Paul Clapham wrote:We had IKEA build and install kitchen cabinets in our house. The bill of materials was four pages long and it took the sales person about an hour and a half to write it up.
But that's just technology. 25 years ago a drawer would have just been a wooden box with a handle, which slid in and out. Now it's a wooden box on a metal/plastic framework which rolls in and out on wheels and stays loosely held in place when it's closed. That's a lot more complicated than just a box, and each of the drawers accounted for a whole lot of entries in the parts list.
We had a guy build our kitchen and when it came to the "how can we make our dream cheaper" bit of the conversation, it was basically down to drawers, less cost = less drawers.
So even if they just looked like boxes they are still damn hard to make well.