So I happen to be down in HCMC and I happen to need to price some hardware - trying to see if I should pay the premium here or hand carry stuff back from the States. As an aside, it's gosh darn warm here in HCMC. The city is all strung up with lights (more on that later), but it's still too freakin' hot to fully get into the holiday spirit. I miss the Hanoi weather, and I never thought I would say that about Hanoi.
Anyhow, I dropped by the big local electronics store in D1, Nguyen Kim. Relatively impressive - not exactly like Best Buy, more like a Circuit City (oops, that place just went into bankruptcy..), but shockingly their computer department doesn't sell any sort of hubs or routers. Either that or I failed to communicate with the sales staff.
So I headed to the much ballyhooed FPT owned, Apple Authorized Reseller store. Got the address and phone number off the web and the local news accounts from earlier this year. And I walked.. and I walked.. and I can't find the place. Then I called. Both numbers, and no one answered. What the heck is up with that? Everyone and their mother has an iPhone down here in HCMC, yet the FPT Apple store can't keep a location for 6 months? Or it moved and failed to forward the phone number? Short FPT stock already. Oh yeah, the Vietnam market doesn't allow shorting yet. Dangnabbit!
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5 comments:
There are three Apple Stores in Saigon now. One on Nguyen Cong Tru in District 1 near the stock market. The other two are on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street on the District 1 side between CMT8 and Cao Thangs streets. The name of one of them is Future Technology are something like that. I gave away their business card a couple days ago to another Apple user.
SaigonNezumi (Kevin)
The store at 98 Nguyen Cong Tru was closed when I walked by it and called. On a Saturday afternoon, a computer store is closed! What the heck?
Anyhow, FWIW, a MacBook with Leopard and a Combo Drive is 1390+10% VAT.
I walked by the 98 Nguyen Cong Tru store twice before I recognized it as an Apple store. While there, I priced an iPhone at US$650 in mid-December. I decided to buy it for US$399 during my trip to the U.S. for the holidays.
You can't trust computer stores in Vietnam anymore. If a store is good, it's really good. If a store is bogus, it'll be gone for good in only a few months.
We have to be twice as careful when buying computers, or even food nowadays in Vietnam.
Some one else asked the same question on Global Voices, Here is a list of Apple reseller and service shops.
http://store.apple.com.au/asia/FMPro
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