Calculations Depot
Yes, we have CompUSA and MicroCenter here in Romania. Well, in a manner of speaking.
Literally, it translates to “the depository of calculators.” Bear in mind that calculate is a synonym of compute, so don’t allow yourself to unnecessarily trip up on subtleties. When localized for Americans, the phrase contextually means “computer store.” Sound familiar, stranger? Mosey on up and see the dry goods.
In Romania, we have just about everything you’d expect in the United States. DVD burners, wireless routers, CompactFlash cards, USB hubs, Canon color printers, AMD processors, Altec Lansing speaker systems, and even iPods. Some of the brands are unheard of, but others are the same names you know and trust.
You’d think that with Romania’s reputation for “cheap prices” on most anything from vegetables to outsourced Java programming (as well as the average monthly income hovering around $350 per month) that the stores would have some pretty killer bargains, eh, dude? Errrrrrr, wrong! Thanks for playing, Skippy.
I was a bit distraught when I first wandered into the meglomart down the street and noticed that digital cameras and rechargeable batteries seemed more expensive here than Stateside. I figured it must be a French thing and no one would be buying at this store. Another time, I wandered into the nearby Media Galaxy (attempted equivalent of BestBuy) and walked out after 3 minutes of currency conversions proved their prices were outrageous.
Surely, the straight out computer stores must offer better prices. I mean aside from a few rich folks who don’t shop prices as hard, there’s gotta be places were the majority of computer buyers go. I’ve seen a new chain of depozitul de calculatoare popping up in strategic places all over town called Ultra Pro. They advertise good prices and I’d thought I’d take a look at their modern desktop systems.
| Company | Amazon (US) | UltraPro (RO) | eBay (US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Athlon64 X2 3400+ | AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ | AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ |
| RAM | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| HDD | 250GB | 500GB | 500GB |
| DVD RW | Yes | Da | Yes |
| Video | On-Board | On-Board | Dual nVidia SLI cards |
| Price | $699.99 | $7,982.29 | $2,599.00 (or less) |
Can we say rip-off? You could buy 10 very similar computers from Amazon. Or, if you really needed the extra kick, you could actually buy two superior systems and pay to ship them all the way to Romania. But, why oh why, would you buy it from UltraPro?
I checked a number of their other prices for things like wifi access points and SD memory, but all the prices were ridiculously expensive for even the shady-looking brands. Let’s not forget that sales tax here is 19% (not the typical 8% of much of America). When you do the math, it’s a joke, y’all.
Let’s cast our net even wider and see what we catch, mmm?
| NewEgg (US) | UltraPro (RO) | Buy.com (US) | Caro (RO) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altec Lansing MX5021 | $139.00 | $271.76 | $134.99 | $254.46 |
| ATI Radeon X1900 XTX | $539.00 | $709.11 | $519.99 | $715.46 |
| 1GB DDR2 CL4 RAM | $55.99 | $185.77 | $93.99 | $125.82 |
I could go on and on, but I’m not here to set up a price comparison system. I just wanted to point out that prices in Romania are inordinately high. Combine that with significantly lower incomes and I start to become darn surprised as many people own computers as they do.
Given, the majority may still be the old rickety PIII boxen running pirated copies of Windows 95 in your local smoked-out internet cafe… but maybe that’s just the old stereotype still clinging to life instead. I do know more and more folks are getting online in Romania. Computer sales are up. I just can’t figure out how you’d do it here without spending a significant portion of income because the local sellers charge unbelievably high prices (when they very likely don’t have to).
So, prieteni meu, spill the beans. If you know where decent prices are, where y’all shopping? Or should someone start a discount co-op?
May 18th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
The poorer population buys second hand computers- at least over here. Middle class buys the new ones “in rate” - just like most of everything priced over 10 million ROL.
May 18th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
A few comments:
– ‘depozit’ means something like ‘warehouse’ rather than ‘depository’.
– the average wage is higher than $150, in March 2006, it was 828 RON, $300 gross, ~$250 after tax (the minimum is 330 RON, i.e. $120). Officially, Bucharesters get on average a hundred or two dollars more than the rest of the country, but everyone knows that most of the wage is off the records to avoid the taxes: for example, for a net wage of €1000, (common in software industry), the company would have to pay about another €1000 in taxes…
– the prices for electronics are often much higher than in the States. I occasionally buy electronics from the US and sometimes the price of the item + shipping + customs is still much smaller than the price in the shops in here. (I tried searching for the same stuff in the EU, to avoid custom taxes, but in the EU, the items are almost as expensive as in Romania, so there’s no gain).
– unless you do video editing, you don’t need a very powerful CPU. Save your money for 2 GB of RAM instead. :-)
May 18th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Shrinkette - I guess the internet cafes are part of the poorer population. Teasing aside, I’ve come to understand that many net cafes barely make enough to pay the rent plus a couple cheap employees. I suspect many of them will disappear soon (as incomes rise).
Bogdan - Depository is an interchangeable word with warehouse. The former shares the same root word as Romaneste, whereas the latter is more widely used.
