Metro Plaza: Gangnam Style, Secret, Girls Generation, and Linux
Metro Plaza has its own smaller electronics market but you visit the mall for the computer brand retail stores. The staff are more knowledgeable and not as pushy. Gaming devices like the Playstation 3 and XBOX360 are also more visible here. The same brands in Pacific Digital Plaza are there plus lesser known or upper-tier brands such as Bose, Hanvon, and Transcend. The displays are more organized and each sales area focuses on one brand only. Of course, you don't get to bargain and have to contend with the suggested retail price but you get nice glossy fliers, a branded shopping bag, and freebies if you buy direct from them.
I found myself trailing a family from New York so I could take a closer look at the new products. The staff was obviously more interested in them than me. But even then I couldn't examine any item closely. Why? Because all the monitors were playing music videos of Psy dancing with half-naked Korean girls. I could barely look at any of the new Android tablets because Girls Generation was smiling from a Samsung monitor across the corridor while the K-pop group Secret was singing their music video Poison while showing off their long legs. Who needs porn when you have sexy Korean music videos? Hsu Chi, Fan Bingbing, and Angelababy were all over the place in digital camera advertisements or posters. I was so distracted I forgot to take out my Knoppix LiveUSB to test the hardware specifications of an Alienware laptop.
Uhm. . .yeah. . . what was I saying about Linux again?
I wouldn't be a Linux evangelist if I didn't give my favorite OS a nod. Some of the Chinese white boxes were running on a modified Linux kernel. Hanvon ereaders were obviously using some Linux code. I accessed the BIOS of one of the desktops and found Secure Boot already part of the options. I wanted to test if it would prevent a LiveUSB from booting, but like I said, I never got the chance. Blame attractive K-Pop stars and their titillating videos.
Thoughts on 360Buy and shopping
You don't have to worry about pickpockets when you're in Metro Plaza or Pacific Digital because the staff seems like their only purpose in life is to get you to buy an item. Money seemed secondary to them - hell, sales employees from my old company would have learned a lot from their verve and enthusiasm.
A Taiwanese friend of mine who has lived in Shanghai for eight years told me that the aggressive sales staff in electronic markets just takes a bit of getting used to. They will pull down the prices as long as you're persistent but courteous. A non-Shanghainese 22-year old Chinese told me that even locals get intimidated with the "uncivilized" way the sales reps assault you with their products. Personally, I really didn't mind though I did wish I was less shy about checking out the prices and their catalogs.
I had researched prices for portable external drives on 360Buy before heading to Xujahui. Although I didn't barter at the stalls during my brief visit, the prices at Metro City and Pacific Digital Plaza were around 50RMB higher than those quoted on 360Buy for the same model HDDs. Of course, you're actually expected to haggle in Pacific Digital Plaza so I'm pretty sure a good shopper can bargain for an equal or lesser price. You can use 360Buy as leverage if you know how to speak in Mandarin. The locals know about the online prices and shop there regularly themselves and would be more open to lowering the price if you mention a Chinese online store.
If Asian girls are your thing, I don't recommend visiting Pacific Digital or Metro Plaza. After all, how could you think of buying from 360Buy and saving cash if the cute saleslady who looks like Charlene Choi or Crystal Liu YiFei is already demonstrating the Windows 8 touchscreen for you? Worst, you might even trip in the escalator while watching a SISTAR video from a Panasonic monitor across the hall.
Yeah, some of them are that cute. Take my money already!
Am I going to come back one of these days for my fix of electronics window shopping? I sure will. After all,Xujahui is the capital of computers and electronics in Shanghai. Where else would I go?
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