chuvaness

I asked my cousin to buy me a Canon videocam at Best Buy in Canada, worth P11k. The same cam model costs P20,000 here in the Philippines.

super taga nga sa RP kaya I do my shopping abroad.
i used to have that toothbrush and super cheap lang sa HKG.
mas mura pa if you shop in the US.
how can people have spending confidence knowing na ang laki ng patong?

i have this sony camera, W300 13.3MP and i bought it in HKG with the equivalent of 13k (free memory card, case and small tripod for tables). I saw it in Manila and Sony shop sells it for 30k. robbery!

Read an article before that in general luxury/imported brands are more expensive in the Phils than anywhere else in Asia. It's an incentive to buy Philippine products but sometimes it's impossible not to buy imported items esp. techie stuff.

For a third world country such as ours, nakakagalit na malaman na sobrang mag-overprice ang ilan sa mga companies. Una na dyan ang Meralco and some pharmaceutical companies. Compared to the medications sold in India, Thailand and other places, ang mahal ng mga gamot natin! Let's be pro-active as consumers. We work hard for our money so dapat the companies give us our money's worth!

so agree about the medicines! super mahal ng gamot satin!! one example: Quadriderm cream: 5g=367PHP in pinas, here in UAE, for 15g=13AED=169PHP!

You should also include the iPhone.
As far as I know, Globe Telecoms sells them for 30k+++.

uhm i'm not sure if it's true for all stores...but what happens to some local distributor is that there's no support from the manufacturer/ mother company...

e.g. Product X, from US

for the local distributor to buy ProductX, he needs to buy it through the regional distributor in Asia, who will buy it from the Mother Company in US...if the price in US is at $50...the price for the local distributor will be at $45, which includes payment to regional distributor in Asia...another costs would be, shipment, customs, and duties may be as high as the total cost per se...and because of the lack of support from the Mother Company, the local distributor sometimes has to increase the price so as to include expenses for marketing, service, and etc...

that's why the price would sometimes be twice as high as the US equivalent...

but i think Apple laptops are cheaper here than in Canada...

^^...peace

The only time you feel you're getting a good deal in S&R is when they are on sale. Their meat is also higher than say Shopwise. Yung chicken lang ang same with the others. I regularly do my grocery in Unimart.

Agree with the camera. I always buy in HK.

Got my Compaq laptop in Singapore for about Php60,000 with free memory upgrade and free printer.

Same model being sold here after 3 months, Php90,000 without any freebies.

I LOVE PH.

Yes, there's a lot of this kind of shit out there! Sometimes it gets too much that it makes me not want to shop here.

there's a whole lot of bargains on amazon and e-bay and best buy, especially when the items go on sale, but the problem is we need to still pay for shipping (sometimes double shipping pa if you use Johnny Air). i guess we pay the markup for the instant gratification?

one bright spot about living in the philippines: i notice that most books (fiction/bestsellers) are cheaper here.

Hi Ms. C. I inquired at Canon's service center and the selling price for a CanonS90 is P31,950. While their store in a mall sells it for P33,950.

Wow double!

*gasp* snr shoppers, we've been had!!!

i love their sales, though. once bought ivory body wash (800 ml or so) for P180 and 12 pcs safeguard for around P130. plus bath towels at P250 each.

if it's any consolation, the clothes and shoes here are cheaper or almost the same price as those in hk and singapore. imho. i always go around their malls thinking, 'may ganyan din sa pilipinas... mas mura pa.' as for cameras, i'd rather buy here nalang. at least may 6 mos. 0% interest scheme and warranty pa. last time i bought my camera in singapore, the guy gave me a faulty memory card. grrrrr. and i've heard tons of similar stories about con artists-electronics sellers in hk too.

I bought my Medea freestyle breastpump from addalittlelove.com for $285. It's being sold in department stores for 30k++! No wonder the "pre-order" biz is thriving!

