Retail pricing in Singapore

Post by **nakatago** » Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:32 pm

And it gets worse on a smaller scale.

Looking for camera stuff. Got referred to another store but I went in anyway, knowing it can be shady. Saw the item, asked for how much: 135.

A store in Funan sells it for 68. Ebay has it for 40 USD or 30 GBP (depending on which site). But I found two local stores--through the internet--who were selling the item for 55 SGD (they were closed when I dropped by).

So I wouldn't be surprised about the cartel theory on top of the factors SE pointed out if you scale things up.

nutnut · Post by **nutnut** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 8:18 am

Two stores that are horrendously expensive.

Marks and Spencers
Mothercare

No good reason for either, they are run by Multi national retail giants and cannot suggest that shipping doubles the price of their products when they probably make most of their products in the region here anyway!

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 8:41 am

nutnut wrote:Two stores that are horrendously expensive.

Marks and Spencers
Mothercare

No good reason for either, they are run by Multi national retail giants and cannot suggest that shipping doubles the price of their products when they probably make most of their products in the region here anyway!

Ugh. I don't even want to get started on "Mothercare". In a crunch needed a new stroller, ours irreparably broke the weekend my wife and daughter moved here. I ran there, bought the least expensive stroller that didn't look like it was "disposable", $599 SGD. Of course, only $210 US on Amazon when I checked later that night

nutnut · Post by **nutnut** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 9:57 am

zzm9980 wrote:
nutnut wrote:Two stores that are horrendously expensive.

Marks and Spencers
Mothercare

No good reason for either, they are run by Multi national retail giants and cannot suggest that shipping doubles the price of their products when they probably make most of their products in the region here anyway!
Ugh. I don't even want to get started on "Mothercare". In a crunch needed a new stroller, ours irreparably broke the weekend my wife and daughter moved here. I ran there, bought the least expensive stroller that didn't look like it was "disposable", $599 SGD. Of course, only $210 US on Amazon when I checked later that night

Yep, we were in the PP store last night, I was horrified, I spoke very loudly and at great length in the shop of my distaste! No wonder no one has kids!

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:38 am

nutnut wrote:Yep, we were in the PP store last night, I was horrified, I spoke very loudly and at great length in the shop of my distaste! No wonder no one has kids!

I can't help but to snigger at this one. This one takes no rocket scientist to figure it out.

Koalabear · Post by **Koalabear** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:02 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:That too. I purchased a new Harmony One remote from Amazon complete with shipping here for less that 200 US. It's over 400 here in Singapore. Go figure!

Greed will come as a natural result of a diminished supply being brought into the country, again, due to the small size of the population. Supply & demand. Just like the housing rental costs. Supply & demand & greed.

Really? How do you like the remote? My mum works for Logitech's Remote division here in Mississauga, ON and I am her assistant tester when my mood is good.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:47 am

It's been out, what, 5 or 6 years now? And it's still the best darn multi-appliance remote out there. I love it, although with some in the household that aren't PC literate get frustrated at trying to resync it when somebody turns off something manually.

snowqueen · Post by **snowqueen** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 2:48 pm

Mothercare and Marks & Spencer are definitely two of the biggest rip offs in Singapore, and considering most of the stuff is made in China I can't see how the inflated prices are justified. Most of the clothes in M&S are double what you pay in the UK, so when something is 50% off, that's what my mum is paying back home. Oh, and those shower gels in M&S being sold for about $7.50 are a 1 GBP in the UK, hows that for profit.

Don't get me started on Early Learning Centre. I even asked the assistant in the store recently how often she gets told how much more the toys are in their store compared to the UK and she says pretty much every day.

When I went back to the UK at Christmas I bought the HappyLand Farm set for 20 GBP, equivalent to $40, it's being sold for $108 here.

Post by **nakatago** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 2:52 pm

I wonder if a saturation point will ever be reached and they'd stop ripping people off...

One can dream.

One can dream.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 2:57 pm

snowqueen wrote: When I went back to the UK at Christmas I bought the HappyLand Farm set for 20 GBP, equivalent to $40, it's being sold for $108 here.

Oh yeah. My parents bought my daughter some singing fisher price kitchen toy (don't ask). It cost them about US $35 including shipping from Amazon. We saw it at Isetan last month for S$109.

aster · Post by **aster** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 6:37 pm

M&S is a great 'one-stop shop' for guys like myself who have an aversion to shopping.

Unfortunately prices here in Singapore are just ridiculous, and M&S knows this as they deliver to 80 different countries including HK... but not Singapore. I wonder why?

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 6:57 pm

nutnut wrote:
zzm9980 wrote:
nutnut wrote:Two stores that are horrendously expensive.

Marks and Spencers
Mothercare

No good reason for either, they are run by Multi national retail giants and cannot suggest that shipping doubles the price of their products when they probably make most of their products in the region here anyway!
Ugh. I don't even want to get started on "Mothercare". In a crunch needed a new stroller, ours irreparably broke the weekend my wife and daughter moved here. I ran there, bought the least expensive stroller that didn't look like it was "disposable", $599 SGD. Of course, only $210 US on Amazon when I checked later that night
Yep, we were in the PP store last night, I was horrified, I spoke very loudly and at great length in the shop of my distaste! No wonder no one has kids!

I like to windowshop in the Harbourfront store, on more than one occasion I've talked people out of buying $800 strollers there. Kaki Bukit Avenue 1!! I still go in to look for sales. There are some things there that are priced close to normal. The strollers aren't it, though :-\

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 8:05 pm

Sieng Shong had a 4 pack of Kit-Kat Cruncy for £1 , thats what it said on the packet anyway.

They were $2.80 , still cheaper than the norm here though so a relative bargain.

nutnut · Post by **nutnut** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 9:24 pm

Barnsley wrote:Sieng Shong had a 4 pack of Kit-Kat Cruncy for £1 , thats what it said on the packet anyway.

They were $2.80 , still cheaper than the norm here though so a relative bargain.

Oooh, British chocolate! Something of a luxury!

Post by **x9200** » Fri, 09 Mar 2012 9:57 pm

poodlek wrote:I like to windowshop in the Harbourfront store, on more than one occasion I've talked people out of buying $800 strollers there. Kaki Bukit Avenue 1!! I still go in to look for sales. There are some things there that are priced close to normal. The strollers aren't it, though :-\

Occasionally they are. We missed a kind of quinny promotion in mothercare by a few days only and eventually bought everything at Kaki Bkt Ave 1 but the price was comparable IIRC. Besides, they still have good quality stuff that the others do not carry. I remember at the time where it was in our focus the choice of nice, robust cots was rather pathetic in the Baby Hyperstore comparing to Mothercare. Of course the price could kill you too.

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