Why you bought your couch

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

You probably own a chair or a table or a sofa. And you probably think you know why you bought it. Because it was comfy. Or blue. Or the right price. But what if the style, the color, the cost, maybe even whether you would like it, were choices made for you years before you even thought about buying that piece of furniture.

Today on the show: The city that makes or breaks the furniture world. We travel to High Point, North Carolina and meet the people who make the bets – on whether or not you'll want that comfy blue couch.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Beras. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
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0:22.1	More information at carnegie.org. Hey, it's Amanda Oranjic. Real quick, before the show, we want to talk about the
0:28.8	idea of return on investment on, well, this show. What do you get from Planet Money? Well, you get
0:36.4	two episodes every week that hopefully reveals something you find really interesting about the economy.
0:42.7	It's a two-fer, honestly, entertaining story that also helps you make smarter decisions.
0:47.8	That is the return. But what is your investment?
0:52.8	Time, yeah, sure. But other than that, planet money is free. That is because we
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2:03.5	Again, sign up at plus.mpr.org.
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2:14.7	A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a woman named Kristen Hawkins at an awards gala in High Point, North Carolina.
2:22.3	Like, is this a big night?
	...

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