5. Chinese Arts and Crafts Ltd

I travel thru Hongkong very often and visit the CAC shop every time to purchase some of the nice things they got there. But their prices are way too high and the staff behave as if its the only place in town to buy authentic chinese merchandise. They should review their prices. Other than that its a fantastic store to browse around.

I am an Australian Expat having lived (if you can call it that) in Hong Kong for the past two years. My partner has been an avid weekend shopper during that period with a keen eye for Chinese goods. The prices in the Chinese Arts and Crafts (CAC) stores are ridiculous beyond any reasoning. A fired clay Buddha that cost us HKD 1,800 in a small store in Sheung Wan is marked HKD 28,000 in CAC! CAC always has discount posters stuck all around and the stupid sales people come over and read them for you as if you can't read them for yourself. Even at 50% discount the prices are 7 or 8 times too high. AND THE VERY WORST THING IS THAT THEY SELL ELEPHANT IVORY WITHOUT SHAME! When questioned about the ivory, one saleswoman in the Tsim Sha Tsui store told me that "the elephant was dead already" - yeah like cos it just got a bullet through its head. On another occasion a salesman attempting to sell two polished elephant tusks to a pig Chinese customer with a tape measure told me that the tusks were "old stock" - like so what! They should be restricted to the sale of Mammoth ivory. They are a pig of a store. I will never step inside again.