Midtown Manhattan as a discount center....e.g., for electronics

For years and years, tourists have shopped in Midtown Manhattan, looking for bargains for all kinds of goods...especially such items as digital cameras ( unless they are Asian, who are already well equipped that way).

Apropos of nothing, just heard a broadcast on NPR about the horrible conditions some Chinese workers suffer under....one woman was allowed to join a union,(to her surprise), but when she had a complaint she was immediately fired-- and, she discovered, put on this huge "Blacklist" that the Chinese companies share with each other to make sure they never hire anybody who may be a potential "troublemaker."

There was also one old Chinese man who had had his hand deformed working in a factory that produced ipads for Apple. The reporter who spoke to him happened to have one and showed it to him...he said the old man's eyes lit up when he saw it turned on...he had never seen one in operation!!

The last American electronics firm to hold out at all from the Asian onslaught was, I believe, Motorola...think some Asian company owns that name now.

Just a little something from the internet about discount stores in Manhattan--

Bill would bag phony-purse buyers

By JOHN DOYLE

Last Updated: 11:05 AM, April 26, 2011

Posted: 12:46 AM, April 26, 2011

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EXCLUSIVE

Pretty soon, it could be more than just the fashion police who have a problem with your shoddy knockoff bag, like this bogus Louis Vuitton.
Buyers could face a year in jail or a $,1000 fine under a proposed bill by a city councilwoman fed up with cheapskate tourists and Big Apple residents flooding her district in search of fake designer merchandise.
"We don't want to be known as the place to come to get counterfeit goods," said Councilwoman Margaret Chin, whose Chinatown district is ground zero for counterfeiters.
Under Chin's bill, which is being introduced Thursday, shoppers caught buying any counterfeit product could be jailed or slapped with a fine of $1,000 -- a little less than the price of Marc Jacobs' frequently copied Baroque Quilting Mini Stam bag, which retails for $1,250.

"It's a very big problem," Chin said of the counterfeit market. "People are still coming, and the industry is growing, and we have to stop the demand. We need people to know that they are feeding this demand."