wo shi swedish
September 14th, 2004 stevel
It’s amazing to see how capitalism, and stereotypical American stores have franchised themselves to China. You can’t escape McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut. But international companies have embraced the world’s most populous country as well. Companies like CarreFour (a sort of gigantic Costco/Wal-mart/Safeway all in one) from France now have 51!!! locations in China alone. Not a single store in the states… but 51 stores absolutely packed with shoppers here. And of course….in the opposite corner of the ring, wearing the well-known blue and gold, is the reigning international king of furniture stores: Ikea.
Since we moved into an apartment (thus saving our group over $2000 in hotel accomodation fees!), we need to buy an extra bed since our apartment was originally only intended for one occupant. In the states, you’d go to Ikea for a cheap folding bed. In China, it’s no different. We were trying to think about where to go, possibly hitting up some crazy cool Chinese furniture market (with Poorna exclaiming how he wanted a cool wooden bed with a dragon’s head on it), Kevin off-handedly mentioned that Ikea would be a good place.
Eh. It works for us in the states, so why not. 
We went to a crazy cool Chinese furniture mall first, saw the outrageously expensive prices, turned around and went to Ikea and bought a futon for around $100. It’s cheap, effective, does the job, and after we leave, we can bring it to Sun and leave it as a couch/nap spot for everyone.
[tags: ChinaBlog]
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