I am sure you are correct in tracing things to distributors.
FWIW, I had a long conversation with an ex-enginner who switched to selling European furniture in the US. He described European factories building steel-reinforced furniture on one shift for the European market, then on another shift flimsier too-thin-wood-reinforced versions for the US market.
One easy hack can be to look from the bottom into e.g. a new sofa and reinforce sections which appear likely to sag over time.
Yeah, I added steel bottoms to my Scandinavian designs bookshelves, reinforced the bottom edges and braced the corners with steel flashing, and replaced the cheap backer with some good quality hardboard I picked up at the big box. Handed down twice now in 25 years and it’s still in use at my nephew’s house.
FWIW, I had a long conversation with an ex-enginner who switched to selling European furniture in the US. He described European factories building steel-reinforced furniture on one shift for the European market, then on another shift flimsier too-thin-wood-reinforced versions for the US market.
One easy hack can be to look from the bottom into e.g. a new sofa and reinforce sections which appear likely to sag over time.