i went to walk around the street markets in hong kong last night. it is divided so there are several markets each focused on a specific category: electronics (the biggest), clothes, gold fish?! (these guys are weird in more way than one), food, and "all the rest".

being the impulsive shopper that i am i looked to buy a compact digital camera. i made the mistake of asking sellers what would they recommend. each one recommended a different model and bad mouthed models recommended by others (they all had good arguments..).

the amount of choice was overwhelming. so i found it hard to make a decision.. at the end i decided on a panasonic. now i assumed (like many other shoppers i suppose) that this type of market will offer very attractive pricing, especially that many of them have stickers claiming their products are not fake..

when i got the quotes and started to bargain i used my blackberry to access shopping.com and see what is the best price i can get for the product if i was shopping online in the US.

to my surprise the prices online in the US were ALWAYS cheaper than the prices in the market. only in one case i was able to get the seller to match the price (and throw in a bigger memory card), but he was out of stock…

when i got back to the hotel i checked the reviews for the camera, and was happy i didn't buy it..

this does not bode well for these small merchants. as mobile comparison shopping will hit the mass market (and it will) these guys will be left with very little or no margin. consumers will be smarter and will negotiate better. information is king.