — and as a result, they don’t want to pay top dollar for it. Yet even high-end brands are churning out products that don’t last. Why is that?

One primary reason is materials. In the mid-20th century, American-made furniture was constructed from solid wood like oak, maple, or cherry. More affordable pieces were made from plywood. The “real wood” table I bought, by contrast, is likely made of Chinese press board with a glued-on veneer. It’s technically wood but much cheaper to manufacture and far less durable. Many major brands have switched to these composite wood products to cut costs.

Another reason is that in the 1970s, manufacturing and international shipping from overseas became the norm. Labor in China and Southeast Asia is cheaper, as are materials. Today, more than 85 percent of wood furniture sold in America is imported.

Have you noticed that you have to assemble most of your new furniture yourself with an Allen key or screwdriver? That’s because, to drive down shipping costs, furniture is made in parts to “flat-pack” and take up less space in shipping containers.