You’re absolutely right about wages and I’ve corrected my piece. I had a mental slip and quoted an approximation of the minimum wage. My apologies. But on the subject of taxes, I feel they are unnecessarily high. Basescu’s flat tax of recent years has been a very positive thing and I am encouraged by Tariceanu’s vocual rebuffing of EU calls for an increase. Romania should stay with a flat tax and even lower it, effectively leading the way for the old guard of Western Europe to realize the error of their ways. One need look no farther than Ireland.
Yes, I’ve had a number of conversations with friends about the options for shipping from the US. It’s relatively easy for me to get packages here. And the possibility to skirt (ridiculously and insanely high) custom duties sometimes presents itself to make the overseas option even more beneficial. Even with tariffs, I agree there are many times when it’s better to buy from the US. But, that’s sad. Very.
In age of YouTube, who doesn’t do video editing? Bah, I’m just joshing here. I don’t do much editing of video. What little I do is easily accomplished on the last generation of PC and/or Mac. If video were more central to my life or income, I would probably invest in a new machine, but not from Ultra Pro (my favorite punching bag for puke-worthy gouging).
RAM, RAM, RAM! No arguments there! Just make sure you have a mobo that can handle more than two measily gigs.
May 18th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
i got irritated by visitors bitching about prices in budapest, so, now, i just tell them that hungary is more expensive than the states… and unless you are talking about groceries, rent, or medical care (which most vistors won’t really experience), then this statement is damn near true… electronics, decent clothes, decent furniture, fancy meals, elaborate cocktails, and the like are all more expensive than in the states… (and i’m not even considering the extra markup on tourist avenue!!) last time i told some visitors this slight exaggeration about what to expect, i didn’t hear one sour word from them… instead, they were pleasantly surprised when big beers were $2.50usd…
-alec
oh… shit… i forgot about CARS!! pfft… yeah… just try buying something besides a flintstone car… aka: i never knew nissan made a $55,000 stock pathfinder!!
May 19th, 2006 at 4:12 am
Oh, prices have decreased lately. Taxes were quite higher before 2001-2002. Many people buy their stuff in “rate” or “pe credit”, with an astonishing interest rate short of an arm and a leg (something like 12% per year plus processing fee plus banking commissions plus yet another invented tax plus…). Even more, many Romanians buy their computers from Metro, Carrefour of Cora, that are basically selling it 5-10% more expensive than specialized retailers (such as “Depozitul” or “Ultrapro”). However, these shops are frowned upon by “connaiseurs”. They tend to stock only low end stuff, and sell unbalanced configurations with lame warranties and a huge seal on the rear of the computer to prevent you from opening it up to do a simple upgrade (vendor lock-in, and they actually admit to practising it). Plus they have lame post-sale support and moronic vendors paid with minimum wage that usually can’t tell apart DDR from SDR. At least in Bucharest we tend to either use small neighborhood shops, where everybody knows the owner, or go to a “high end” place (i use caro or emag), that besides e-commerce, have retail outlets (where you actually don’t have to stand in a queue and you actually get a knowledgeable consultant to torment for as much as you like, where you don’t see dusted computer bits-and-pieces on shelves AND where they give you a nice chair to sit on while discussing your shopping list with the consultant). Of course, 90% of Romanians wishing to buy a computer can’t use such “specialized” places as their main way to buy a computer is pointing to a case (they don’t care what’s inside) and saying “i want that one” - most have zero knowledge.
Oh, and by the way, most people don’t consider either Ultra Pro or Depozitul de calculatoare as the worst computer shop, but Flamingo, known pejorativeley as “Pasaroiu’ Roz” or “Blamingo” for it’s blatant incompetence in everything. Note - Flamingo is the first multinational to start out in romania. They have spread their tentacles as far as Holland, Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria… Oh, guess what the other Romanian multinational is - RDS (tormenting net users in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Since 1998)…
Romanians usually buy computers according to fashion. One year it was fashionable to have a big, bulky processor. And Ultra Pro, Best et. al. stocked PIV’s at 2.6 GHz with 128 MB RAM and 40 Gigs hard drive for the masses - the processor was more expensive than everything else combined). Another year, everybody wanted “video cards”… And so on. A very nice thing happens post-sale. The guy owning the local area network aka “tipu’ cu reteaua” is invited to see the “new computer” and baptize it ie. install a pirated copy of Windows XP professional, odc/dc++, mirc and an anti-virus, and, of course, make the honors of connecting it to the local “manele net” for low speed broadband and high speed p2p for manele and pirated movies usually filmed in chinese cinemas. If you tell them (the “tipu cu reteaua” that is) about “linux”, “bsd” or “apple” they ask you “are them new games?”.
PS : A lot of people that buy laptops usually buy them from dubious bootlegers bringing laptops ‘pe sub mana’ from Germany (or so the bootlegers say - many are actually stolen merchendise from a truck somewhere in Romania).
