Today was opening day for the long-awaited Panafoto. John and I gave the new, young staff two full hours to get their act together before we descended on the store, waiving our credit cards and yelling “I’ll take that…and that….and THAT! WRAP IT ALL UP!!!!”
Okay, truth be told, John and I had been to the Price Smart down the street and as we were heading home we saw that Panafoto had finally opened for business, so we pulled in to check it out.
Located at the intersection of the road from Boquete to David on the Pan American Highway, this new electronics shop carries everything you ever wanted that either runs via an electric plug or operates on batteries. (Hey, it’s not THAT kind of shop with THOSE kinds of batteries, you kinky weirdos! I mean things like cameras, cell phones, laptops….get it?)
So we go trotting in there, just wanting to compare a few prices on things. OMG, the second we set foot in there, the staff descended upon us like a swarm of locusts. “Hola! Bienvenidos! Te ayude?” “No, lo siento, solo mirando.” Okay, my spanish still sucks, but basically they said “Hello, welcome! May I help you?” And we said, “No, sorry, only looking.” If I got it wrong, I welcome your letters.
Right in front, like everywhere else, they’ve got man’s best friend: 55″ big screens with HD. You have to get past those to get to most everything else: computers: Toshiba, Dell, HP, and –gasp!– all things Macintosh!!. My heroes!
When I need an iPad, I will check them out!
Cameras, phones, appliances, printers, scanners, stereos. Anything for the kitchen is in this store. Cables, plugs, accessories, headsets, phone covers. Information overload.
If I'm not mistaken, I think that's a serger on the right, correct?
Of course we had no intention of buying anything, until John remembered: “Hey, wait, we need a cord to go from your Mac to the TV!” Yay, the salesman who had been tailing us, Hugo, finally had a sale from us! We were his very first customer and he learned how (at our expense) to operate the store computer for the first time. And all for a $9.00 sale!
Selling is like at Best Buy: the sales person hands you an ‘invoice’. You take it to the counter to pay for it. After payment, they hand it over to a different set of people and they disappear into the back for a few minutes and then magically re-appear with the item you wanted.
John paying for our big $9 cord purchase....
Now, I’ve never been a comparison shopper, so I really am going to rely on my new Boquete friends to write about pricing. But I DO have one comparison. Before John and I moved down here, I bought a small Sony digital camera with a Carl Zeiss lens at Target. It was regularly priced at $149.99 (on sale for $99 for me). I saw them in a display case at Panafoto and they were priced at $225. You make the call.
Panafoto taken from TGI Friday's across the street
Anyway, if you get a chance, run down the road (watch out for emerging pot holes!) to David, spend some time in Panafoto and then go eat a mundane lunch for too much money at the TGI Friday’s on the corner!
Love my iPad!
Hi Robyn,
We arrived in Boquete today and it sure feels good to be back. As a matter of fact I’m using an iPad to send this to you -thank God for all things Apple! We’ll be here for 10 days so we hope to meet you guys. By coincidence we saw Panafoto today (we were at El Rey) but I didn’t know they just opened yesterday. Well, if you see this comment in the next few days come find us. Jeff will know where we are as we are staying about a 5 minute walk from his house.
Regards to you and John,
Bruce and Nicole