Breastpumps really are a great deal cheaper online! Bought my Freestyle from bestbuybaby.com and had it shipped to Manila as well. Even if they say it will not be covered by warranty, you can even just go ahead and buy a new one again online and still save money.

when i import equipment for my business i pay taxes, customs and brokerage fee.... All these payments are 30-40% higher than my Singapore partner pays for the exact same equipment. Meaning that the landed cost of the exact same unit will be at least 30% higher than in Singapore. Corruption in high places is to blame for the high prices asked by shop owners/ resellers here.

Agree. Government makes you regret being a legal importer. In our importation business, we have to pay customs, brokerage, VAT!, shipping, warehousing. Then we are legally bound to charge our customers 12% VAT which doesn't go to us but to the government. 12% is big! Then, if you are going through the big retailers, they charge 20%-40% of gross. So to support local businessmen, I buy locally if the price is just about a P1-2k difference because that would just be the Johnny Air cargo fee. Pero double the cost is too much naman!

One of the most outrageous markups if seen is for the Philips Avent Manual Breast pump.

P 5299 in SM and Baby Company.

in Amazon $34 or approximately 1500 pesos!! Kahit 3 bilin mo may sukli ka pa!

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Avent-ISIS-Manual-Breast/dp/B001G2IAT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1271777001&sr=8-1

I even compared the thing i purchased from amazon from the one in SM. EXACT SAME THING!! IDENTICAL BOX!!!

On other intersting news: John Mayers concert has been moved to OCTOBER 1!!!
New date already reflected on: http://www.johnmayer.com/tour/show/557

Channel v is expected to have an announcement by this week.

same for their graco pack n play. a lot more inexpensive in the US, it's just a bit hard to carry it on given the size.

omg last weekend i went to the megamall cyberzone to check out how much they were selling the nokia n900. it was php49500. but then when i checked at this local online gadget shop, they were selling it at php25,000 with one year warranty pa :|

wow, really? how come when i asked at nokia mismo, 29k lng daw.

Mayer Quiapo sells the Canon S90 for 25,000 pesos. Not bad since it includes a 4GB memory card, leather case and 3-year warranty from Canon.

I only go to S&R for the pepperoni pizza and chicken roll.

i shop there practically every Sunday because of convenience, but it's so much cheaper to shop at Puregold.
i like the cheese pizza at S&R and the mini coke cans.

I also love the raspberry iced tea mix.

I drink it everyday like water.

R.I.P. to me.

My sister bought a Sony cyebershot for Php 25,000 from one of the electronic stores in Greenhills, forgot the name, and my father-in-law got the same from HK at Php 12,000. Syempre, super hinayang ang kapatid ko, one for the price of two!!!

taiwan garlic 39/kilo
local garlic 159/kilo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daphneosena/3160026402/

wow! how to price yourself out of the market. Taiwan looks better and is cheaper - i bet the local pile will stay for a while....

Can it be the other way around? My dentist sells Crest Glide Floss for only 80 bucks whereas in the US if you get it retail like at the drugstores it'd sell for About $3 a piece

yeah, oo nga cheaper ung sa dentist mo. its possible na mas mura nyang nakukuha and since hindi sya shop (she doesn't have to pay those kinds of taxes) hindi sya puedeng mag charge ng mahal.

good for her!

Electricity, water and gas is affordable. Health care and education are subsidized by the government. Other than that, EVERYTHING is more expensive than UK, US and Asia. We pay at least 50% more from electrical goods to jeans.

Prices are so bad that we do almost all our shopping online. We don't get taxed by the Government if it does not exceed A$900 per transaction. Thank heavens for Amazon, eBay, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer's outstanding customer service and standard shipping rate.

We don't have warehouse shopping in Sydney either. Allegedly, Costco is coming this year so I'm crossing all my fingers that they have nearly the same price as their US stores.

John Mayer live in Manila concert tickets = OVERPRICED SHIT.

you should have included the john mayer concert tickets here. ;p

you know those frou-frou "truffles de france" that sell for bout 600/box? that's like (usd at costo... for 2boxes!

fisher price froggy friend potty seat
at amazon. $13 around P600
at rustans and SM . P1500
with other multiply sellers. P1300

aaarrrggh so mahal