IKEA was, no pun intended, an American household name in the previous decade. This was an era of tremendous housing expansion, cheap credit, and "don't ask, don't tell" residential mortgages. IKEA was seen an an inexpensive option for those who had a new space and needed furniture to fill it. Few asked hard questions about the provenance of IKEA items. They were inexpensive, and that was enough.
Well, the furniture came from someplace. One of those venues, as it turned out, was Cuba.
Today's online edition of The Miami Herald notes allegations, originally reported in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, that Cuban prison labor produced dining tables, children's tables, and sofas for the Scandinavian firm.
IKEA said it was investigating this unique form of outsourcing.
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