Ikea's Billionaire Founder Gets Clothes at Flea Markets

Ingvar Kamprad, 89, is famously frugal
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2016 7:46 AM CST
Ikea's Billionaire Founder Gets Clothes at Flea Markets
Sweden's IKEA-founder Ingvar Kamprad is shown in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Heribert Proepper)

Want to end up a billionaire like Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad? Consider doing as he does and trade the mall for the ... flea market. In a documentary set to air on Swedish television, the 89-year-old says that's where he shops for clothes, reports the AFP. "I don't think I’m wearing anything that wasn't bought at a flea market. It means that I want to set a good example. It's in the nature of Smaland [the region of Sweden he hails from] to be thrifty."

It's hardly the first time Kamprad has made headlines over his penny-pinching ways. A 2013 Daily Express article wrote of him pocketing packets of salt and pepper from his own Ikea cafeterias to bring home, driving a decrepit Volvo, and once initially being denied entry to a gala where he was being honored because he had arrived via bus. In 2010, Forbes noted that he prefers to fly coach. The AFP also has this tidbit: Kamprad tries to get his hair cut when he's in a developing country to save a few bucks. "Last time it was in Vietnam," Kamprad says. But Forbes notes one "exception" to his lack of interest in "the trappings of wealth": a winery in Provence. (Click to read about 13 celebs known to be frugal.)

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