Lookal-IKEA shop found in China

First, China graced us with the iPhoney and now they have brought us the lookal-IKEA.

The imitation store is actually called 11 Furniture and is comprised of a four-storey building in the southern district of Kunming city in southwest China.

The store looks and feels like a genuine IKEA with the same ‘fake rooms’ and layout of a real one. The ‘fake’ IKEA even has the little pencils that you take fifty of every time you go there and a blue and yellow colour scheme that suspiciously resembles a Scandinavian furniture store.

The lookal-IKEA covers 10,000sq meters of space and even features a cafeteria-style restaurant like the Swedish superstore. In the restaurant, diners sit at minimalist wooden tables and can have Chinese-style braised minced pork and eggs instead of the typical Swedish meatballs.

The furniture store in China has become part of an increasingly popular trend in the country. Consumer demand for western goods has sky-rocketed and people are cashing in big time by selling unauthentic goods just like the iPhoney.

Chinese law states that firms cannot copy the "look and feel" of other companies, but foreign companies must register their trademarks with China and well, they have better things to do than enforce that law. At least they think so.

The United States and other Western countries have often complained China is behind in its effort to stamp out intellectual property theft. However, with the news of an iPhoney and Lookal-IKEA opening up, they’re not doing much to stamp it out, are they?