Originally Posted by
Pickles
I bet you they are not there by choice. It's a classic scam with mainland Chinese tour groups, the stores give the tour guides kickbacks. In Hong Kong it is a huge source of friction because they force the tourists to buy something before they let them move on to the next location. In exchange, the Chinese get very low cost deals on hotel and airfare. It's all a scam.
Believe it or not, sometimes it's because it
is a deal compared to buying on the mainland. I remember when the 3rd-generation iPad first came out- I was living in China but headed to Osaka to take the GRE (thank you, US Airways credit card bonus). Classmates asked me to bring back iPads for them because the difference was so big that even meeting half-way I came out ahead some $60 each and so did they.
Also, there's a reason that every time I go to Japan with my sister we have to plan for at least one day going to shopping centers.