I need to buy some furniture (desk, chair), and some things around the house like pillows, cooking pan, and was wondering where the locals do their shopping? I looked at ikea but their prices seem high given the build qualify (in the US, I’ve had bad experiences with ikea with missing nails, damaged goods and I hate that composite recycled glued wood material they seem to use for everything).
There’s many of these local stores along the roads that sells random furniture and home goods. Also there are online stores.
My Taiwanese friend says you should always barter with local shops when buying from them. Any tips on doing this? In china I know you should typically start at around 50% of asking price and go from there, but I haven’t seen bartering common practice in Taiwan except at some night market places where they’d give me 4 for 3 deals on packs of socks. Will they give discounts if I say I’ll pay in cash upfront, and should I shoot for 20% off if doing that? Is it a better strategy to ask for buy 3 get 1 free (maybe has something to do with face saving)?
Not sure about the rest, but I suspect that offering to pay a local roadside furniture store “in cash upfront” for a manky old desk is more likely to get you a bemused look than a discount. I don’t get the impression that many of them offer payment plans, or accept cheques and all major credit cards.
I’ve had a little luck with the cash for discount approach when buying electronics in 光華商場. By the way everything in 光華商場 except the food court and full-floor electronic store on the 1st floor can be bartered, they are typically 20%+ more expensive than amazon if you price compare.
What do you have to barter with? The clothes off your back, fresh fish from the local river, precious stones? Based on quite a few years experience it’s not a common approach in Taiwan, are you sure your Taiwanese friend is sane?
Don’t bother trying to haggle with main computer components like CPU, motherboard, harddrive, video cards. Those have a profit margin of 50nt (at least ones store associate can see anyways). Haggle for stuff like cases, power supply, mouse, keyboard, cables, etc.
Do you think cheap furniture is made with ‘good’ wood? I know manufacturers that have the frames for their sofa’s just sitting outside in the rain, and the wood they use looks like the lowest quality you can get, as you can’t see it actually when finished.
And if something is missing from Ikea, just ask for a return, or have it delivered and installed by one of their people. Adds to the cost of course.
Any furniture using real wood is going to cost, especially that Taiwan’s forestry industry is next to nonexistent, and therefore all wood is imported and much more expensive even at wholesale prices.
I actually ended up buying wood from Taobao because the shipping isn’t too high, price is good, and I have good selections rather than deal with low quality, overpriced wood sold by Taiwanese suppliers.
So anything made of anything other than particleboard and low quality pine/lauan (which is one of the least sustainable wood you can ever buy, they’re cut from the rainforest of Philippines, where corrupt government means forestry stewardship is not even thought of) is going to cost a lot, so much so that it’s cheaper to have someone make custom furniture for you.
I have seen real wood furniture out there, and they’re expensive. Even a small end table costs more than 20,000NT. Large dining table was more than 100k. I don’t mean places like Scanteak or Uwood where they sell furniture that isn’t much better than IKEA but at much higher prices.
You want something custom made, I can make them out of baltic birch plywood and have it veneered with whatever you like… it will be strong and beautiful. Baltic birch plywood is very strong. You can have 3 average, overweight American adult do jumping jacks on them without any issue.
Some furniture can look beautiful but they can use anything under there. In my home country once I was at the upholsterers getting some old dining chairs restored. The upholsterer there showed me a couch brought to him by another customer, made by a supposedly “Italian design” big furniture chain there. This chain was importing from China, and they’re stuff wasn’t cheap. Stripped of all of its upholstery, the main seat structure had been cobbled together from old pallet wood. The staples were all over the place.
there is an upholstery shop across the street from my shop. You would be shocked seeing what the frame is made from.
It’s rough sawn pine. They basically use a stable gun to staple it together and then they add all the springs and padding. I see stuff left outside all the time.
“insert any western country” designed means nothing. It can be made anywhere in the world.
I find there’s a lot of face saving here, if you offer less it’s like saying their goods is low quality. You can try other strategies like only offering visa first, and if they insist on cash make up some excuse about being short on cash and you can only pay 10-20% less, so if they agree you are doing them a big favor by using cash rather than them doing you a favor by offering a discount.
Also don’t show them how it’s cheaper on Amazon, this just offends them and is asking them for a favor in providing a discount rather than you doing them a favor. Especially bad if their coworkers hear, then they will definitely refuse to discount since their coworkers will now look down on them as being a bad salesperson and they will probably get scolded by their boss for only being able to make a sale by discounting.
I’ve walked into Ikea with damaged/missing stuff and they fixed it for me, no questions, no charge. Nice thing about Taiwan is that it probably has one of two Ikeas in the world that isn’t located a million years from anything (the other one being in HK), so you can carry a dresser drawer on the bus with you without tooo much of a hassle… But Ikea quality is shit, as is their sustainability…like all furniture here. Try Costco???
Anyone know some good bamboo producers here? I feel like that is an untapped market…
