The Anabei 60% Off Sale Expires Soon.
It sounds like a great bargain.
Should I buy this furniture before the price goes up or is it too good to be true?
Anabei is always on Sale for 60% Off!
Actually, only one fabric is available at the 60% off price.
All the other fabrics are 40% off.
At the 60% off Sale price (for one fabric only) Anabei may seem to be a reasonable value. You’re paying a cheap price for cheap furniture.
But there are similarly priced sectionals from other brands that will last a lot longer.
If you’re buying Anabei in any of the similar fabrics, at 40% off, it’s a poor value.
Anabei, in any of the more expensive upgraded fabrics (Boucle, Velvets) is a very poor value.
Anabei 4 seat sectional
The photo above shows a 3 seat + ottoman Anabei sectional in Ash Plush Weave.
This fabric is priced at 60% Off.
The sectional shown is made up of a left arm unit, right arm unit, armless unit, and ottoman.
This Anabei sectional is currently tagged “Only 7 left.”
There were also “Only 7 left” 3 months ago when I was asked about this group by another of my readers.
I wrote a review of Anabei about 3 months ago. In that review, I explained that it was impossible for Anabei to have the limited quantities that they claimed.
Other Deceptive Marketing Issues:
Fictitious pricing:
Since Anabei’s website first appeared about 6 months ago, modular pieces and sectionals in the Ash Plush Weave fabric have been advertised at 60% Off.
All other fabrics have been advertised at 40% Off.
I can virtually guarantee they have never sold or offered for sale a single piece of their furniture at anything approaching what they claim to be the “regular” or “comparative” prices.
I would be astonished to hear that they have sold any of their furniture at any prices other than 60% or 40% off.
Anabei’s Boucle and Velvet fabrics are also advertised at 40% off, but have higher base prices from which the discount is taken.
The sectional photo shown above (left arm unit, right arm unit, armless unit, ottoman) is listed at a “regular” price of $2876.
- At the 60% off price of $1150, Anabei is comparably priced to other similarly styled cheap modular seating. The cushions will wear out within 1 to 3 years for many of their customers. (IKEA and Costco sell much sturdier seating at similar prices.)
- At the 40% off price of $1725 in other colors of the same fabric, the Anabei sectional is a poor value for furniture of this low quality. Even when compared with other cheap brands whose furniture wears out within 3 years.
- At the 40% off price of $2445 in the optional velvet fabric, the sectional is outrageously overpriced.
Why do I say Anabei is outrageously overpriced?
The Plush Weave is a commonly used fabric that is available to manufacturers for about $4 per yard.
The velvet fabric costs twice as much – approximately $8 per yard.
The sectional shown above uses about 24 yards of fabric for all 4 pieces.
If you purchase this 4 piece sectional with the optional velvet, you are paying $1295 more for a fabric that cost the factory only $96 more for all 4 pieces.
Established furniture companies often show large discounts.
But there are ways to do it legally.
For a detailed explanation of how furniture stores price their products, see my article, Furniture Store Discounts: Are 50% Off Sales Real or Phony?
Pressure to buy quickly is a popular sales tactic used by scam artists.
The Anabei website uses various marketing “tricks” to pressure shoppers to buy immediately.
Anabei’s limited quantities don’t change over time.
Anabei’s website features a digital countdown until the end of the current “Earth Day” Sale. It shows 6 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 40 seconds left before the Sale’s end.
On Dec. 27, 2023, I reviewed this same company for another reader. At that time, the digital countdown for the 1st Annual Winter Savings Event, was at 7 hours, 08 minutes, 40 seconds.
When the clock ran down to 0 on Dec. 28, the prices did not change.
The prices on Dec. 27 and 28 were exactly the same as they are today on April 8, 2024.
Deceptive product descriptions.
Product descriptions on furniture websites routinely leave out information or use industry jargon that means something different from what most shoppers think it does.
But Anabei’s deceptive language goes beyond what is normal.The Anabei website includes the following descriptions:
Plush Comfort: Sink into high-resilience foam that instantly regains and maintains its shape.
Cloud-like cosmetic-down envelopes every surface. Hypoallergenic, featherless down requires no fluffing.”
It took me a while to understand what this “Plush Comfort” paragraph was actually saying.
At first, I first thought that they were claiming the seat cushions are filled with a highly resilient featherless “cosmetic down” that does not require fluffing and maintains its shape over time.
But that’s not what the paragraph is saying at all.
Feathers/down and their synthetic alternatives are not high resilience. They do not maintain their shape when used in seat cushions, and they do require constant fluffing.
A more careful reading of the “Plush Comfort” paragraph reveals that the description about “cosmetic down” does not apply to the cushions at all.
The seat cushions are filled with soft “high resilience” foam surrounded by inexpensive polyester fiber.
Anabei is claiming that this foam instantly regains and “maintains its shape.”
While “high resilience” foam does bounce back quickly after use when the furniture is new, the “bounce” doesn’t last forever.
Most 1.8 density high resiliency foams lose their resiliency and ability to bounce back within just a few years.
If you weigh 200 lbs. and use the furniture regularly, Anabei’s cushions may collapse within 2 or 3 years.
If you weigh 250 lbs., there is a good chance Anabei’s seat cushions will lose their shape, resilience, and comfort in less than 6 months.
What is the “cosmetic down” that envelopes every surface and requires no fluffing?”
Anabei does not have a standard wood frame. Instead, it has a lightweight steel frame structure.
This steel frame does not allow the normal type of foam, batting, or other padding materials that are normally stapled over the wood frames.
Instead, Anabei uses a “duvet,” which is basically a “comforter” filled with “cosmetic down” (cheap polyester fiber fill.)
This duvet “envelopes every surface” (wraps around the steel frame) to provide a little bit of padding.
Because you are not sitting on this duvet, the polyester fiberfill padding, which they call “cosmetic down”, will not need to be fluffed.
Foam and cotton batting, which are typically used to pad wood frames, also don’t need to be “fluffed.”
The reason Anabei is calling attention to the fact that their frame padding doesn’t need to be “fluffed” is because they want you to think they are describing the seat cushions.
Soft, thin seat cushions in this (Cloud) style have lots of inexpensive fiber surrounding a thin foam core. The seat cushions “will” need to be fluffed constantly.
