Where do NYC-geeks shop?

[MBaas]

Hi,

in a few weeks I will be leaving my small german hometown and come to NYC for a couple of days. I was wondering if any NYC-geeks here could give some advice where one HAS to go for any cool gadgets?

I have already ordered two eVests which will be delievered to a friend in NY, so I don't have the huge shipping cost to europe. So what else is there? :D

Michael

[MBaas]

Could it be that NYC is so expensive that even the geeks have no money left for shopping?

Or aren't any NY-geeks reading PPT?

Or are they all too busy to respond?

:D

[dh]

Hey Michael, when I'm in New York I like to browse at J and R which is a large electronics retailer. Check them out at www.jandr.com There's a map of their location on the site, click the NYC Store button top right on the homepage. I've bought stuff from their website in the past and they seem a good business.

The various camera stores like 42nd Street Camera have some cool gadgets as well. I'm not sure how the prices compare. If you are only in town a couple of days, be warned that the camera shops tend to be owned by Jewish families and are usually closed on Saturdays.

A lot of people also buy gadgets at places like Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA. I'm not sure if they have locations in the city, never had a need to look. You can look at their websites to check for locations, or someone like Janak who works in the city would know.

If you haven't been to NY before, you are in for a treat. Great place to visit.

[MBaas]

Tx David. That's actually my first trip to NY (been to LA and SF before) and I'm really looking forward to it.
Will check out JandR, tx :D

Michael

[Janak Parekh]

Or aren't any NY-geeks reading PPT?
Sorry -- totally missed this thread.

dh is correct in suggesting about J&R -- down on Park Row, right next to City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, and Park Place. A full block of shopping -- about 10 stores -- with maybe 4 or 5 stores being full of electronics of every shape and size.

Another hotspot for electronics in Manhattan is around 38th and 5th -- there's CompUSA (www.compusa.com), DataVision (www.datavis.com), and a few other computing stores there. (CompUSA also has a store at 57th and Broadway, although I prefer the other one more.)

For photo equipment, it's hard to pass up B&H (www.bhphotovideo) on 34th and 9th, and then there's Sam Ash (www.samashmusic.com) for audio on 48th between Broadway and 7th, I think.

There are other, smaller stores, of course, but I rarely go to them. The irony is, I mostly buy my stuff online nowadays -- I find the prices in the city stores to be a bit more expensive, and only go there when I need something immediately. Of course, that may not be a possibility for you. Good hunting! :D Oh, and make sure to leave some time for tourism -- lots of stuff to see here. ;)

--janak

[Fishie]

I just returned from Manhattan a few days ago and yeah the best places have been mentioned here.

Warning, dont buy ANYTHING from the camera and electronics tourists traps, ive seen Zire 31s for 500$ in those places and they are known to sell counterfeit cameras etcetera as well.

Generally they have several counters with shady looking characters and sell stuff from cameras to laptops to cheap souvenirs to GPS devices and pens.

[Janak Parekh]

Warning, dont buy ANYTHING from the camera and electronics tourists traps
Good point. The #1 reason I don't go to the smaller shops is because I'm not guaranteed of the quality. They're all over the place, but I hardly notice them anymore. ;)

--janak

[rzanology]

J&R is most def the place you want to go. They could be a little over proced at times, but they're sure to have brand new items as soon as you're finish reading the reviews. As a matter of fact....give me the money...i'll go shopping for you! :wink:

[MBaas]

Thanks guys, that's helpful. But it seems times have really changed - for the good stuff and the cool prizes you go www., very convenient, but a totally different 'shopping-experience'.

I'm amazed that amazon.com is so aggressive in it's pricing, I found some very good CF-offers there - amazon.de doesn't do that (yet?) in such a measure.
Ordering from US is (in most cases) useless, since the possible price-advantage you get is eaten up by s&h. But fortunately I have a friend who would take care of parcels for me, so I ordered two Scottevests (fortunately the famous leather-vest was still available in my size) and CDs which give me enough reason already to look forward to that visit :D

I'll keep your advice in mind and will not buy from suspicious looking guys and/or small shops, but as it was mentioned, warranty might be an issue, so I'll probably do no major hardware investments anyway...

Cheers

Michael