Electronic stores in Tampere...

[Ninja]

I don't specifically need an electronic store but it might have what I'm looking for.

I'm looking to purchase a laser printer in the area and have it delivered preferably. I checked Giganti but they've only gotten a few models and the printer/scanner (as I'm looking for) is quite large, looks mainly designed for small office work.

Would anybody have any good recommendations for something like this in the area?

Any other stores you frequent to make electronic/techy type purchases?

I would like to use Amazon or something like that, but it doesn't seem like Finland is the easiest place to reach for many major website retailers from what I've read so far.

I'm not currently in the area or familiar with the stores (American myself) so I'm just looking for any tips from a local or someone that does online electronic ordering and such.

Thanks.

[Jukka Aho]

I don't specifically need an electronic store but it might have what I'm looking for.

I'm looking to purchase a laser printer in the area and have it delivered preferably. I checked Giganti but they've only gotten a few models and the printer/scanner (as I'm looking for) is quite large, looks mainly designed for small office work.

Would anybody have any good recommendations for something like this in the area?

Triosoft has stores in Tampere and Lempäälä. See the Myymälät (“Stores”) section on the right-hand sidebar.

Verkkokauppa.com has a store in Pirkkala.

Clas Ohlson has stores in downtown Tampere and in the IdeaPark mall in Lempäälä. (Type “Tampere” in the search box on this page and see the results below the map.)

Then there are generic home electronics / appliances chains such as Tekniset, Musta Pörssi, Expert, Markantalo, etc. in every major city. The chain you already mentioned, Gigantti, falls to this category.

The largest supermarkets (K-Citymarket, Anttila, Prisma) typically carry a limited selection of computer peripherals and supplies as well, but they’re a bit of hit-and-miss for anything more specialized.

Any other stores you frequent to make electronic/techy type purchases?

As for actual electronics components, Bebek would come to mind for Tampere. Check out this list of other such stores. (Although not located in Tampere, Vaasan elektroniikkakeskus is pretty good as well for online orders... and they list their entire catalog also in English.)

Try Hintaseuranta.fi and Vertaa.fi, both of which are Finnish price comparison sites. You might be able to find some reasonable suggestions for other stores that way. Lots of people order online from the local companies such as Jimms, Multitronic, or the aforementioned Verkkokauppa.com.

I would like to use Amazon or something like that, but it doesn't seem like Finland is the easiest place to reach for many major website retailers from what I've read so far.

Not sure what you mean by that. I’ve ordered stuff from eBay, DealExtreme, Amazon, various German online retailers found via German price comparison sites (such as idealo.de), etc. with no problems. Of course there are e.g. American retailers which do not deliver abroad, but in Europe, you would often want to check the local versions of the sites (such as eBay.de, eBay.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk) and stores located within the EU area (such as Thomann.de, Pixmania.com etc.) first, as staying inside the EU borders saves you from the trouble of calculating the possible customs duties/taxes, or having to deal with customs at all. But people order stuff from abroad (both within the EU borders and outside of them) all the time.

Germany, in particular, is a popular country to order online from as it is within the EU (so no customs), the currency is the same (unlike in the UK), you can usually pay online via ordinary bank/wire transfer (the same way as you would generally pay in a Finnish online store, using your e-banking account instead of credit cards or PayPal, which many Finns view as funny suspicious things when compared to “normal” banking), the economics of scale are right (because there are lots of German-speaking customers to begin with), and the electricity and the plugs are the same. (The downside, for some, is you need to know German... or at least learn it enough to manage placing an order. Then again, many Finns have studied German at school as their third non-native language after English and Swedish, and Google Translate and a dictionary will help...)

Of course, when ordering online from a local company (or buying direct from a brick-and-mortar store), their pricing might still be competitive when factoring in the delivery surcharges, the speed of delivery (when they have the item in stock) and the ease and cost of dealing with returns and warranty issues.

[riku2]

I bought a Samsung CLP-415N which for a colour laser printer is really small. I already had a bigger black/white laser printer although that was more the "small office" type you mentioned.

I bought it from amazon.uk, it was 120 pounds. In Finland at discount computer stores it's 300e. This gives an idea of the difference in prices. Amazon would not deliver it to finland though, i had it sent to a relatives house and bought it back after a trip to the UK. They will post other things like monitors and other peripherals.

The toner price is quite shocking though. It takes 4x cartridges and they are about 60 pounds each. So a full set will be 2x the price of the printer itself!! This is quite outrageous really and the "small office" type I have is much more reasonable. The toner cost would be about 1/3 the price (comparing b/w printing on both printers) or 1/12 the price if you compare colour pages on the colour printer with b/w pages on the bigger printer.

Jukka gave some good tips. I don't remember the last time I bought electronics items in Finland. I get them all either from amazon uk, amazon.de (for reasons he mentioned) or while on trips. Samsung galaxy tab 10.1: 280e at saturn in munich, 349e at gigantti in finland.

I've had no trouble with sales to Finland. Some amazon uk merchants will not ship outside the uk but they don't specifically pick on finland. Main reason for choosing amazon.de is the different products - like the blu ray hard disk recorder I bought (not sold in the UK or Finland) or the krups toaster.
So much comes via post now, I have been buying duracell batteries from ebay, LED light bulbs from conrad.de, the other half has been buying shoes from germany at under half the price of Finland.

Finnish retailers don't seem to be hit by the internet as much as in the UK - finns are a bit reluctant to get out their credit cards for some reason. Click-and-collect is arriving although somewhat slowly. Probably the language is also an issue for some finns though since bigger European retailers can't be that bothered about a pip squeak market of 5m people speaking a different language to everyone else. The book market shows similar behaviour - e books and online sales of books is years behind what happened in other countries.

[Ninja]

Thanks for the feedback guys

[Keravalainen]

Hi!
I have used Markantalo for home electronics a few times, because they nowadays have free delivery. It's a sister company of Gigantti, and it only operates on the net. They deliver fast from their central warehouse in Sweden. www.markantalo.fi