In July 2020, a conspiracy theory about Wayfair took off on social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, alleging that the furniture company was part of a vast child sex trafficking scheme. The basic idea is that Wayfair was listing overpriced furniture on its website and allowed sex predators to actually purchase kids who had been abducted and force them into sex slavery. The theory has gained new attention in recent days for an entirely predictable reason. It turns out Jeffrey Epstein bought furniture from Wayfair.
The U.S. Department of Justice released over 3 million pages of previously unseen documents about Jeffrey Epstein on Jan. 30, partially meeting the legal requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. DOJ says this is the last release, though it seems likely there could be litigation over files that are still being withheld and inappropriately redacted.
The newly released files have included the names of powerful people in the world of tech, entertainment, politics, and academia. They show that Epstein wasn’t shy about discussing some horrific topics, like when he thanked someone whose name has been redacted for a “torture video.” The seemingly vast criminal actions surrounding Epstein have confirmed that sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true. But what about the Wayfair theory?
What was Epstein buying from Wayfair?
One tweet that’s racked up over 18 million views includes a page from the Epstein files that shows the sex trafficker’s assistant paid for some furniture from Wayfair for more than $8,400 on June 28, 2018.
“Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant bought a single, unlabeled $8,453 dollar item from Wayfair,” the tweet reads.
But if you actually dig a bit deeper into the newly released files, you can see what was purchased. It wasn’t a single item. It was a large purchase of several items, including 8 “Polar 9-Light Bath Bar by Modern Forms,” which cost $499 each. There appears to be a cancellation request for the entire order sent on June 28, 2018, that includes a medicine cabinet, sconces, and 14 outdoor lights.
But it looks like only the polar bath bar was actually cancelled in an email from June 29, 2018, and a refund of over $4,000 was issued. There’s also an email from PayPal dated July 10, 2018, denying a billing dispute, presumably an attempt to get all of the money back. There are other emails that seem to indicate other items couldn’t be cancelled because they were being prepared for shipment or already shipped.
Woody Allen’s birthday gift
Woody Allen, a director famous for making classic films like Manhattan and Annie Hall, appears many times in the Epstein files. Some of those mentions include emails between Epstein’s assistants and Allen’s assistants because Epstein bought Allen some furniture for the director’s birthday.
One of the emails from Nov. 7, 2016 reads:
Hi Lauren! The chairs Jeffrey has purchased for Woody are to arrive his home on Thursday Nov. 10th…they will come Fed Ex…Fed Ex does not call prior to delivery…this will be 6 cartons with 2 chairs each! Do you think someone will be home to receive the chairs? I’m not sure how deliveries work at Woody’s home… thanks,
The response from Allen’s assistant reads: “Yes! His housekeeper, [redacted], or his chef Richard will be there to receive it.”
They’re the kind of emails that don’t necessarily give off any red flags unless you’re willing to believe that all of the people surrounding Epstein, right down to the housekeepers and chefs, were also talking in code about things like chairs and FedEx deliveries. And while that’s not necessarily something that can be immediately discounted, it seems highly unlikely. If children were being trafficked in this specific instance, it seems like there would be more attention to detail than the receipt being managed by a housekeeper who happens to be around.
What about the other purchases?
Looking through the other purchases listed for Wayfair, there’s nothing else that immediately seems like it could be construed as anything but normal purchases. Epstein’s credit card statements show that he purchased things from Wayfair like a punching bag on Nov. 30, 2012, for $374, and something listed as:
GRENADA CHINA VESSEL
BORMA SINGLE HOLE BA
1.25 POP UP BATHROOM
That appears to be some kind of bathroom sink that cost $638. And it doesn’t look like something suspicious, as far as we can tell. Wealthy people have a tendency to buy a lot of furniture, given their multiple residences and need to fill their spaces with lots of things.
Reached for comment on Wednesday, Wayfair rejected the idea that it was in any way involved in Epstein’s crimes.
