[gorecki]

Hi all,

Just want some advice on the best places to buy furniture, clothes, computers, etc in Christchurch. We will be arriving in June and are not shipping any furniture over. Will be renting furnished for a while but would like to get a feel on what furniture costs in NZ.

Also...advice on buying a car? Do you need a deposit, average cost of insurance, best insurers, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

:)

[veronica]

If you are going into rented furnished accommodation first then I wouldn't worry about it til you get here and see whats 'on offer' then. Its hard to advise you as have no idea of your level of furnishing. if its cheap bits to get started then the cheapest you can go is the Warehouse, but theres lots of expensive niche market things about too. Middle of the range would be Smith City (everything) noel leeming (electricals and comp), Farmers (department store, everything) bigsave furniture (http://www.bigsave.co.nz/home.asp) theres loads more/
Try google with a specific item and then use the advanced search and put .co.nz in the box and see what comes up. NZers will often use .co.nz rather than .com

Its a huge expense when you don't bring anything over and have to buy everything in one go. even down to silly little things like elastic bands paperclips string etc. the sort of trivial thing that we all have a drawer full of. Takes a while to build it all up again.

[Bozeman]

We bought (in Christchurch) a vast array of things - furniture, electronics, appliances, etc - from a wide variety of places. You need to shop around to get the best prices but the most important thing to keep in mind is that everything is negotiable. It seemed strange at first to be haggling over the price of a vaccum cleaner in a retail store but it is perfectly acceptable and it will get you a price 10-20% lower.

[seattle]

We bought (in Christchurch) a vast array of things - furniture, electronics, appliances, etc - from a wide variety of places. You need to shop around to get the best prices but the most important thing to keep in mind is that everything is negotiable. It seemed strange at first to be haggling over the price of a vaccum cleaner in a retail store but it is perfectly acceptable and it will get you a price 10-20% lower.

Is this true for all stores or just the larger ones? We just bought a printer from Dick Smith's that was "on sale". Should we have tried to negotiate lower? Seems weird :o

[benandclare]

Is this true for all stores or just the larger ones? We just bought a printer from Dick Smith's that was "on sale". Should we have tried to negotiate lower? Seems weird :o

Generally if on sale they wont come down any more but rest of the time haggle haggle and then haggle some more :D

[Hesh]

Generally if on sale they wont come down any more but rest of the time haggle haggle and then haggle some more

That's not the case. It really depends how good your negotiation skills are. The best thing is buy a couple of items together. shop around and get the written quotes from 2-3 places.. show the retailers the quote and they will try to beat it.

We'd bought a washing machine and refrigerator together and their initial price was around 1875 + delivery around $70 .. they were on sale.. went around to few places and finally picked it for 1500 including delivery. the retailer actually showed me that they were getting 7-8% commission on the price they offered.

[BkyMonster]

There is a discount furniture store around St. Asaph and Colombo on St. Asaph. I don't remember their website (and don't know if it would be helpful in any case)
We bought our computer chairs there (not paying 300-800 for a rolling chair thanks!, we got 2 chairs for $35 iirc) and they had cabinets, beds, couches, desks and all manner of furniture and all price ranges.
If you have time to wait for things you may also want to check out www.trademe.co.nz
Best advice other than haggling is to shop around for all kinds of goods. Somewhere is always having a sale of some kind. We managed to pick up a lot of things at deep discounts when we arrived ( 80% off or more in some cases) by going to several stores before making a purchase.

[Hejwitch_uk]

Bought a car yesterday that was priced at $3999 and negotiated to $2500 with a guarantee (!?) that they'll buy it back when we've had enough of it! Bought 2 X bed settees today at bigsave and were pleasantly surprised at some of their bargains.

[Francoise]

Hi Gorecki

Where did you find furnished accommodation in CHCH? We are looking at this option as well, later in the year. Any details you can let us have will be appreciated.
Thx
Francoise