Is furniture shopping the next specialty in the travel market? Are tour operators going to spring up offering trips for people from the US to come to South America, shop for furniture, spend thousands, and have it shipped back to the US. Sounds unrealistic? Evidently this is already a niche in the travel industry. Read this article from the Miami Herald about shopping for furniture and accessories in Buenos Aires:

“Russell Johnson, an American who in 1998 founded a Buenos Aires shopping service called Art Thang, says he has been inundated with clients since the devaluation. Swelling numbers of porteños, as inhabitants of Buenos Aires are known, have set up personal shopping services of their own. Blue Parallel, the upscale travel agency that arranged Estevez’s trip, offers customized furniture shopping excursions gratis to its clients.

Lorna Moore and Dan McGilvray, an American couple about to break ground on a house in California, spent a good part of their two days in Buenos Aires looking at fixtures in the design mall. Moore fell in love with the colored tiles, and McGilvray, a professional contractor, set his heart on a sleek modern toilet, the kind that has a hidden tank and hangs suspended from the wall.

”The cheapest one of those costs $1,000 in the U.S.,” he says, raving about it to other Americans over breakfast at a small hotel in Buenos Aires. “Here they cost $150.”

The couple plans to return for hardware later, but this time they are buying two antique double-front doors in San Telmo, with iron-barred windows and big round knobs. Moore says they cost $1,000, or a third of what they fetch back home.

PERSONAL SHOPPER

Like many other Americans, Moore and McGilvray hired a personal shopper who is helping them ship everything back. At $20 to $40 an hour, the service can be a good investment, particularly for hurried visitors who don’t speak Spanish. “