Description:
Not actually in Little India but right across the street, Sim Lim is Singapore’s Akihabara, a giant electronics Mecca squeezed into one building, with hundreds upon hundreds of tightly packed specialist stores. Some competitive prices can be found here on computer parts, but consumer electronics and cameras are not particularly cheap in comparison with large on-line retailers, and a good number of shops on the first and second floors engage in scamming tourists and wrecking their holidays. Upon stepping in, immediately skip the first and second floors (a big tourist trap) and start shopping at floors 4-5, descending to 3 later, not forgetting the back corridors – these are the only places to consider shopping. To reiterate, ”’avoid”’ the first and second floor shops as many of them have a tendency to grossly overcharge or cheat tourists by means of pricing tricks (omitting tax, selling included accessories separately, adding unilateral fees, and similar misleading or deceptive tactics) and the occasional outright substitution fraud; unless you know exactly what you’re doing and/or need something unusual, you might want to shop at Mustafa instead. The third floors and above are the real haven for computer geeks looking for cheap bargains and to upgrade or put together a system; grab price lists from the Sim Lim entrance and do your on-line price research. ”’Sim Lim Tower”’, just across the street, also has a few shops but these focus on electronic components; it pales in comparison sizewise.
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