Ten things to pack for a furniture buying trip
Nothing here is clever. All of it gets used, and the people who forget one of them notice by lunchtime.
A day in the Foshan markets is a long walk in a warm climate, carrying more than you started with. The packing list that matters is short, dull and used constantly.
1. Shoes you can wear for nine hours
Top of the list by a distance. The buildings are enormous, the floors are hard, and the distance covered in a full day surprises everybody the first time. This single item does more for the quality of your afternoon decisions than anything else you carry.
2. A tape measure
Published dimensions and the piece in front of you do not always agree, and a difference of a few centimetres matters when a sofa has to fit a room or a carton has to fit a container. A small retractable one lives in a pocket.
3. A power bank
You will be photographing constantly, using maps and translating. A phone that dies at three in the afternoon costs you the rest of the day, because everything you were recording stops being recorded.
4. A physical notebook
Even in a phone driven trip, a paper notebook earns its place. It is faster for a quick note, it works while your phone is being used for a photograph, and flicking back through it in a showroom is quicker than scrolling.
5. Your own samples
If you are matching to something, bring it. Fabric, timber, a finish chip, a paint reference. Showroom lighting flatters and distorts, and holding your own reference against a piece is the only reliable way to judge a match.
6. Business cards
Still very much in use, and still the smoothest way to exchange details at the start of a conversation. Bring more than you think, because you will hand out one per showroom.
7. Mobile payment set up before you fly
Sorting this out in advance is much easier than trying to arrange it on arrival, and it makes taxis, lunch and small purchases frictionless rather than a daily negotiation.
8. A small torch
Slightly unusual and genuinely useful. Looking underneath a sofa, into the back of a cabinet or along a finish at a low angle is where construction quality reveals itself, and those are exactly the places showroom lighting does not reach. Your phone’s light works, at the cost of your battery.
9. A folder or envelope for paper
Catalogues, price sheets and cards accumulate fast. By the second afternoon they are loose in a bag and creased beyond use. Something to keep them flat and together is worth the space.
10. A written list of what you came for
The most important thing on the list and the one most often left at home. Categories, quantities, price level, in writing. It is what stops a very large market from turning your trip into browsing.
What not to bring
A heavy bag. Everything you carry in the morning you will still be carrying at five, plus catalogues and samples picked up along the way. If you have transport for the day, the boot of the car is where the accumulated paper belongs, and the difference in how you feel by the last showroom is considerable.
