Shopping Street Smarts, Singapore

Lucky Plaza @ Orchard Road
for decades the shops here are notorious for ripping off tourists with electronic goods.
last known case - a foreigner was charged SGD$250 for 3 pieces of 2-way electric socket that cost at most $2 each.

Sim Lim Square @ Bencoolen
Number 1 most well known electronics shopping mall in Singapore.
Stay away from the shops on ground and 2nd floor - 90% of the shops located at these levels are known to con tourists, even locals stay away from them.
Shop only from 3rd level onwards.

People's Park Centre/Complex @ Chinatown
even locals get con here from shops that sells Jade/precious stones/antique
this is also not a place to buy electronics

This place is known for seemingly well-priced electronics but some of them are imitations. Even locals do get ripped off at some shops so I'd recommend anyone looking to buy electronics to do so in bigger stores like Best Denki, Courts and Harvey Norman, which are found in shopping malls all over the island.

Inside some stores, shopkeepers are sensitive if you take pictures. I was using my cellphone to take pictures of electronics (for the purpose of price comparison and I was scolded and/or sent out in the two places I did it.

The worst case was when I took this photo in the supermarket in Suntec City. It was a display advertising `VB Special`. The price was about triple what I was paying at the time (so I wanted proof of this audacity). Anyway, it was a silly thing to do and the consequences were severe. I was escorted from the store by two security guards that looked more like soldiers. Ouch! No more snapshots.....

This is the best place to look for any kind of electronics. There are a few floors of merchandise - computers, DVD, TV, mobile phones, ..... anything you can think of.
But there are no fixed prices. They give you the price then you have to start negotiating.
If they see you are foreign (white) you will most likly be given y much higher price. It is worth checking the prices at other department store to avoind getting ripped off.

Beware of buying electronics or any item from some shops in Chinatown. They might offer a very nice (low) price but one personal experience I had with a friend totally blew my mind! My friend was buying a good TV set and they (shopowner and my friend) agreed on a certain price for a brand of TV set. After my friend handed his money to the shop owner, his brother came out from nowhere and started harassing my friend saying that he should pay more in order for him to get the TV. what a crook! After talking and talking to them to no avail. I advised my friend just to take his money back and we'll leave. But the shop owner told us that they already put the money in their vault and they couldn't opened it!? Anyway, to make the story short: I offered to add S$20 more so that we can take the TV set. Fortunately for me, when I opened my wallet, there's no more cash there! After they saw this, they finally decided to give the TV set to us (not knowing that they took out the TV antenna!) What a bunch of crooks! So, beware as these people would really test your patience...