May 19th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
I like to sum it up to my American friends this way. You can get cheap housing, cheap food and vacation in Romania for very little money, but stay away from buying clothes, electronics and the like. Import taxes have been ridiculously high and the debate on taxing digital cameras for example has been raging for the past few years. I don’t know where it stands right now but last I paid any attention (back in 2005) they were about to be reintroduced and pushed up to 30 percent.
What is fascinating in that the market is moving so slow and that the government is still succesful at restricting flow. It’s mind blowing that they believe they can raise taxes on goods and actually make money when most consumers will indeed prefer to buy from abroad.
I wholeheartedly support buying computer parts from “that guy” or letting the neighborhood computer geek assemble you one rather than letting some big-box retailers shove it down my throat.
May 19th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Alec - I’m still okay with the fancy meal prices most of the time (on those infrequent outings). Furniture? Good lord! It’s no wonder there are so many furniture stores in Romania all managing to make zillions. Shit howdy, all ya gotta do is sell ONE of them suckers and you getta retire! And I thought Mattress Mack was doin’ well…
How can you diss the old cars, though? I love all the old Fiats, some of the Skodas, and this 1963 Renault on my block. I’ve been itching for sometime now to get my hand on a Trabant. Those little cars get discarded like so much kleenex around here, but I think they’re cute. A little TLC is all they need. Chrome it out, darken the windows, paint it jet black with some flames down the front of it, lift kit on the back axle, and dualies… hell yes!
jc - Decreased? Say it ain’t so! I guess I’ll have to surrender on this point of “in rate” that both y’all talked about. In the US, a few people do that, but it’s gotta be like 10% or less of all buyers. Heck, I’d guess like 5% of Americans (but I never worked for Dell). I suppose many Romanians see it as the only way to get a decent machine and they just aren’t willing to wait to save up the cash instead. I tell ya, financing and credit is the golden road to riches, kids! If you buy anything other than real estate using a loan, you’re a sucker.
I haven’t see anyone (yet) buying from Carrefour, but I know what you’re talking about. They probably sell a goodly number of POS boxes and the salesman is some wired up nerd who doesn’t know jack about his merchandise. “Da, da, just buy it. It’s, like, foarte fast… or whatever.” They seal the back of the machine? That’s soooooo planned absolence. Lemme guess, the buyer is told it’s for his safety against electrical fires?!
Thanks for the tip on eMag. I forgot about them. Wide selection of products. So, they’re fairly decent as far as these things go, then, eh? It’s like the mafia over here. Oh, oops… my bad.
Okay, so, we’ve all heard it here (if you didn’t know already, like me) that Flamingo is the junk dealer. I’ll be sure to steer clear of those guys. Their website is easily the best (clean design, fast loading). I love the name “Blamingo” as it works most readily for me… but I suspect Pasaroiu Roz is more common. Thanks for the insider info; that’s gold!
On trends, hopefully the next stampede will be toward dual-core AMD procs and RAM, RAM, RAM. (Yeah, it’ll probably be something silly like the number of USB ports.)
Baptize, hahaha. That’s classic. So, what is the deal with DC++ around here? Seems like the app of choice for late night pirates hoping to chat with chicks. I think encrypted torrents are the way to go for any kind of cutlass wielding bit exchanges.
Cristian - Clothing is a matter of shopping here. You could head toward your local Target ;] aka Tsigane and get a real bargain in cheap Turkish clothes with designer labels. But when you’re right, you’re right. There are some things here that are just ridiculously expensive… almost as if the ex-communist PSD cartels were purposely trying to raise the barrier to keep certain goods exclusive to their feudalistic cabal. Serfs don’t need to surf, et al.
The Romanian government should bend over backwards to rescind and abolish every possible tax, tariff, import, duty, or other fees attached to any kind of consumer-oriented technology hardware, including (but not limited to) computers, digital SLRs, wifi networking devices, and so forth. A total moratorium locked in for 5 years. Hands off! Foster that precious economic growth around technology and let Romania rocket to the forefront of the region and EU in general. I firmly believe the talent is here…
It’d be like Adam said to Eve, “Stand back, honey. There’s no telling how big it’s gonna get…”
May 20th, 2006 at 2:47 am
These matters have been on my mind for too long. If the Goverment doesn’t step in, no one will? If the talent is here, where’s that entrepreneur who will promote the long-term winnings vision where customers also get some?
May 20th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Which of my readers is a loan officer at a bank? I’ll draft a solid business plan in under a week. Together, we’ll make a Partnership for the Advancement of Romania.
Which of my readers is an experienced lobbyist? Don’t worry, I’m very familiar with the budget for these things…
Cheekette - Someone could step in and make a profitable difference even without the government’s help. However, I’ll admit it would be much easier if PNL (let’s attack them, shall we?) actually worked for its supposed convictions regarding a freeish economy instead of supporting the PSD (equal attack opportunity, I say) protectionist rackets.
For all the good that’s been happening, there’s still some issues left where these bozos drop the ball so much I’d like to clean their clock in a face to face philosophical exchange (where they can whine about “realities” and I can remind them that such things are to be created, not feared).