New IKEA photos

[cobraboy]

If IKEA here is like the IKEA's in FL or GA, it's OK stuff. IMO it's what kids out of college buy to furnish their first apartment. Basically cheap fiberboard do-it-yourself contemporary stuff (contemporary seems to use easy to manufacture non compound curves and little wood millwork.)

It is NOT high end at all. Barely middle-end.

But for the DR prolly a few clicks better than 75% of the furniture stores and makers out there.

It'll do fine. I do believe the hype will wear off and it'll be just another place to buy stuff.

I do think the non-furniture accents will sell well. It's really hard to equip, say, a First World kitchen for a reasonable price/value from the stores in the DR.

 

[PeterInBrat]

The hot brand now in the US for white goods is LG, which is a Korean company. Want to spend $3000 on a fridge or $700 each on a washer/dryer? Really great quality and design, but you pay for it. If you want to blow $500 on a vacuum cleaner, then there is Dyson. The last vac I got was $25 from the Salvation Army(Kenmore) and it's still going fine after 10 years. I wish I could get the mini washers/spin dryers they have in the DR. I bet there would be a market here for renting them at $20 a month vs what you pay for a laundromat esp with college students.

 

[NALs]

I do, however, think that shipping companies shipping from the US to the DR are going to multiply and enjoy a 10 year boom.

They will grow, but I doubt it will be enough to call it a 'boom.' As for why, read the next response below.

With the removal of custom duties do you really think that Plaza Lama with their six levels of middlemen and theives can compete with a sales tax free direct shipment from a US retailer to your door in the DR. If you would put a Sears store with US pricing in the middle of Santo Domingo there would be a feeding frenzy, and these shippers only add one layer of cost to that dynamic.

Sears may enter the Dominican market, but have the guarantee that neither they nor any retailer, foreign or local, will offer US pricing on anything imported. The DR is on an island, and because of that prices for imported products will always be higher than in the US. If you doubt this, do a little experiment.

Go to Puerto Rico, that island is filled with American stores of every kind, including Wal-Mart, Sears, and the only Macy's outside the continental US. As you will notice, everything is more expensive than in the continental US. Most Puerto Ricans buy their stuff in Puerto Rico, no mayor internet purchases from the continental US despite having absolutely no trade and/or human mobility restrictions. Due to this reality, the notion that in the DR local businesses will be hurt by internet purchases due to the CAFTA-DR changes is mere wishful thinking.

If you really want to have a sticker shock, visit islands like Martinique, Barbados, the Cayman Islands to see how expensive everyday items can be. Hawaii, despite its economy being owned and controlled by WASP families and being a full fledged state, is perhaps the most expensive place to live in the entire US. Everything is considerably more expensive due to being islands.

So forget the idea of having a Sears or Wal-Mart or whatever in Santo Domingo with US prices. As long as the DR remains an island, it will not happen.

 

[playacaribe2]

"As long as the D.R. remains an Island"....

They will grow, but I doubt it will be enough to call it a 'boom.' As for why, read the next response below.


Sears may enter the Dominican market, but have the guarantee that neither they nor any retailer, foreign or local, will offer US pricing on anything imported. The DR is on an island, and because of that prices for imported products will always be higher than in the US. If you doubt this, do a little experiment.

Go to Puerto Rico, that island is filled with American stores of every kind, including Wal-Mart, Sears, and the only Macy's outside the continental US. As you will notice, everything is more expensive than in the continental US. Most Puerto Ricans buy their stuff in Puerto Rico, no mayor internet purchases from the continental US despite having absolutely no trade and/or human mobility restrictions. Due to this reality, the notion that in the DR local businesses will be hurt by internet purchases due to the CAFTA-DR changes is mere wishful thinking.

If you really want to have a sticker shock, visit islands like Martinique, Barbados, the Cayman Islands to see how expensive everyday items can be. Hawaii, despite its economy being owned and controlled by WASP families and being a full fledged state, is perhaps the most expensive place to live in the entire US. Everything is considerably more expensive due to being islands.

So forget the idea of having a Sears or Wal-Mart or whatever in Santo Domingo with US prices. As long as the DR remains an island, it will not happen.

{and has excessive import taxes} "it will not happen." It's not just the Island factor that causes higher prices NALS.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

 

[Golfer]

Let's get specific

Island schmiland - This stainless steel range at your door for $US760.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...s&cName=Cooking+Appliances&sName=Freestanding

List $800
Periodic Sears "Friends and Family" sale price $560
Free delivery to shipper
Shipper charge to your door $200

I don't know what kind of factory seconds you can find at Americana or Plaza Lama but when I checked out their stoves they looked like toys.

I found that shopping clubs like Price Mart in Santiago were finally doing some 21st century marketing and hopefully that will accelerate under DR-CAFTA.