Parents Hide Flatpack Furniture to Buy Floor Model and Avoid Assembling It Themselves

Putting flatpack furniture together is the bane of many people's existence. This is why this TikTok user's parents decided to pull a fast one on the manager of a store that would allow them to buy an already assembled floor model of a dresser they wanted to buy.

Tam (@tansimon3) recorded her folks pulling off the scheme and posted the video on her TikTok account, garnering 3.8 million views in the process.

If her father seems familiar, he's the gentleman seen in this wildly popular video, showing off this clearly unenthusiastic expression to meeting his daughter's boyfriend for the first time.

"When the manager told my parents they can only buy a display item if there are no more left in stock," a text overlay in the beginning of the furniture caper clip reads.

The first image that viewers are presented with is Dad running through the aisles of the store.

He looks to the camera and tells Tam, "Gotta hide the box." He then approaches a shelf containing the product in question and shifts it to the side, in the hopes that the store's manager doesn't see it. Next, he leans against the shelf, playing it cool.

Following this, an employee of the store can be seen standing in front of the fully constructed piece of flatpack furniture. Tam's mom and dad are standing by the fully assembled dresser as dad explains his dilemma. He says that while he isn't saying they don't have any more in stock, that he can't find the product in any boxes in the store.

"Want to get this one right here, and this is the only one that I see up here. I'm not saying y'all don't have anymore laying around somewhere, hidden. But," he taps the top of the dresser, "this is the only one I see and I'm in a rush so I wanted to see if I can buy this one get on up out of here."

The worker, seemingly smiling, appears to agree with that proposal. "I appreciate it," the father says further inspecting the dresser as the worker offers to get a trolley to cart it out of the store.

"No, I can carry it," Dad informs him.

"You sure?" the worker tells him, stating that they have a flat cart that they could use.

"Yeah, that'll work," Dad tells him, still looking at the assembled dresser he's about to buy. "All right, thank you," he tells the man. Once he's gone, the dad then moves the box back onto the shelf, but then flips it over so that it's not readily perceptible as to what's inside the box.

Next, Tam's parents work together to carry the dresser towards the front of the store. "Now we don't have to put it together," he tells her as they swiftly walk through the aisles, with the dresser in their hands as Tam records them making away with it.

The TikToker's mom and dad aren't the only people who find putting together furniture an annoying prospect. Apartment Therapy penned an article in 2023 detailing the "most stressful" IKEA product to put together, according to folks who've purchased it and gone through the crucible of its construction.

Furthermore, this study implemented empirical variables in order to discern which pieces were the biggest pains in the behind to figure out. Chief among them was monitoring the heart rates of folks while they assembled the furniture.

So which one earned the top prize? That distinction belongs to the PAX Wardrobe. The PAX line of products in IKEA's selection allows for user customization.

There's a variety of different options for when it comes to adding storage bins and shelving. However, with more complexity and choice comes more parts to put together. The study read: "According to our study, the PAX wardrobe is the most scientifically stressful item of flat-pack furniture to assemble, scoring top marks with an overall stress score of 100. DIYers saw an average heart rate increase of 20 percent (13 BPM) when assembling the flagship furnishing, with heart rave variance (HRV) dropping by a quarter (25 percent)."

Moreover, the BRIMNES storage bed, HEMNES day-bed frame with three drawers, BESTA TV bench, BESTA storage combination, EKET cabinet, HEMNES chest of eight drawers, NORDLI bed frame, NIKKEBY chest of four drawers, and TRULSTORP coffee table were ranked as highly stressful products to assemble from the popular flatpack retailer.

One of the easiest bits of IKEA furniture, however, was the KALLAX storage system, which just required a bunch of wooden dowels.

Kitset Assembly also discussed the "emotional torture" associated with piecing together flatpack furniture, citing how they often come with "poor quality tools included" as part of the assembly unit.

Some furniture is so annoying to piece together, the company writes, that they call it a "divorce maker." But keep in mind this is a company that specializes in putting together flatpack furniture for folks, so keep that in mind.

TikTokers who saw Tam's post quipped that they thought the employee was clearly cognizant of her parents' ploy, citing his knowing smirk throughout their interaction. "The employee smirking bc he probably saw this whole thing play out."

"He’s laughing because he did inventory an hour ago lmaoooo," another penned.

"Employee knew from the jump and dgaf."

Others remarked that they were just smitten with the TikToker's folks and how they worked together to pull off the ploy so they could get the floor model out of the store without having to put a new one together themselves.

How do you feel about flatpack furniture? Have you ever gotten an item that just made you want to rage quit? Or do you think it's just like building Lego sets, but for grown-ups?