The other day I forgot my electric toothbrush in
my London hotel room. I figured that because of the great competition in many
Chinese products markets, I would be able to buy one more cheaply when I would
arrive in China the following week. I had read about price wars in microwave
ovens, TV sets, etc. And did not Chinese manufacturers bring down theprice of solar panels to such a low level that Westerns firms went out of
business in larger numbers in the past few years. So yesterday I set out
to buy myself an electronic toothbrush. The prices at a large electronics store
in my neighborhood in Shanghai was shockingly high. Next I went online. Even
online the best deal I could find was substantially more expensive then in USA.
The same electric toothbrush (Oral-B Professional Healthy CleanPrecision 1000) on Amazon USA costs $39.99; on Amazon China it sells for US$ 78.28
(RMB 480). No wonder I am told exchange students are being asked to
bring electronic gadgets back from abroad. I wonder if I can find any high
quality Chinese imitations, as is the case in smartphones. In the meantime
I bought the expensive one on Amazon.cn.
