Shopping

It's very hard to shop happily here when you are used to very excellent service, convenience and consistent prices as well as good bargains without the use of excessive haggling like the way a village housewife would do at the fish monger's...

Bargaining is a part of Malacca locals' nature which proliferated in most goods ranging from boutique clothes, IT gadgets and sometimes even economy rice. 

FASHION FINDS

If you are used to walking into boutiques with quiet elegance, neatly arranged displays and ample walking space where the other shopper won't brush against you, the closest shops which will be able to give you such an experience are Braun Buffel, MANGO, UNIQLO, ESPRIT, Charles & Keith and H&M. 

Other shops that carry well-known / well-advertised brands are quite messy as they often overstock due to bringing in the wrong / unwanted items and they have a tendency to fill the shop to the brim like a sardine can. It would be best if you can temper your expectations. 

However, if you enjoy walking through rows and rows of shops with fashion items that you will not wear to college/university or even your workplace in your modern first world city, there are plenty of very unusual designs with low quality materials in tiny sizes (RM25 and below per piece) for you to experiment at a famous link bridge shopping area. It is reminiscence of the old Haji Lane at Singapore in the mid 2000s where many design students flood the lane with their project attempts. 

Take a look at the Malacca fashion finds photos here!


IT FINDS

There has been two unsuccessful attempts to build an IT mall at Malacca -- one attempt by the government at Plaza Hang Tuah (where the building has been now converted to a government office building) and another by the private sector at Bandar Hilir which has now been converted to a regular mall.  

With the numerous small traders in the malls here, it's quite convenient for a tourist to buy something of need eg an extra SD card for mobile or cameras. 

It's not advisable to buy other IT devices here as there are many unknown or new IT brands here and every shop salespersons will tell you that their product has no problems. Quite a number of basic IT goods here may spoil in less than 6 months to a year and the locals here are used to having such substandard goods as they will fork out time to keep revisiting the quiet shops to find out why the IT gadget that they have bought has malfunctioned. 

There are also many shops which are able to assist in doing simple repairs but they take days to finish not hours (unlike Singapore). Unless you are holidaying here for a week, the best is not to let your broken IT gadget spoil your holiday mood.  

Last updated on November 2014.