We all know Shenzhen is the biggest source of shanzhai goods, but its charm is fading away since the local government conducts harsh strike on the region, and now the Shanzhai phenomenon is sort of changing. With the five fake Apple stores that broke out in Kunming last month, we can understand “Shanzhai” doesn’t necessary apply on a single product, but can be an entire store. What we are going to introduce today is the “knockoff IKEA”, which also located in Kunming! More info after the break.

The pretender named “11 Furniture (Shi Yi Jia Ju)”, which doesn’t sound like the Chinese pronunciation of IKEA. The out looking of the store also doesn’t surprise us too much as well, merely a 10,000 square meter four-story building. What make it stand out is its interior design, which looks like feels like the genuine, such as the blue and yellow color scheme, mock-up rooms, miniature pencils, signage and even its rocking chair designs. The most obvious difference between the fake and the genuine probably is the menu, which features Chinese-style braised minced pork and eggs instead of Ikea’s Swedish meatballs and salmon.

Apart from the color, the uniform that wore by the fake IKEA store’s employees apparently doesn’t look good, they are just wearing their own clothes and has a yellow apron on top.

The Shanzhai culture is definitely changing! More specifically, Shanzhai does not merely implies a fake logo being put on a certain type of product, but could also mean the retail format. Why there is such a phenonmenon? With a China retail analyst pointed out:

“What these fake stores indicate is that there is demand for the types of products and concepts that these brands sell.”

The fake Apple stores are actually selling Apple genuine products but with mix of shanzhai goods. As for this fake IKEA store, quite a few of the buyers claimed the quality of the furniture that sell by 11 Furniture is better than those in IKEA, IKEA is merely focusing on the design instead of the quality.

11 Furniture responses on its unofficial 11 Furniture Weibo account (translated in English):

My company feels very disappointed with many media. People criticized on us by merely couples of shots from @ Chinese Reuters plus some deliberate vague reports. At the moment, there aren’t any media company conducts on site investigation, we feel helpless in regard of this kind of irresponsible behavior. @ Global Entrepreneur magazine @ Morning News @ Wall Street Journal, @ The Age @ Sina Colorful @Yunnan Chinese network

With a Kunming resident explained, she thought shipping the products from the real stores that open in Beijing/Shanghai to Kumning is troublesome, therefore the fake IKEA in Kumning is having more beneficial and convenience for her. This is certainly a critical point that why those foreign companies should have more flagship stores in different region of China.