Shopping - Buying a camera in Singapore

In an earlier post, I talked about shopping for an iPod in various countries. I concluded that the price is pretty much the same everywhere. Luckily, this is not the case for other electronics. Take cameras for example. If you were to buy the latest Sony T100 camera, in London it would set you back £330. The same camera in the US is $400 (£200), whilst in Singapore, it's $699 (£230). As you can see, it shows that the UK is a rip off for everything and Singapore is fairly cheap. There are, however, a few traps to buying a camera or indeed, any other small electronic item in Singapore.

The first task is to choose where to buy your camera from. In most western countries, the thought of walking into a shop and actually buying something is pretty uncommon. Normally for anything that takes a battery, you spend ages trolling the internet looking for the site with the cheapest price, then order it from there. If you want it straight away, you at least do a web search, find the cheapest price, then go find a store that comes close. That approach fails in Singapore. There are no big online retailers, so it can be tricky to get a comparison price. Some stores do have web presences, but they tend to be pretty basic. That means hitting the streets and finding out yourself.

Up until a few years ago, most electronics were sold in small stores in the big shopping centres. Places like Lucky Plaza and Sim Lim Square were swarming with tiny stores all looking very similar. So similar in fact, that one proprietor often owned three or four stores in the one centre, trading under different names, with different sales people, but all with the one store room. The common thing about all these stores, is that none of them ever had any price tags. That meant finding the real value of anything was quite tricky!

Fast forward today and there are now several big electrical retailers that have leapt into the void. The biggest is the Australian retailer Harvey Norman. These shops are everywhere and they have price tags! Hurrah! Another good option is Courts. If you're pressed for time or lazy, it's now quite easy to walk up to a counter, point at a camera and be walking out with it 5 minutes later. This was all but impossible a few years ago with protracted haggling. But haggling's all the fun, so we'll skip the easy option.

My trick is to walk into Harvey Norman and let the helpful staff show you all the features of the cameras and help you decide which model you want. You then take a note of the price, walk out and try to find it cheaper somewhere else! Sim Lim Square is a fun place to do this. It has shops with names like "Darling Photos", so you can't go wrong.

Walk into a shop, past the guys at the front, find the camera you want and ask how much. That's when the fun starts. The first price will be really high, but after some good natured haggling, the price will start to drop. If you suggest a reasonable price that the salesmen doesn't like, walk away. More often than not, the guy will call you back in miraculously agree to your price. Deal done. Well, not always.

This is where the salesman starts to claw back his profit. The first trick they use is to try and add GST on top of the price you've just agreed. This is a big no no. Even though it's only 5%, the salesman will innocently assume you thought the price was exclusive of GST. Yeah, right. He's just trying to see how dumb you are. Make sure when you're haggling, that you state the price includes GST.

The next trick is to add 2% to 3% of the price on if you pay by credit card. This is technically illegal under Singaporean law, but it's fairly hard to get out of if you haven't agreed to it up front. Again, make sure you state that the price includes GST and paying by credit card.

If you're struck a hard bargain, the seller may then try to sell you accessories, like a spare battery, memory cards, filter etc. As you probably haven't priced these, you have no idea how much they're worth, so this is where the seller tries to claw back some profit. Try to avoid the temptation, as you'll end up losing!

Phew. That's easy. But wait, there's more. If you're struck a really hard bargain, with GST and credit card charges, this is where the seller can get snarky. You may find that the camera only comes with a domestic warranty and it's another $50 for the international warranty. Wrong. He's just trying to pull a swifty. Just about everything sold comes with an international warranty by default. He's just trying to get some cash back from you. At this point, just refuse to buy it, start walking away and you'll suddenly find it has an international warranty after all!

The final scam I've seen played is to charge extra for things that should be included for free. This is usually the camera case. I once bought a camera that came nicely wrapped up from the manufacturer, but there was a big gap in the packaging. I wondered what it was for. Then the seller said the case would be an extra $50. I looked at the case and it EXACTLY fit the gap in the packaging. The manufacturer had obviously meant for it to be included, but the seller saw it as a chance for some extra cash. Be careful and walk away if you feel you're being duped.

Another thing to be careful of is the seller trying to offload some old stock into you. He'll tell you that the model you want is not as good as this other camera, which is much better. I've seen a seller then drop the price of the camera I wanted as a way of saying his preferred camera is much better. I ignored him and asked for the camera at the special price he just mentioned. Suddenly, my camera was out of stock, wouldn't be in stock for a week and could I please go and root myself.

This may all sound a bit daunting and scary, but it's actually all the fun. Most retailers are honest, hard working folk. They're just trying to take advantage of any dumb tourists. Keep these tips in mind and you'll come home with a cheap camera and a smile on your face!