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Home grown 'Foreign furniture'

CITY CORRESPONDENT
**At Panthapath rows of furniture shops have grown over the years. These shops claim to have foreign furniture for sale. But in fact, all furniture sold on these premises are locally made. The public are simply cheated***
The furniture shops of Panthapath that claim to sell "foreign furniture" are selling nothing but local furniture.
"Most of the furniture sold in this market is made locally. We have to convince customers that this is foreign furniture otherwise they would not buy them", said a vendor of the Panthapath furniture market.
The desire of the local people towards the possession of foreign items is growing immensely.
Furniture dealers have developed Panthapath as a "market" for furniture from ships. The demand for ship furniture is growing among city dwellers as the nature of the furniture has proven its longevity and comfort. In addition the unusual designs attract the customer.
"Most of the furniture comes from Chittagong which is the centre of breaking ships. Although ships are broken mainly for the purpose of its iron
and steel, businessmen have wormed their way into making a living with the furniture. Therefore, our business is solely dependent on the ship breaking industry," said a shop owner at Panthapath "foreign furniture" market.
As the furniture sold here originates from ships built in other countries, the market at Panthapath is named as "foreign furniture" market and reflected in the name of the shops like Super Foreign Furniture, DC Foreign Furniture, Deluxe Foreign Furniture and many other names emphasing the word "foreign".
Customers demand cheap prices. This compels shop owners in unduly deceiving them.
“The price of the ship breaking furniture is very high, may probably be double the price of local furniture. Customers like to possess valuable items, but are not willing to pay the price fixed for each item. They bargain and bring the prices down, " said a salesman of a shop.
It is easier for the shop owners to cheat the customers as "Eighty per cent of the customers cannot identify what teak is and are unable to differentiate ship's furniture with local ones", said a vendor.
The Panthapath furniture market is well known for ship breaking furniture but the flow of this furniture into the Panthapath market has reduced because of the development of other furniture similar markets in the city. Jatrabari, Uttara, Shahjahanpur, Kazipara, Sheorapar and Mirpur Stadium are some areas that could be named.
"We can't tell our customers that the flow of furniture is reducing as they come to this market with the expectation of buying foreign furniture," said a manager of a shop.
"There are above hundred furniture shops at Panthapath and all are selling local furniture in the name foreign furniture. I can't survive being an exception," said a shop owner.