🚀 go-pugleaf

It's my impression that many if not MOST of the electronics stores in mid town 
are dubious and likely to be just traps for the unsuspecting tourist.  

"Bait and switch" is just one of the scams.  Adding on, as an extra charge, 
peripherals that should be included with an item is another.  Trying to sell 
the customer batteries and other accessories at greatly inflated prices is 
another.  Selling reconditioned or previously owned merchandise as new 
merchandise is another.

I once worked as a salesman at Grand Central Cameras for a few months.  In 
order to get the job there I was given a lie-detector test.  Once I 
started working for them they trained me and the other new sales-staff in how 
to bait and switch products.  This deception and other fraudulent sales 
behaviour was, to the best of my knowledge, practised by all the 
staff there.  Ironically, many of the staff and management there were 
religious and went off to pray several times a day before coming back to lie 
and cheat their customers.  After a while I couldn't take it anymore and quit.

I have seen the same types of people (draw your own conclusions as to my 
meaning) selling with the same scams at many many electronics stores in 
Manhattan.  There must be HUNDREDS of electronics sales-staff who spend their 
days lying to, and ripping off, unsuspecting tourists and very naive New 
Yorkers.

It appears that MOST of those stores on Fifth Avenue that sell electronics and 
also Persian rugs and china and vases and all that other stuff are suspect.  
Come to think of it, those types of stores with those typres of 
sales-practises are ALL OVER.  Be very, very careful.  Stick to a big store 
like J&R or CompUSA or one of those.  I guess some people don't sense the 
deception in the air when they walk in, but I'm telling you, every day, 
thousands and thousands of times, all over Manhattan it's like flies getting 
caught in the web and the spider walks over to "help" them.