Attempt at shopping in Sydney – part 1
Yesterday, I had my first chance to go shopping in Sydney. Now, I’ve done this before, but between my last visit to the city and now, theres been some changes – some new shopping centers in the central city. I decided that I wasn’t quite ready to face a crowded, cosmopolitan (and expensive) city experience, so chickened out.
And went to 
instead.
Which first thing on a Monday morning isn’t actually crowded, it’s not expensive, and I guess some people probably consider it cosmopolitan.
Now getting to IKEA in Sydney is actually fairly easy – its $5.40 return on the train to Rhodes shopping centre. Theres no signs at the railway station to tell you where to go – so head for the shopping centre – IKEA is inside. So theres no stonking huge bright blue building to head towards. Least ways- eventually I found it.
First thing – I checked whether they have started shipping to New Zealand yet. They haven’t. Then I went shopping.
Normally, I tend to work out what I want before hand, but this was when having to deal with the rampaging hordes at Birmingham’s IKEA in the UK, but as I haven’t seen inside one of these stores for over 6 years, and this one looked fairly quite, I went for a slow meander. To be honest – its almost a waste of time, on account of you cant actually get a couple cheap sofas in a suitcase (not even one as big as I took out with us -empty). But eventually, after once more muttering imprecations at Auckland City council for denying us access to cheap, big bookcases – I made it to the marketplace.
I actually didn’t buy a whole lot – 6 mugs @ 99c each (last time I bought some simple mugs in NZ they were 11.99 each!), 2 small lamps for $14.99 each (that’s something we really desperately need in NZ – cheap lighting options!) and a LACK side table - becuase I saw it in flat pack as I heading for the tills and figured I could manage it.) And to be honest – this was exactly the point of going.
You see the LACK table cost $19.99 about $25 NZD. Now its not exactly high end quality – but then I’m on a budget – I’m not after solid oak here. At the Warehouse – also not high end quality – in fact as cheap and nasty as you can get – the nearest equivalent – the Reside Side table is $59.99. Which is a bit of a con really. I have one of the reside tables – the coffee table – and its not holding up very well to be honest. The LACK coffee table is more expensive – at $99.99, but that makes it just a bit more expensive than the Reside version, and I imagine it will still hold up better.
Things then took a slight turn for the worse: by the time I got out of there, and went for what I personally felt was a well deserved coffee – it was chucking it down with rain. And I’ve got a five minute walk back to the train station – with an overlarge IKEA bag, and a flat pack side table which wasn’t as easy to carry as it looked. I did consider waiting it out – turned out not doing was a good idea as it was still chucking it down at 7pm! So with no brolly, I trudged (actually waded in some parts) back to the station.
Then of course I had to get from the station to the hotel – mercifully fairly close – but with the pourdown we had – 2 meters would have drowned a rat. And of course – I took the wrong exit from the Town Hall railways station, so ended up walking much further than I should have – now trying to handle the still oversized IKEA bag, a now wet and slippery flat packed side table, and a rather grumpy me.
Who didn’t have a spare hand to carry a damn coffee!
Next time I’m taking a taxi back – and to hell with budget considerations!
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Still no Ikea in NZ, but…
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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