Shopping advice: "need to knows" on best stores/brands (various types of products)

[TheVagabond]

Looking to find stores in Chiang Mai but this advice may blanket all of Thailand (perhaps?)

1. I don't know if certain stores are inherently overpriced (LIke in the USA buying from a mall department store versus buying from Walmart)

2. With brands, specifically kitchen appliances I want to buy a juicer, food processor, and hot plate…. brands to avoid? good bargain brand, mid range on price and quality?

What I'm looking for specifically at the moment:

bed sheets

juicer

food processor

hot plate

printer

camera tri pod

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[h90]

On printer, specially look on the purchasing price and on the running costs.

There are super good printers very cheap but the ink/toner is extreme expensive.

Which isn't important if you print one page per week. But will if you print 100 page per day.

[beachproperty]

On printer, specially look on the purchasing price and on the running costs.

There are super good printers very cheap but the ink/toner is extreme expensive.

Which isn't important if you print one page per week. But will if you print 100 page per day.

Agree on ink/toner being expensive....sometimes the refills cost about 1500/baht for color and black. Almost cheaper to just buy a new one....

An alternative though is to go to the IT center where ever you live and buy one of these converted printers with Ink wells on the side....not much more expensive.

I got a canon printer with the inkwells on the side for 2200 Baht...(Printer/scanner/copier).......

Not sure if you have a Makro in Chaing Mai but if there is ....they have good prices on lots of stuff.....worth a look

[Beetlejuice]

This is always a difficult subject because everyone’s opinions of what are the best brand names for certain products are going to differ according to their own experiences.

I am sure that if I recommended a brand name for an item, than someone else will disagree or say they had bad experiences with that brand name.

In Thailand it really is the luck of the draw. For example; I have purchased goods of unknown names and origins that have exceeded all expectations and gone on for years and at other times I have bought well known brand named products that have proved disappointing.

My motto is, it does not matter about the brand name but more so that any particular product is a standard model, commonly sold in Thailand and easy to have repaired, spare parts are readily available and the company has service centres in the province not a million miles from where I live. As for printers, all that matters to me is the price of the cartridges or ink refills.

So in a nutshell: first priorities, make sure spare parts are easily obtained for the product, the product is of a standard type and commonly sold in Thailand so that it is possible to have repaired at many places if the need be, and the company has service centres in your district or not too far.

[CharlieH]

Buy cheap you,ll buy twice in almost all cases.

Remember warranties and guarantees are about as much use as a chocoalte fireguard, they may sound good, read good, but when you actually need it, its useless ( in most cases).

Check everything works and is present and correct BEFORE you leave the store, never assume etc just because its new.

[bangkokstick]

Ask Personal-shopper-bangkok.com ?

[mca]

I got some high quality bed linen on sale at central khon kaen in Robinson. Quite often Ive found various robinsons have nice sale promotions on items

[Elfin]

Go to Makro on the Superhighway or any Big C in Chiang Mai for all the items that you mentioned and compare between the 2 stores. One stop shopping=easy-peasy!

Edited October 26, 2013 by Elfin

[h90]

On printer, specially look on the purchasing price and on the running costs.

There are super good printers very cheap but the ink/toner is extreme expensive.

Which isn't important if you print one page per week. But will if you print 100 page per day.

Agree on ink/toner being expensive....sometimes the refills cost about 1500/baht for color and black. Almost cheaper to just buy a new one....

An alternative though is to go to the IT center where ever you live and buy one of these converted printers with Ink wells on the side....not much more expensive.

I got a canon printer with the inkwells on the side for 2200 Baht...(Printer/scanner/copier).......

Not sure if you have a Makro in Chaing Mai but if there is ....they have good prices on lots of stuff.....worth a look

"Almost cheaper to just buy a new one...." is not true because with a new one you get only half filled toner or ink. So after a few pages they are empty.

As you say for the inkjets the converted are excellent.

For laser printer....refill toner. For brother it is easy to do. I got told some other brands have chips that make it difficult. But I don't know if it is true or not.

[pgrahmm]

Bedsheets & linens - best place is located in Baan Tawai (Soi 15?).......they supply the 5 star hotels in CM and it's all good-best quality (and we looked everywhere) at a reasonable price (somewhere in my posts I locked down the location - PM me and I can give a pretty accurate description).....

We had to buy for 2 guest beds + our linens.........about a year and going strong......it's good enough that I wouldn't consider going anywhere else.....better in fact than most found in the US. They told us they have their own mill and thus control quality.......top notch stuff.....

We had originally bought some at Big C and it was only OK although we read the packaging & studiously checked everything......

I know an earlier thread was devoted to this with some people going to BKK to find/buy = not necessary.....

Blenders, etc - Big C - Tesco Lotus ------> Macro possibly worth the first look.....