“Wayfair unequivocally rejects the false claims linking the company to Jeffrey Epstein or human trafficking of any kind, over any time period. There is no evidence supporting these allegations, which are rooted in long-debunked conspiracy theories,” a spokesperson for Wayfair told Gizmodo via email.
What about all the Ashley Furniture mentions in Epstein’s emails?
One TikToker points out that a search of the Epstein files listed at the DOJ website includes over 8,000 results for the word “furniture.” That TikTok user, nerdypinkpanda1, clearly misunderstands many of the documents she’s looking at, bringing up a Supreme Court case involving Ashley Furniture and anti-dumping laws. She even admits that she doesn’t know what anti-dumping laws are and seems to think it involves child trafficking somehow. She then points to the Epstein files and says, “The proof is in the pudding.”
In reality, the 2014 Supreme Court case was related to Ashley Furniture’s concern about duties paid relating to foreign furniture sold in the U.S. at below-market rates. A 2007 law sought to limit “dumping” by foreign companies that would drive down the cost of U.S. furniture. The TikToker clearly doesn’t understand anything about the files she presents on screen.
The mentions of Ashley Furniture that she flashes on screen appear to be mostly related to financial planning documents that aren’t solely about Epstein, but instead where he was included as someone who had money with Deutsche Bank. She points to a document that includes Epstein’s name among a long list of people and institutions with money being managed. Nothing in the document shows Epstein giving half a billion dollars to Ashley Furniture, as she claims. Instead, it shows various people and businesses that have money held by Deutsche Bank.
It’s not just the expensive furniture purchases that this woman finds suspicious. She also seems to think that it’s weird that there are small purchases from Ikea. “A lot of these are from Ikea, and they’re for less than $10. I’m just curious, what can you buy at Ikea that’s less than $10? I don’t go to Ikea, I’m just curious.” There are countless things to buy at Ikea for less than $10.
The most likely explanation for why there are so many mentions of furniture in the Epstein files is that we’re seeing a massive cache of emails that cover almost a decade, and many of those are marketing emails from various companies. There are also just a lot of marketing emails from Wayfair specifically.
On July 20, 2016, Epstein received an email that read, “Hi Customers, It’s been a year since you first joined Wayfair, so we’ve got a little surprise to help you celebrate.” The surprise is a 10% off promo code that other Wayfair customers receive in their inboxes.
Where did the Wayfair conspiracy theory actually come from?
The origin of the Wayfair conspiracy appears to have been a tweet from a random user in June 2020. The tweet didn’t get much attention at the time, according to the 2025 paper “Some assembly required: Unpacking the content and spread of Wayfair conspiracy theory on Reddit and Twitter.” But once it was posted to the Reddit community r/conspiracy it took on a new life.
The theory combines two facts: That furniture was sometimes very expensive, and it often shared names with children who had gone missing. Or at least that was the claim.
The idea of elite pedophiles using coded messages to arrange child sex trafficking is older than 2020. Pizzagate emerged as a conspiracy theory in 2016 after powerful Democrats had their emails leaked by WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The Pizzagate conspiracy eventually evolved into the QAnon conspiracy theory of 2017, which started because someone claimed to be providing information from inside the federal government with a high-level security clearance. The theory hinges on the idea that Donald Trump is a savior to kids who have been trafficked by an elite cabal of sex perverts. And Trump, who had been described as Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend, was going to expose the cabal while also saving all the kids.
The Epstein files show elite conspiracy theories can be true, but probably not this one
The tricky thing about our current cultural moment is that we have proof that some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country were regularly communicating with the most infamous child sex trafficker in American history. It was a conspiracy to abuse hundreds, if not thousands, of girls over decades.
Conspiracy theories can be true. But there doesn’t appear to be any evidence that the furniture conspiracy theory about abusing kids is based in reality. Someone noticed that furniture is ridiculously expensive sometimes and concluded that it must be a vehicle for trafficking kids. But unless we get more information, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Wayfair or any other furniture company is involved in such heinous crimes. Furniture just costs a lot of money sometimes.
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