In Yangon, if you ask most people they would all agree that furniture shopping is probably the most frustrating thing after the traffic... or maybe after the electricity cuts as well...
Furniture store and living mall frenzy of the past few years shows no sign of slowing down ( in fact it is speeding up ! ) but only a handful in the entire city fits the bill, especially for those with taste. Just to clarify, you are free to like anything you want. By taste, I mean the kind of furniture that shows your personality, your preference in design, or a certain coherent look. Of course, comfort is still the key.
I remember driving to three showrooms last April, just to get a computer chair not because I was choosy about a color or material or even the price, only because I couldn't find one that properly fitted a 5' 10" adult male. Probably the most number of chairs I sat on in a single evening in my life. Sigh...
These days, there are pretty much 4 options if you were to furnish your new apartment in Yangon.
1. a big furniture showroom covered in glasses in a major location with a sea of imported furniture. These showrooms range from super upscale to super low quality . They are great places for office furniture and la-z-boy recliners though. You are really going to pay for quality here.
2. a crammed store where there is nothing but badly finished wardrobes and identical living room set as the store next to it or across the road. The only claim to fame in those places is that it is " teak "
3. a dusty old wood workshop where you just know they work with wood but nothing is really in sight to verify they can actually deliver what you are looking for. They mostly do a great job but as a customer you gotta see it ... right ?
4. And lastly, few and far between, there are small to mid-sized handcraft furniture shops ( including refinishing shops for antique furniture ) that produce quality products at decent prices . They normally feature a good mix of different pieces to cover most of your apartment. There are not many of these around, at least not in major visible areas.
So where does the frustration come from?
For some people, it is time spent jumping store to store not being able to find what they want in one place. There are showrooms, for sure, with imports to furnish your house ten times over but the quality is often terrible. Sometimes, it is the wait time, especially for custom furniture. Overall, it is just a very segmented market with a lot of stores where the customers are underserved.
But with patience and determination and a lot of time, I believe you can conquer this game.
There you go! Happy furniture shopping!
Photo credit - MMBIZ
Furniture store and living mall frenzy of the past few years shows no sign of slowing down ( in fact it is speeding up ! ) but only a handful in the entire city fits the bill, especially for those with taste. Just to clarify, you are free to like anything you want. By taste, I mean the kind of furniture that shows your personality, your preference in design, or a certain coherent look. Of course, comfort is still the key.
I remember driving to three showrooms last April, just to get a computer chair not because I was choosy about a color or material or even the price, only because I couldn't find one that properly fitted a 5' 10" adult male. Probably the most number of chairs I sat on in a single evening in my life. Sigh...
These days, there are pretty much 4 options if you were to furnish your new apartment in Yangon.
1. a big furniture showroom covered in glasses in a major location with a sea of imported furniture. These showrooms range from super upscale to super low quality . They are great places for office furniture and la-z-boy recliners though. You are really going to pay for quality here.
2. a crammed store where there is nothing but badly finished wardrobes and identical living room set as the store next to it or across the road. The only claim to fame in those places is that it is " teak "
3. a dusty old wood workshop where you just know they work with wood but nothing is really in sight to verify they can actually deliver what you are looking for. They mostly do a great job but as a customer you gotta see it ... right ?
4. And lastly, few and far between, there are small to mid-sized handcraft furniture shops ( including refinishing shops for antique furniture ) that produce quality products at decent prices . They normally feature a good mix of different pieces to cover most of your apartment. There are not many of these around, at least not in major visible areas.
So where does the frustration come from?
For some people, it is time spent jumping store to store not being able to find what they want in one place. There are showrooms, for sure, with imports to furnish your house ten times over but the quality is often terrible. Sometimes, it is the wait time, especially for custom furniture. Overall, it is just a very segmented market with a lot of stores where the customers are underserved.
But with patience and determination and a lot of time, I believe you can conquer this game.
There you go! Happy furniture shopping!
Photo credit - MMBIZ
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