Summer has struck Saudi Arabia with a vengeance. All those with sense and cash have made their way to cooler climes. Unfortunately, lacking at least one of the two, I find myself camping out in the Kingdom for the 13th summer in a row. To face temperatures hovering around 45 degrees C. requires a strong constitution and a willingness to try the unconventional. There are at least seven more weeks to get through before life returns to normal on the Arabian Peninsula and finding something amusing to do is a challenge.
Under the burning rays of the sun, outdoor activities are out of the question. Kept constantly cooped up in the house or office though, a person would quickly go mad. Forays to the mall are fine if you enjoy crowds and have a large disposable income. The hairdresser’s is another possibility. Sadly, one soon discovers that everybody has only so much hair that can be cut, plucked or waxed. Restaurants, car showrooms and art galleries are great for family groups, but for a woman alone they aren’t much fun.
However, there is one place that a woman can go by herself in the summer to see the best and the worst that Saudi Arabia has to offer, remaining all the while in vast, air conditioned comfort. The Kingdom’s furniture stores are a welcome and seldom considered escape. With grubby children constantly underfoot at home, Saudi families rarely buy new furniture in the summer. Most furniture stores are offering discounts of 30 percent or higher, but the showrooms still resemble mausoleums. In the morning, the furniture stores are empty except for the salesmen who sit slumped in chairs drinking tea and talking on the telephone. Even in the evening, few customers can be found poking their heads inside china cabinets or bouncing on sofas.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything interesting to see. According to US trade figures, Saudi Arabia is the largest furniture market in the Middle East, with estimated sales of $2.3 billion in 2002. The market increased by 12.5 percent during 1997-2002. Household furniture is the biggest segment accounting for 60 percent of sales. Wooden furniture is particularly popular. Italian and French producers dominate the furniture market at the high end, while midrange, European, Canadian and American manufacturers fight for position. Perhaps because of unrest in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia imported 23 percent less furniture from the United States in 2003 than in 2002, the second consecutive 20-plus percent annual decline. Even so, the Kingdom is still the fifth most important market for US furniture exports. As American furniture exports decline, Asian furniture exports to the Kingdom from Malaysia, the Philippines and China are increasing.
“We have some brands that are associated with America, and while their sofas are manufactured in the US, the accessories and smaller furniture pieces of those same brands are often made in China. The cost of labor in China is low and that keeps the price down,” said Abdul Wahab, a furniture salesman from Egypt.
In the Saudi furniture market, there are of course price extremes like everywhere else. Brand name furniture outlets such as Ikea try to serve as large a market segment as possible. For example, Ikea lists lamps from SR15 to SR199. In some other stores though, prices start at thousands of riyals and climb to infinity. Serious buyers should always shop around and bargain before deciding on a purchase, especially during the summer season. For example, last month similar armchairs were seen priced at different stores in a range from SR2,400 for two to SR3,600 each. Why the price differences?
“All the large furniture stores in Saudi Arabia buy wholesale lots from abroad,” said Muhammad, a salesman from Syria. “These containers come into the Kingdom and the contents have to be stored in warehouses. Purchases are often made well in advance and if the warehouse is full, then something must be done to make some room before the next containers arrive. While I don’t have exact figures, I believe that the mark up on most furniture like bedrooms and sofa sets is at least 50 percent.”
It could even be higher. One local IT firm priced furniture from local suppliers for its new office in Kingdom Tower. Noticing that much of the furniture was sourced from the Far East, the company checked prices online with Asian manufacturers. The firm discovered that by purchasing the entire order wholesale from a company in Malaysia they could maintain the quality, request the color scheme of their choice and still have the furniture delivered in six weeks — exactly the amount of time that local Riyadh office furniture suppliers were promising — at about 40 percent of the cost.
Saudi Arabia imports about 70 percent of its annual furniture requirements. This isn’t surprising since there is no local source for hardwood. Even locally produced wood furniture must be made from imported wood. Traditional sofa sets remain popular, especially in guest areas of the house, but for living areas and bedrooms many families are opting for modern furniture that is at least partially assembled by the purchaser. Unconventional materials have also found favor in local furniture construction with steel, aluminum and plastic furniture now readily available throughout the Kingdom. Mattresses, kitchen cabinets and house fittings such as window and door frames are commonly manufactured locally, too, and nearly 90 percent of the furniture in Saudi schools was made in Saudi factories.
To be honest, the selection of furniture available in the Kingdom is amazing. No single style dominates although at some stores unusual designs seem to be the rule. Vulgar furniture in the worst taste is frequently displayed beside refined, European creations. Humongous beds that appear ready to sail away, compete for space with claw-footed sofas and modern recliners. Some furniture looks so uncomfortable that perhaps it was designed to rout guests from the house. In general, at the high end, ostentation is quite the fashion.
It can be surprisingly entertaining to walk through the huge, cool furniture showrooms in the bright, mid-morning light. Mostly, excursions to Saudi furniture stores are flights of fantasy, imagining with horror or possibly delight, how furnishings could be arranged in one’s ideal home. Once in a great while though there will be one piece that strikes the fancy. Again and again it will be revisited until somehow, one day it glides into the delivery van and follows us home — perhaps as a little reward for surviving summer in Arabia!
