Still no Ikea in NZ, but…

July 15, 2010 by
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand 

straight from the Facebook Page “I want IKEA stores to open in New Zealand” comes a link for a new company in Parnell Auckland that is shipping IKEA products from Australia for you, MYKEA. (Now called MYFLATPACK)

(Please read the comments below before buying from this company).

The Idea is that you visit the Australian IKEA website, fill in a form with MYKEA telling them what you want, and they send you a quote telling you how much it will cost to get it delivered to you, including all costs (taxes, shipping etc). You can then place the order or not. They have a minimum order of $150 AUD, and you cant any item less than $10 AUD, but all in all it looks like a good system to me.

Now you are going to pay a premium for this obviously – not only are you covering IKEA’s profit, but also MYKEA’s, but hey – nowt wrong with that. They are being enterprising, and offering a service that many NZ’ers really want. Good on ‘em. And lets face it – you can always judge for yourself whether the quoted prices suit your pocket, or are fair. Given the numbe rof people I’ve met taking flights to Aussie just to go get stuff from IKEA – I’d say they could be onto something in saving you money on airfairs and excess baggage fees!

Actually they aren’t the first to do this. When we first arrived 5 and a bit years ago, there was a company doing the same thing, and another company that was actually just importing container loads of stuff and selling it the old fashioned way. Both of those stopped trading – Ive no idea if it was because they went out of business or went on to do other things. But it does suggest that there may be a window here in which to make the most of this opportunity.

Depending on whether we make out “city living” arrangement permanent after a few months of trialling – I am sorely tempted to splurge (once we have cleared the credit cards!) and buy some decent storage! NZ is woefully short on decent affordable storage I’m afraid. And to be honest – when you have kit out a second home -you need access to something that isnt going to rob you blind on the costs. The nearest similar store to IKEA in NZ is Freedom Furniture – but its a lot more expensive.  Arguably the quality is better, especially if you compare it with the cheaper IKEA ranges, but when the budget is what matters – there really isn’t a good alternative.

If  you have IKEA bookshelves – or indeed IKEA anything  - what ever you do – bring it with you! You will regret it if you don’t. Even if you don’t want to keep it – bring it and sell it on Trade Me.

By the way: apparently the reason we cant have an IKEA store in NZ is becuase teh Auckland council reckons they cant cope with the traffic chaos that will inevitably ensue when 4,000,000 kiwis descend the place. Sheesh.

(Edited: Thanks John for the update on the website. MYFLATPACK now carries a small inventory of stock in Auckland. Prices are expensive, but ho-hum. And postage is based on a % of the total order – 10% for North Island deliveries).

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Comments

12 Comments on Still no Ikea in NZ, but…

  1. Sophie on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 8:27 pm

    2. Oh there was UK fun when the Southampton IKEA store opened (the south coast’s cloests until then were Croydon or Bristol). The city traffic department and police had drawn up plans to manage crowds and cars, and if I remember rightly it wasn’t a complete mess in the end. I’d guesstimate that there’s a couple of million people within that shop’s catchment too!

    Happy MYKEA shopping :)

  2. Domestic Executive on Sat, 17th Jul 2010 11:33 am

    3. I fell out of love with Ikea many years ago after sloppy service and rubbish products that didn’t have all the bits in the packaging and even when you put it together it was still shonky and to be honest looked as cheap as it cost. When I first set up home in the North East of England I did however almost completely furnish my flat with Ikea stuff and it was the last place I went shopping before we came to NZ to stock up on crockery and kitchen stuff. Nothing would make me pay a premium now – there are lots of better local suppliers especially small operators that will make stuff for you at a reasonable price.

  3. Fred on Sun, 18th Jul 2010 12:39 am

    4. …did you check the MYKEA prices to ship to NZ? Friends in NZ told me it is
    appr. 3 times the price IKEA charges in Europe for the same item.
    Not really a bargain….. :-)

    Fred

  4. Avalon on Mon, 19th Jul 2010 9:53 pm

    5. Sophie,
    Thats pretty much what they are claiming will happen here, but then Aukland at the same time believes it can handle the chaos off a load of rampant Rugby fans at the world cup. Im guessing the World Cup will give them more money :)

    DE,
    I know EXACTLY what you mean. It is a source of huger personal embarrassment to me that I have come to quite like Ikea. I used to think it was the pits. Now I want cheap furniture :)

    Fred,
    lol – almost everything here is 3 times the price we pay in Europe :) As long as you compare the price of the Mykeas item with the closest thing you could get locally, and see if that suits your budget and style – thats the important thing I think.

    I do object to paying way more than it would cost me back in the UK, but then we really wont know the comparison truly till Ikea opens in NZ. At the moment – Mykea are charging you for the goods, the shipping, and the effort of not having to travel abroad and organise it all yourself.

    Once im ready to try the system myself, ill blog all the various price options – should be interesting to see how it all compares. For the local stuff ill probably try it against Freedom – or Lundia for the shelving.

  5. Henry on Fri, 6th Aug 2010 11:41 am

    6. I made an order with Mykea a while ago, and on the surface, Mykea seems like a good idea.

    But in *practice*, it’s been nothing short of a massive fail. So not only are they about two months late with the order, with very minimal updates about what exactly happened, but now they give me a call on the day they expect to do the delivery, insisting that they can only deliver it either today or tomorrow; when I’m extremely busy both days and nobody will be around to accept the delivery.

    So in terms of customer service…they are getting a massive FAIL.

    Don’t buy anything from them. Tell everyone you know; cause it’s more trouble than its worth. (Ikea just open a store in NZ already!)

  6. admin on Sat, 7th Aug 2010 3:53 pm

    7. Thank you Henry for letting us all know that. What a Massive disappointment :(

    Ill still do a price comparison – but I wont place an order – in protest on your behalf :)

    C’mon Mykea – don’t be silly! That’s highly unreasonable behavior. Even if you weren’t late on delivery yourselves – demanding that customers who are paying a premium make themselves available with no notice is just not on.

  7. Avalon on Tue, 16th Nov 2010 10:29 pm

    8. Mykea is now MyFlatPack

    http://www.myflatpack.co.nz/

  8. MIchelle on Tue, 11th Jan 2011 1:38 pm

    9. Does anyone have a phone number that works for Myflatpack when based in NZ? I cannot get the phone number on their website to work and am owed money for a refund for items they could not get for me from my order and have not had any respone to emails?

  9. Avalon on Tue, 11th Jan 2011 5:18 pm

    10. Oh My – that doesn’t sound good at all! Jeeze – what is it with these companies – one that shouldn’t have any issues with getting a good customer base and they screw it up with shitty service.

    I’m really sorry Michelle – but I have no idea – hopefully someone will see this and be able to help. Could you please let us know how this turns out ?

  10. MIchelle on Tue, 11th Jan 2011 5:42 pm

    11. No problem Avalon. Am hoping it is just becuase they are closed for the holidays and someone picks up the emails over the coming days! Will keep you posted…..

  11. MIchelle on Thu, 13th Jan 2011 8:38 am

    12. Avalon I FINALLY got a response yesterday and a refund this morning – think it was just a xmas holiday delay :)

  12. Avalon on Thu, 13th Jan 2011 9:06 am

    13. Cheers Michelle – that is really good to know :)

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