Unglamourity of shopping in Hong Kong

I have always hated shopping in Hong Kong, the sales assistants follow you as soon as you step in the store, and grab random items to persuade you to buy, or the items which they get the most commission on.

Another bummer is clothes!!! Alot of places do not allow you to try or exchange, so don't bother dreaming about a refund!

Some places that sell trainers have the trainers sealed in clear plastic wrap, how can you get a feel for the shoe. Recently I got an item which was wrapped, I assumed it was glossy because it looked that way beneath the wrapping, however when I unwrapped it, it turned out to be matt.

For digital products its even more annoying, they cant show you if the product actually functions unless you are paying for it! So once you've paid and found the functions not suited to you, your doomed!

Anyway heres the newspaper version in English and Chinese!
The Chinese article is much more juicy, one shopper was asked to GET OUT for window shopping!

There was feedback on the local television interviewing people about their views in HK, I felt that they only broadcasted the people with postive comments and if I was interviewed, I would probably say positive stuff about hong kong to get on TV!
Therefore..BIASED!!!
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Source: The Standard
Store spies trash popular HK shopping streets
Kelly Ip Wednesday, January 04, 2012

A secret survey of 30 world-famous shopping streets puts Hong Kong in 29th place because of the unfriendly attitude of salespeople and poor hygiene.
Singapore's Orchard Road tops the list followed by Luxembourg's Liberty Avenue.
A French company sent shopping spies to more than 400 stores in 30 popular shopping streets and asked them to grade their experiences, including customer service and restrooms.
Orchard Road scored high marks in nearly all areas, with excellent customer service in most stores and ultra-clean streets.
The Champs Elysees in Paris ranked only 16th. Researchers reported that customer services in most stores were unsatisfactory and the salespeople did not smile enough.
The results show that while 60 percent of salespeople in the 30 shopping streets were well-mannered, about 30 percent chit-chatted with colleagues in front of customers.
More than 70 percent of all shopping streets offered cultural activities, including concerts.
Also, road construction work being carried out in a large number of shopping streets affected the overall grading to a certain extent, the report said.
The French company conducted a similar survey in 2005 but that only involved 17 shopping streets. Hong Kong was not among them, but Beijing's Wangfujing Avenue was on the list.
In that survey, Madrid's Calle Serrano came out top while Wangfujing was bottom.
Tourism lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun said he was disappointed with the result of the latest survey, although he was not surprised. He said the most popular shopping streets in Hong Kong are Nathan Road, Queen's Road Central and Canton Road, but none of them has a special feature to attract tourists.
"I also fear that customer service in Hong Kong is moving backward," he said.
"This means not only that pedestrians are unhelpful, but also the overall attitude of Hong Kong people."
Hong Kong's service industry should concentrate on hospitality and be equally helpful to both mainland and Western customers, he added.
"We should not ask visitors to speak in our language, but we should try to speak in theirs."
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Source: Sharp Daily HONG KONG

香港人唔Nice　購物天堂變地獄

【本報訊】港人沒有燦爛笑容，沒親切的問候，沒有小小幫忙，結果帶給旅客最不快的回憶。有法國調查機構為全球30個城市的著名商業街排名，結果香港與瑞士日內瓦雙雙墊底，由購物天堂淪為購物地獄。

法國市場研究機構Presence早前派出一批「神秘顧客」，前往30個城市的著名購物大道，明查暗訪約400家商店，為店員態度、街道整潔程度、途人是否熱心幫助遊客等項目評分，結果新加坡的烏節路排名首位，第二位是盧森堡自由大道。
調查報告形容烏節路街道十分清潔，接待服務出色，自由大道則購物環境出眾。至於香港和日內瓦則被調查人員狠批，形容兩地的路人態度都不友善，而且沒有幫助遊客的意願，因此分別排名29及30位。
旅發局多年來積極宣揚「好客之道」，但港人似乎當成耳邊風。記者昨日到街上訪問遊客，不少人都有不快經歷。來自瑞典的Alexander表示，曾想買一隻遊戲光碟，但身上沒有足夠現金，唯有說稍後回來購買，竟被老闆破口大駡。

法國一項調查狠批港人對旅客不友善，令香港在商業街排名幾乎墊底。陳奕釗攝

齋睇被叫「Get Out」
英國的Stella更慘，試過挑選飾物只過了五分鐘，店員可能覺得她「齋睇唔買」，叫她「Get Out」（離開）。來自澳洲的Danielle則不明白，為何香港的時裝店可以不設試身，她只好無奈放棄心儀的裙子。

商業街及城市部份排名
資料來源：法國調查
機構Presence、新華社

名人唱好香港

徐濠縈（時裝達人）：
我覺得香港購物大道其實唔差，只係途人可能未必夠熱心，因為佢哋覺得英文、國語唔夠好，怕醜唔敢幫遊客。

項明生（旅遊常客）：
我成日去新加坡，唔覺得買嘢好過香港，又無香港咁多新款產品。盧森堡排名咁高，可能只係旅客少無咁迫咋。

Although I am not fond of Singapore, but was surprised it is better than Hong Kong!

But one thing I believe is that they follow the British and therefore they would have better customer services.

Frankly I don't know how 項明生 could quote Singapore has less variety than HK, but there are more shops and restaurant in Singapore which are not available in HONG KONG such as Long Johns, Top Shop and many others!