If you make evaluations based entirely on the initial purchase price and installation cost for furniture, you may naturally assume that all subsequent cost is going to be equal across competing products.

This is rarely-if ever-the case. The initial purchase price NEVER encompasses the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of an asset.

There invariably will be ongoing costs to consider; reconfiguration when an organizational change is required, maintenance needs, and disposal when you reach the end-of-useful life cycles. And the Total Cost of Ownership often has an inverse relationship with product life cycle: as one goes up, the other goes down.

That's why a one dimensional focus on short terms cost containment often creates a false economy of scale- an action that saves money at the beginning but, over a longer period of time, results in more money being spent or wasted than was saved in the first place.