????宜家家居是面向99%人群的大眾零售商。

????至少，這是這家瑞典家具和家居用品巨頭的前任CEO安德斯?達爾維格在其著作《宜家之道》（The Ikea Edge）中試圖傳達的訊息。他在書中開宗明義地告訴讀者：“宜家家居和所有企業(yè)一樣，都致力于專業(yè)和利潤。但這并不是一家的終點。宜家孜孜以求的是一個社會公益性目標：為人們創(chuàng)造更好的日常生活。”

????如今占領(lǐng)華爾街運動正進行得如火如荼，在這樣的日子里，我們很容易對一家大公司發(fā)出的此類訊息嗤之以鼻。但讀完這本書之后，你很難不相信他的這番話。部分原因是，宜家家居的目標稱不上好大喜功：它只是希望能讓普通百姓能夠用上價格低廉的優(yōu)質(zhì)家居，從而改善生活品質(zhì)。我們大多數(shù)人（除非你屬于1%人群）應(yīng)該都親身體驗過宜家的這一承諾。

????《宜家之道》這本書的相當(dāng)一部分都是在詮釋，該公司具體是如何設(shè)法提供價格低得離譜的家具，以至于顧客不可能不揣著一條長長的收據(jù)單離開店鋪。我曾經(jīng)帶著一個裝有100只茶蠟的袋子，從宜家驅(qū)車回家。這并不是因為我正在廣泛地收集蠟燭——我沒有這個癖好——而僅僅是因為這包茶蠟僅僅3.99美元（每只茶蠟還不到4美分?。?。我確信有過這種經(jīng)歷的絕非我一人。

????Ikea is the retailer for the 99%.

????Or at least that's the point Anders Dahlvig, the former CEO of the Swedish furniture and home goods giant, is trying to make in The Ikea Edge. Early on in the book he tells the reader, "Like any business, Ikea strove for professionalism and profits. But this was never an end in itself. The company has a social ambition that feels genuine: to create a better everyday life for people."

????In these days of Occupy Wall Street, it's easy to scoff at that kind of message from a big company. But by the end of the book, it's hard not to believe him. In part that's because the company's objective isn't that grandiose: to improve ordinary people's lives by giving them the option of decent quality furniture at low prices. And most of us, unless you're part of the 1%, have experienced this part of the Ikea promise firsthand.

????Much of The Ikea Edge is spent explaining how the company manages to offer ridiculously low prices that make it impossible to leave the store without a lengthy receipt. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have driven home from Ikea with a bag of 100 tea lights not because I have an extensive candle collection -- I don't -- but simply because the price tag was $3.99. (Each one is less than 4 cents!)