People Watching

Hello! This is Derek Mattingly with the insight on the people of Sham Shui Po. My role is to provide you with information on the people of Sham Shui Po as well as some travel tips to keep you ahead of the market game.
 

 

Sham Shui Po is packed full of people, especially on the weekends.  This area is famous for its cheap electronics’ devices, so people are literally knocking down other customers in their way to get the best deals.  There is a wide variety of customers that frequent this neighborhood in Hong Kong.  Most notably, younger generations are looking for the next big item hot on the market.  Video game stores within the Golden Computer Centre are crowded with young people lining up to try new games, and in some stores it is near impossible to even make your way through to see all the items.  We were even lucky enough to witness two middle aged mothers fighting over who was the first to grab a game that was on sale.  I also bought an extra battery charger for my phone which was $90 that also came with a receipt for reassurance.
 

If you want a less crowded, but riskier approach to buying cheap electronics, then you can head to the men’s market on Ap Liu Street.  There is also a wide variety of people here as well, but a noticeably larger portion of foreigners.  Market shopping is one of the main attractions to foreigners because these markets are very famous and posted in almost every tourist book or website.  People from all over the world are here; Europe, Africa, Middle East and North America. Everyone is trying to haggle down prices with the locals running the market stands.  I interacted with one of them selling some “Beats by Dre” headphones to get a feel for the process. The lady started the price at $250 which seemed like a “high well rounded gwei-lo price.” Anakin, my local translator, then noticed that she was trying to rip me off and then stepped in to help with the conversation.  She responded much better to him, knowing that he was a local and brought the price down to $175.  However, I didn’t really want the headphones, so we walked away.  She actually chased us and offered $150, but like I said I didn’t want the headphones.

 

Overall, the people of SSP are generally in “business mode” usually trying to buy something for a good price.  It’s very crowded but that’s Hong Kong.  I would say the people are more aggressive for sure because they are only there for certain things.  People will mow you down and fight for some items if they want them bad enough.  Also be careful with the people selling to you at the market. It is highly recommended to have a local friend that speaks Cantonese with you in case you are a foreigner.