Sorry if my post was a bit harsh. Of course Billy shelves can look good. I have a B&M shop and at first it was completely Billy shelves. They were cheap and looked good. But after a while I realised their limitations. For fiction the shelves were too deep and too high. For heavy art books the shelves would almost immediately sag. I didn’t like that the popularity of the shelves meant that many customers would recognise the shelves from their own home or other stores. I wanted my shop to be unique. I spent AU$20000 on 25mm hoop pine ply and made custom shelves myself. (I guess I’m lucky I have woodworking skills) One wall of the shop has shelves that go 4m high with a rolling ladder. Of course it’s all subjective. What looks good to one person can look cheap to another.

Cheers

If you have an article about alternatives – I’d be happy to publish it. We do like to explore all options.

They are also a highly unoriginal choice, cheap looking to many people, made in China (not at all green), and not custom made for specific locations and stock.

The world seems less and less concerned with quality and more and more with immediate profits.

Spend four times as much on custom shelving and you will eventually get your money back or more plus you will have an original store.

Ikea is a big multi-national company that puts crap in everyone’s home. How about writing an article on alternatives to ikea shelving!