Discount furniture corridor thrives on Western Avenue.

Tucked away in the corner of a crowded furniture showroom is a slip-covered sofa the color of pale sand. It has designer chic written all over it, but its price tag screams "Fire Sale."

Welcome to Western Avenue, where a cluster of discount furniture retailers offer knockoffs of designer sofas at a fraction of the cost of the original.

Owned mainly by a melting pot of immigrant entrepreneurs from Korea, Vietnam and Israel, these shops are able to undercut more traditional furniture stores like Jennifer Convertibles or Krause's Furniture by shipping in inexpensive imitations made mostly in Asia (although the owners of these stores are reluctant to discuss their sources of distribution).

One such shop is World Design, where shoppers have a harvest of sofas and other furnishings to forage through. The sofas come in every shade and style, from funky velvet and retro-'60s sleepers to slip-covered chairs and sleek contemporaries.

Each model is displayed with a ring of about 50 fabric samples that range in grade and color - the higher the grade the customer orders, the higher the price. A shopper can get a designer wanna-be sofa and love seat for as little as $800.

The furniture stores sit shoulder-to-shoulder along Western, with sofas and chairs spilling onto the sidewalk. The smaller stores make the most of their space by stacking inventory up to the ceiling.

Historically, this stretch of Western Avenue sandwiched between Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards has long been home to furniture-related businesses, from antique dealers to importers of Italian-made woodwork.

During the boom years of the '80s, many Korean-owned furniture businesses began popping up in the area, according to Harrison Kim, executive director of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce. When the recession hit, many went bankrupt and were replaced by clothing retailers and shoe stores.

As the economy started to come around, however, so did a new breed of furniture retailers - discount stores, Kim said.

"A handful of furniture stores have always been there, but not as many as right now," Kim said.

Kim estimates the number of furniture outlets along Western has almost doubled in the past two years.

For discount retailers who need big showroom spaces at a low price, Western Avenue, one of L.A.'s longest and busiest thoroughfares, is ideal.

"The rents are decent. I believe their monthly overhead is about $1.50 per square foot," Kim said.

Andy Kim, the owner of Art Furniture Sav-On, moved his store to Western from Orange County about a year ago because of the drive-by traffic. "I knew that this area was busier," he said.

World Design, which opened less than a year ago, is one of Western's biggest and busiest stores. Owner Kelvin Truong said he came to Western because it "is famous. and people come down here because they can get better deals."

Troung said his customers come from as far south as San Diego County, and a large number come in from the San Fernando Valley.

Mario Chavez, a 30-year-old Glendale resident, heard about Western Avenue's discount furniture outfits from a news program giving shopping tips.

"You could find something there that looks like it's from a designer," said Chavez, who purchased a sofa and love seat for $1,200 that appeared to be knock-offs of similar designs sold at the well-known Santa Monica furniture store Shabby Chic. "The real thing would have cost about $3,500.

Charles Kim, executive director of the civic organization Korean American Coalition, said many of these discount retailers are able to offer furniture at rock-bottom prices because they have connections with overseas manufacturers. But these items are normally not up to the same level of quality as the furniture they seek to imitate.

Chavez doesn't seem to mind.

"It's not the quality of an Ethan Allan, but it could last you a good eight years," he said. "You just can't use it very much."