Shenzhen Shopping Experience

[tiger@hk]

Hi,

I am looking to relocate soon (within HK) and would need to buy some new furniture and accesories for the new place... a few items like tables, dining table, carpet etc.

I have heard a lot about things being cheaper in Shenzen. with the ongoing Sales in HK, is it really worth the trip? Would really like to hear about shopping experiences in Shenzhen form those who have already been there.

Thanks.

[beadies]

It is much cheaper. Just make sure you get out of Lo Wu - try Cocopark (a big fancy mall), Dongmen, and one of the many Walmarts for general stuff (there's one at Garden City near Seaworld - also a couple of posh malls there too).

[hongkong7]

i have flats in both HK and shenzen and from experience furnishing them both-

the quality of the furniture in shenzen is generally appalling and even though the choice is wide at some of the huge factory outlets there the styles leave a lot to be desired and is just a repeat of the same thing across stores

the item price really is not that much cheaper than hk and taking into account currency conversion HKD to CNY and quality variance ,travelling cost etc (the outlets are often way out)may be more expensive

do you speak chinese?

how are you going to deliver?

actually i am always surprised anyone would want to shop for anything in shewnzen rather than hk---ie clothes /electronics etc in shenzen the qulatiy is poor often rather out of style chinese yuan no longer cheap and a huge chance of a rip-off even if you know what you are doing

the days of cheap shopping in shenzen are long gone with the drop in the HKD rise of the Yuan

actually even chinese medcine which used to be a good shenzen buy i find cheaper now in chinese medcine stores in hk


the restaurants however in shenzen are much better cheaper than HK andf better service and range thats for sure -street food better in shenzen as well

[imparanoic]

some furniture stores are actually not too bad, get a designer glass coffee table clone, ( both orginal and clone uses tempered glass for safety) however, the orginal cost over HK$8,000, while the clone cost RMB400.
even in hk ( as well as other countries, eg, uk MFI), you can get shoddy quality furniture, eg, price rite

[hongkong7]

even in hk ( as well as other countries, eg, uk MFI), you can get shoddy quality furniture, eg, price rite

thats true i always buy my shoddy quality furniture from Pricerite

but the point is its no cheaper for him to buy shoddy quality in shenzen than hk

[imparanoic]

actually price rite is not even that cheap, ikea is far better quality though it's very price competive compared to price rite, DSC is the place for cheap and cheerful furniture, however, though it will do the job, it's not far from disposable quality, i believe that shenzhen will be be cheaper and most likely to be better quality than either pricerite and dsc, ( please also note that ricerite and dsc both source their products from guaugdong factories)

The real problem is that the logistical cost of delivery from shenzhen to hk may be very expensive due to the border crossing, after all furniture is not exactly the most easist items to be carried on the mtr from huanggong or lowu, unlike the majority of traded items such as phones, computers, cheap electronics, which passes through mtr by mainland couriers, as well as milk powder going the other way

[jaykay]

To make it worth it you really have to know what you are doing and where to go. You can see end to end of cheap outlets that sell their wares to Pricerite / Hecom / DSC / Ikea but there is quality furniture if you know where to look.

Getting it across the border isn't too bad again if you know what you are doing. There are drivers in HK who will pick up and deliver, that's what they do for a living! Last cost for an office we furnished was HK$1.5 per kg. That was from Baoan to Kowloon. We paid them an extra $200 to drag it through to the office for us.

So certainly possible but you will need to do a lot of research first or there will be no saving at all.

[imparanoic]

To make it worth it you really have to know what you are doing and where to go. You can see end to end of cheap outlets that sell their wares to Pricerite / Hecom / DSC / Ikea but there is quality furniture if you know where to look.

Getting it across the border isn't too bad again if you know what you are doing. There are drivers in HK who will pick up and deliver, that's what they do for a living! Last cost for an office we furnished was HK$1.5 per kg. That was from Baoan to Kowloon. We paid them an extra $200 to drag it through to the office for us.

So certainly possible but you will need to do a lot of research first or there will be no saving at all.

please, can you pass have the drivers details, thx

[DanielV]

Check out:

Jade Furniture (mostly pine)...good variety and good quality. I have purchased beds, wardrobes, living room items etc all in solid wood.

JADE RATTAN WARE CO.,LTD

and of course, Ikea: IKEA Main page

When you get moved in you can invite me over for tea! ;-)

Cheers,

DV

[Raccon]

Most stuff at IKEA is IMO expensive rubbish, if you look close enough the the build quality or materials are often poor, in particular at areas that are not directly visible (underside of furniture & drawers etc., backside, inside of furniture like wardrobes etc.). "Inspected" a chest drawer for my bedroom and found that the back was made of two thin pressed-wood sheets held together by tape and had a rough, untreated surface. Same material was used for the underside of the drawers, even clothes might not weigh that much the sheet is likely to bend and the rough underside will scratch over the stuff in the drawer below. And the rough back is probably the wet dream of every fungus.

I have had some IKEA stuff in the past and none of the items were worth their money, like the TV chair where the wood on the arm rest started to splinter after less than a year and a bed frame where the veneer became loose because instead of covering the entire side panel they just wrapped it around the edges at the top and bottom so that the matress would cover the area in-between once placed into the frame, just to save a few inches of cheap material (veneer meaning pvc film, not real wood).

The TV cabinet I have had made for my apartment here in HK (product picked from catalogue but size was customized) is worst though, AFAIK it was made in China; the glass plate that they made after the installers broke the original one didn't fit and had to be replaced twice.

No complains about my pricerite bedframe though, it was cheap but the quality seems ok, at least it hasn't fallen apart yet.