SLS? Kill people set fire (in Cantonese, Hokkien or Chinese)
Many yrs ago, I was at SLS looking for a DSLR. Had my eyes on the Olympus E-dunno which model liao and the salesmen quoted me $1099. I told him the Courts is having promotion at $999 with freebies thrown in and he immediately lowered his price to $899 with all the free stuff. Seeing that I can get a $100 discount, I proceeded to try the camera but was having 2nd thoughts as the camera user interface and focusing seems laggy in my opinion. I told the salesman that I need to consider and without 2nd thoughts, he offered me a new price of $799 with all the free stuff! $1099 to $799 within 15mins!!!
Just as I was contemplating if I should take the bait, two Filipino tourists stepped into the shop and requested to test the same camera that I was holding. When they were quoted $1099 but the salesman with all the free stuff, their reply was in consensus "Cheap cheap"! Without 2nd thoughts, one of them whipped out his credit card and bought the camera...
After both the tourists had left, I had a chat with the salesman and he told me that this is their way of doing business in SLS. Rental is high and they have to sell high to the foreigners in order to earn a decent profit. Singaporeans are always comparing and bargaining so unless they dun have a choice, they will always choose to entertain tourists rather than us. Our "carrot" is too small for them to spend efforts on... haha