Sometimes it's Worth Paying for a Good Product

We just bought an office chair for use at home. A few months ago I ended up with an inflamed sciatic nerve from sitting on a poorly designed, but attractive, chair at my desk. I went eventually to a physical therapist who diagnosed the problem correctly, gave me some exercises to do and told me to get a new chair. In the meantime, I've been sitting on an exercise ball when working at my desk, but was beginning to tire of that.

The search started off at OfficeWorks - an Australian clone of Staples. They had a good value chair:



(it actually cost $195 in the store). I took Snork Maiden with me back to the store to have a look but she was a bit skeptical. The chair met all the criteria that the physical therapist set, but it felt a bit small and like many office chairs, when I sat on it my legs did not lie flat but tended to twist outwards.

Today we continued our search in the industrial suburb of Fyshwick, where most furniture stores are located. We started at a store called ErgonomicOffice where Snork Maiden got the chair that she is using at work. The chairs are very nice but very pricey. So we went to a few other stores along Barrier Street that offer new and used office furniture. Nothing used was any good. We almost bought a new chair for about $380 but after sitting on it for ten minutes or so I decided we wouldn't. It had amazingly high armrests and the cushioning really wasn't that good. So back to ErgonomicOffice and we bought a blue version of this chair:



We saved by skimping on the armrests ($75) - Snork Maiden has armrests on her chair and doesn't want them, so we'll take those off and attach them to this one. So $518 in all. Actually, we haven't paid anything yet. We have it on a trial basis. The salesman didn't even take my credit card for a deposit or ID. I am guessing he memorized our car's registration number when he came out to help us put the chair in the car. Otherwise, how does he know I didn't just give him a bunch of false information?

Or maybe I feel like I can afford $500 chairs when I've already "made" more than $30,000 this month?