Edited October 26, 2013 by pgrahmm

[sbk]

I never buy appliances from Makro/Big C et al. - its usually some weird unknown brand that is impossible to fix - even if you don't take it to the store. go to a real appliance store with brand names you know and buy there.

[h90]

I never buy appliances from Makro/Big C et al. - its usually some weird unknown brand that is impossible to fix - even if you don't take it to the store. go to a real appliance store with brand names you know and buy there.

So far I had luck buying LG and Samsung while all the cheap things died fast.

Exception Mulinex is a good brand, but can't handle Thai Chili...

[arthurwait]

Except for the printer you will find all the list as previously mentioned in Robinsons/ central department store.

Only buy expensive bed linen or better still buy back in your own country. Most here are rubbish and start looking rubbish after a few washes.

Also as said, a lot of electricals in big c , makro are cheap Chinese rubbish although there are some decent brands.

Camera tripod , you could always try an independent as not much can go wrong with that.

[Frank James]

A quote from John Ruskin is apt here:

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

So much for Old School Philosophy. I have found that for appliances/electronics, my favorite place to go is Siam TV. They are tops at customer service, with a very knowledgeable staff. We bought a home theater system there, and that very day the sales guy brought it all to our home and rigged it all up very expertly in a very short time. Naturally we slid him a few baht for his work, and it was well worth it. Hooking up all of those wires behind dusty furniture is pure agony.

As for brands, you can't go wrong with Samsung and LG, both of whom have service centers in Chiang Mai. Regarding adding a set of ink tanks to a printer, that didn't work too well for me, but maybe I went to the wrong place. I am absolutely sure that there is price fixing on the cost for ink cartridges, as the price of Canon and HP cartridges is the exact same in USA and here. I like to print photos, and have found that refilled cartridges or the "tanks" just don't compare in quality to original inks...unfortunately. A full set of inks at retail is often the same as a new printer.

[arend]

Tesco on Super Highway - Like Walmart. Bought all my appliances there. Cheap to good quality. Items often on sale. Shopping around will not save you much esp considering the effort and gas. Not like States. Prices pretty standardized here. Tesco has a grocery section, so I shop there regularly and meander to appliance section to see what is on sale. Been lucky and gotten most of my stuff on sale. But your mobility and where you live are factors also. For small appliances I don't worry about warranties. They're cheap.

[Torrens54]

For printers, check out the many shops selling them at Pantip Plaza in CNX.

As others have pointed out, some of the least expensive printers cost a fortune in Ink re-fills. BUT... again, at Pantip there are places selling "clip-on" type Ink Wells which are long lasting and can be re-filled cheaply (including BLACK, which is what, Brother and other Manufacturers will rip you off with.)

Rimping Supermarkets are very good but some products, including Fruit and Veggies can be a tad expensive. Their Meat is excellent and worth paying a little more for. Some stuff is in fact cheaper than MACRO, so it pays to cross-check the prices. One thing I hate about MACRO, is the unsmiling people they have as you "Exit" the store and they check that everything in your trolley matches the receipt from the check-out. Okay, I understand they are trying to stop would-be "shop lifters" but...... the main guy at the door at MACRO Hangdong Road, has apparently never smiled in his life, he is in fact down-right RUDE and MACRO need to re-educate the Oaf! (Sorry, just had to get that off my chest as this guy is a very bad advertisement for MACRO, where most of the staff go out of their way to help and be polite.)

Appliances: HomePro stores and Robinson @ the Airport Plaza are both very good and we have found over many years, to be excellent on after-sales service.

Have fun!!!

Edited October 26, 2013 by Torrens54

[hellodolly]

On printer, specially look on the purchasing price and on the running costs.

There are super good printers very cheap but the ink/toner is extreme expensive.

Which isn't important if you print one page per week. But will if you print 100 page per day.

Agree on ink/toner being expensive....sometimes the refills cost about 1500/baht for color and black. Almost cheaper to just buy a new one....

An alternative though is to go to the IT center where ever you live and buy one of these converted printers with Ink wells on the side....not much more expensive.

I got a canon printer with the inkwells on the side for 2200 Baht...(Printer/scanner/copier).......

Not sure if you have a Makro in Chaing Mai but if there is ....they have good prices on lots of stuff.....worth a look

Don't know about the quality at Makro. Was looking for a good blender many around 1,500 baht. Had already burned one of those cheapo's out. So I looked in the Makro on the Super Highway and they had maybe 10 different ones with the costliest being in the 4,000 baht range. Copied all the information down and looked them up on Google they did not have a web site. Did not purchase them.

My advice listen to the posters here and check on the appliance ones on line to see what they are like.

Like has been said get a printer with the ink well on the side. I paid 800 baht to get one installed and full of ink four different colors.

Can't help with the rest.