On Wednesday 22nd of July 2020 Aldi in Australia released a $199 rocking chair. As Aldi’s midweek product launch items often sell out we were a bit worried we’d miss out so I went to the South Melbourne Aldi store on my lunch break and they had plenty in stock.
This “traditional rocking chair” by SOHL Furniture’s Life Concepts range is in a massive box that an adult can probably lift on their own, but is too large and awkward to move around without a second person. I had to call a guy from work to ride down on his bike to help me put one onto a trolly and then into my car.
As we got to our car, which is a station wagon we laughed as we saw a discarded box in the street from another Aldi rocking chair customer. We stopped laughing as soon as we realised that my massive boot didn’t fit it either without removing it from the box. Luckily it fit fine and we also took the rubbish with us, I’ll cut it up and put it out with the recycling. Here’s a photo of it from my side door.
If you buy one and need to get it home in your boot, be aware it will probably obscure your vision, try and place it in a way that gives you visibility on the left side of the car, as I found it hard to see that way.
As it was raining that I had to leave it in the car overnight and set it up tonight.
Aldi Rocking Chair Assembly
This was incredibly simple to build, just needed to add Marine Grade Nuts and Bolts, 4 screws and 4 washers with the provided Allen key. What I found interesting here was that it comes with the parts to make both a rocking chair and a regular chair. This will come in handy in the future after our baby has grown up and we don’t need a rocking chair anymore. This is a really nice feature, making this Aldi product stand out against a similar Kogan product – the Shangri-La Charlotte Rocking Chair (Grey), which also costs twice as much.
Is it any good?
I like it, I find it a little firmer than I’d have expected but I’ve found that firm couches tend to soften up a bit. The seat cover is also removable for washing. As we are going to put this in our baby’s room it’s going to be good to be able to wash the rocking chair seat cover.
The colour is a little lighter than our couches and much lighter than our fabric kitchen chairs, but again, this will not be living in this room so that’s not a concern.
As the feet of the rocking chair can be swapped, I’m quite sure we’ll keep it in the house somewhere long after we might have if it didn’t have this option.
For $199 it seems like a no-brainer when Kogan’s product is $399 with free shipping and Adairs Baby Hampton Rocking Chair Grey has an RRP of $599.99 but is currently on sale for $359.99 and currently has free shipping promotion.
