Book 9. John Doe vs Evil
Don’t shop at IKEA!
This was in many ways the hardest book to write. The story of my family and how we escaped Hungary to start a better life. Well, that’s the beginning. The story is basically about how one of the world’s largest retailers screwed us over.
Let me explain. Doing business with IKEA was not easy. But with over 25 years of working with them, we had developed a relationship with them. There was trust with them to the point where they moved their North American office to Houston Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas they say. So are the bullshit and lies that came from the yellow and blue (YB) as I refer to them in my book.
Lies upon lies.
Am I calling them liars? Yes, I am. Why? Simple. When you make a product according to their specs and their approvals on signed-off samples all we needed to do was to manufacture each piece according to the signed-off piece which we did.
All was great for years until someone from head office came to North America and basically told the Houston office that everything needs to be made to the European specs and not the ones that were approved for Canadian manufacturing.
In essence, the Houston technicians were at fault for their price cutting and changing of the specs. This halted our production as they inspected every piece of furniture for over a month.
The ship began to sink.
We were wounded. Badly wounded and terribly saddened as we were thrown under the bus. At the same time, my dad nearly died due to a bicycle accident and so the perfect storm came our way.
With my dad in the hospital, my brother and I juggled the visits with my dad. We also tended to the 22 IKEA people camped out at our place for over a week.
The European technicians looked under every rock at our facility and decided that we need to switch production back to the original way of manufacturing. Well, that’s one thing but they didn’t want to pay the additional costs of 20 percent. This is where the fight began. So the book is about us starting the business in 1979 to the time of closing.
The back of the book.
Based on a true story of a family who immigrated from Hungary in 1979. The story of their escape, their hardship and hard work building a life and a family business. After the daring escape to freedom, their life and business were devastated by the world’s largest retailer, the Yellow and Blue we all know.
Who is John Doe? Anyone one of us could be John Doe… All our lives could turn on a dime. How would you deal with your life-changing overnight? This is the true story of a family who lived and built the American dream. The story of how they escaped from Communist Hungary and how they built their business. A business they bought for $150 in 1979 turned into a multi-million dollar-a-year manufacturing facility over 35 years. A story of struggle, hardship and determination. A man following his dream… A dream to be living free in a free country and to provide for his family. A dream halted by a company we all know and the colours of Yellow and Blue you all associate with good and not EVIL. A company that not only sabotaged this family but killed their business because of greed and a witch hunt.
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Zsolt Zsemba 