Shopping for DVDs

First an admission. When I first came to Hong Kong I lived in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the local shops (especially in Nathan Road) seemed highly dubious. I felt much more comfortable sticking to the chain stores - the prices were higher but at least I felt I wouldn't be ripped off - I'm sure we've all heard first-hand accounts of unwary visitors being cheated when they thought they were getting a bargain (particularly on cameras).

It took me a while to figure out that this practice is actually not that common, and in fact is virtually unknown outside the main tourist areas. As I have always lived (and mainly worked) in, er, less well-known parts of Hong Kong, I am most unlikely to be cheated in this way. Having said that, several years I did encounter a hawker in the Wong Tai Sin area selling something or other on the street, shouting out "saam sahp man" (HK$30) - until I walked past when he started saying "forty dollars" in English. Easy mistake to make, I'm sure.

Now I am somewhat suspicious of most of the large chain stores in Hong Kong, and would expect to get a better deal in local shops. I'll return to the subject of supermarkets in the future because I have plenty to say about them, but perhaps DVDs (and VCDs) are a good example for today. Small shops often have very good bargains, presumably because their overheads are so much lower than the big stores in the fancy arcades. I was in one such store at the weekend, and they had a vast numbers of DVDs at HK$18. Plenty of rubbish, but also some decent movies from the last few years.

At the other end of the scale we have HMV and Blockbuster. HMV remains a more pleasant place to shop than Blockbuster, which has the narrowest aisles I have ever seen, and both will normally have a larger selection and more space than local stores (which often seem crowded with just half a dozen people inside). The prices you pay reflect these differences, even though you might expect larger stores to have more bargaining power with the distributors.

Meanwhile, HMV currently has what it calls a "clearout" sale. What they seem to be doing is putting big stickers on items whilst cutting prices marginally if at all. One "bargain" I saw was Sopranos Series One DVD for HK$800, reduced from HK$850 but available from Amazon for HK$360* (plus postage). Perhaps people don't want to go the trouble of ordering from overseas (and run the risk of the items being stolen) but that's a big price difference.

Yes, I am being unfair comparing prices on imported items. Most DVDs produced for sale in Hong Kong are cheaper than the equivalent items in the UK and US. Just as a random example, the HBO series "Sex and City" Season 5 DVD is HK$158 in Blockbuster and more than HK$200* from Amazon.co.uk (with a recommended price of HK$360*).

One problem I now have is figuring out what is a fair price for a DVD. It's not that long ago that the major distributors starting offering films at $78 or thereabouts, which was a bargain compared to original prices of $200 or more, and it seemed reasonable to assume that this really was a special offer, but now prices are even lower. Locally produced versions of more minor films seemed a bargain at around $35 each, but now many of them are around $20. Can prices fall any further? As a consumer, I hope they do continue to fall, though when I was looking through the HK$18 DVDs I realized that I had already bought (but not yet watched) most of the ones I wanted, often at higher prices! Should I have been patient and waited? Maybe not.

I also hope that we continue get more DVDs of overseas TV series for the local market (such as "The Office" series two and "Sex and the City") rather than having to rely on imports. Although there was a local VCD version of the first series of the Sopranos, it can't have been very successful because there haven't been any more, and they didn't do a DVD either. Hence HMV is selling the US version at that eye-popping price.

If you don't want to get DVDs shipped from the UK or US, one good alternative I can recommend is CD Wow. The Hong Kong site has lower prices because they don't charge VAT, so don't order from their main site! The good thing about this company is that they ship (worldwide, I think) from Hong Kong, so it only takes a couple of days and they don't charge for postage. Plus the stuff should fit in your letter box, which makes life easier, though for this reason they don't ship box sets.

______
* Note: I have calculated UK prices at £1 = HK$14 and deducted VAT (because that's what Amazon UK do if they are shipping outside the EU). As Hong Kong has no sales tax this seems a fair comparison.

Original Post