There is a lot of anger in this Blog!
I do not get angry anymore but here is a book that is full of it. Mostly this book is about my dad and how he built this business and how we stuck together through it all. Why is titled John Doe vs Evil? Because I took it from the point of view that this could happen to anyone.
I was reminded that I had this book the other day. One, my editor Janet received this book as a gift from a friend, and… Two, I am helping out a small business here in Bali and my brother sent me an old costing sheet.
The book outlines the trials and tribulations we had with the world’s largest furniture retailer over a 25-year marriage with them. I’ll say marriage because it ended up in a bitter divorce and the rest is history. Yes, they single-handedly destroyed our family business. This brings back some very angry, disappointing, and hard moments in my life.
This is not only my story but the story of my family. My father George and my brother Gabor were all part of this and so there is a book.
Go read it and see if you’d be angry.
There is a gag order on the full story after the closure of our company Z.A.U. Zsemba Apron and Upholstery. Funny, as at the time we created the name we were making aprons. Not thinking much of the name at the time we stuck the upholstery bit on the end. Back in the 80s, there was no thought of marketing the name it was about survival.
The name stuck and most of the suppliers called us Zsemba anyway, so the name didn’t matter much. The point was that this was the family name. An honorable honest business was ripped apart and raped.
I do not care what people say. IKEA is one of the worst companies ever to emerge. They are the modern-day tyrants of the world; they would rather kill the supplier than walk away in peace.
What people don’t know.
Open-book pricing is one thing but poking your nose up our ass is not. At one point in the big Yellow & Blue, there was a guard change. The new guard was a thief, liar, cheat, rapist, and terrorist. Once we didn’t let them stick their nose up our asses, they became angry and belligerent.
When we needed a price hike, they wanted a price decrease. This is when the shit hit the fan. With over 30% difference in the pricing of items, the bleeding had to stop. The details are in the book!
Wait for what?
Oh yes, so the costing sheets my brother still had and when I opened them up, much of this anger came back to me. When my editor Janet got a copy of the book a few days later… I knew I had to speak about this.
If you would like a copy of John Doe vs Evil, please follow the attached link to Amazon and pick up a copy of it for yourself. Learn from our mistakes, learn from a hard-working honest family that was put out to pasture 10 years ago by IKEA! Yes, the Yellow and Blue plundering bastards of the furniture world that people seem to love so much.
#ikea #sweden #homefurnishings #homedecor #sofa #chair #zsoltzsemba #interiordesign
Zsolt Zsemba 