An investigation into the design industry’s tortured relationship with product markups and whether they can withstand the age of the internet.

There’s this thing—call it a theory, a rumor, an urban legend—that everyone in the interior design world is familiar with. It goes something like this: “As the industry gets more and more transparent, clients won’t tolerate product markups anymore, and future generations of designers will charge only for their time.” Cue heated debate.

I’ve been hearing some version of this for more than a decade. I’ve heard it from designers who were terrified it was going to happen soon, and from those who wished it would come quickly. I’ve heard it as idle chatter from experts on panels, as quiet speculation from CEOs in off-the-record conversations, and as a confident prediction from entrepreneurs and would-be disruptors. Is it true?