“It’s official. Apple has just announced the very first Hong Kong Apple store will be opening on this coming Saturday (September 24th),” Star Chang reports for M.I.C. Gadget.
“According to local Hong Kong media reports, this will be Apple’s most expensive store to date, spanning 20,000 square feet and two floors in a posh Hong Kong shopping mall, and it costs $20 million to build,” Chang reports. “The store counts as China’s sixth Apple Store, after two in Beijing and three in Shanghai. Yes, Shanghai will have three Apple store before HK store grand opening, their third store will be first to open this coming Friday (September 23th). However unlike on mainland China, consumers in Hong Kong do not have to pay a value-added tax (sales tax); in China, the sales tax on Apple products is a whopping 20 percent!”
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“On September 20th, Apple has pulled the curtains off!” Chang reports.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
We have to pay 20% VAT in the UK too 🙁
Here in California we pay 8.75% sales tax.
How come China charges 20% for Apple products? In USA we should charge extra 20% tariff on any China Brand product.
In Sweden VAT is 25%, sigh. In addition, buying some kind of storage media adds a collective punishment fee, since we all use these to pirate music etc.
In Oregon we have 0.00% sales tax.
I would pay 20% Vat in Kansas if I didn’t have to pay personal
property tax like the UK. I don’t think my VAT would add up to 3K+.
So… if you pay an extra tax for storage media because its assumed you’ll use it to pirate media, does that mean its OK to then pirate the media since you’ve now paid for it? hmmm….
That’s why they had that story where some smugglers were trying to send iPads on a clothesline across the border from the Hong Kong territories over to Shenzhen in Mainland China, to avoid the 20% tax. Amazon would love to have some of that margin.
Okay. Apple is just doing this for fun now. Apple doesn’t have enough products to make a store that big. Especially now that they have taken most (if not all) the software off the shelves. As cool as the store might be this is just ridiculous.
if you read the full article, you would know that only the first two floors are the actuall store. The other floors are for regional offices and enterprise sales.
It doesn’t matter if Apple even carries only 1 product to sell. The spacious store is to build to accommodate thousands of people who’re willing to go to the store.