IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, has died aged nearly 92. Born 30 March 1926 in Sweden, he started retailing early aged five selling matches, the moved into fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. IKEA was founded when he was just 17. Despite his great wealth, he seemed to live simply.
He had a pro-active Sun, Mercury in Aries in a dynamic sextile to Mars in innovative Aquarius, and a determined square to Pluto. Added to that was a fixed, enduring, stubborn T Square of Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter Venus in Aquarius square an obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio. Saturn gave him executive ability though not much inclination to share the driving seat; Aquarius is multi-cultural; Jupiter Neptune tuned him into high finance.
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingvar_Kamprad_Haparanda_June_2010.jpg#/media/File:Ingvar_Kamprad_Haparanda_June_2010.jpg
i think it was that Sun sextile Mars that made him keep going on. IKEA was ‘born’ because at one point all the much more successful furniture shop owners around him, kind of ganged up on h m and made sure that no one is to deliver the furniture he is selling to anyone.
trying to figure out what to do, he kept the furniture packaged in flat boxes, and printed out assembly instructions so the buyer if any could pick up the furniture and assemble it him or herself at home, and obviously at a lower cost such the cost of assembling and delivering were gone…the idea was a hit, and the rest is history.
Naturally all famous people are not without controversy and though i prefer other furniture shops, this guy was truly innovative in how he hand,ed business problems.
Being a Nazi for three years during the height of WWII goes beyond the pale. Nazis were not a tea and cookie organization. What did he do during those years? Success and money washed that away, so we can all admire the “genius” who invented cheap diy furniture in flat boxes.
Karma prevailed, though. He was cursed millions of time as people struggled to put together some attractively priced piece. In the afterlife, those curses are ringing in his ears one by one.
Then there’s that Nazi thing he did for three years, only ending when the Nazis did. Yep, there’s that.