Interesting to see HID lamps sold in retail stores over there though, you can only get them from electrical wholesalers here, although even quite a few of them now only stock LED, I know an electrician who has to buy HID kit from eBay to supply his customers
I believe they only switched to blister packs in the last 3 years or so. For the longest time, HID lamps were in cardboard boxes and I guess theft and people swapping dead lamps in made them switch to blister packs for the retail HID lamps.
Over here finding HID in retail is pretty hit or miss. Some stores still stock a fairly full selection of HID but some stopped stocking them or only stock commonly used lamps like the 70w HPS lamp. I haven't bought a HID lamp at a wholesaler in over a year but last time I did they were able to special order the lamp I was looking for (a 50w clear MV) and didn't try to up sell me to anything else.
Well, all the packs where theft protected, says it on the bottom right hand corner of the package. I wonder if they gonna use same thing for fluorescent tubes, because they also get swapped.
Interesting to see HID lamps sold in retail stores over there though, you can only get them from electrical wholesalers here, although even quite a few of them now only stock LED, I know an electrician who has to buy HID kit from eBay to supply his customers
Over here finding HID in retail is pretty hit or miss. Some stores still stock a fairly full selection of HID but some stopped stocking them or only stock commonly used lamps like the 70w HPS lamp. I haven't bought a HID lamp at a wholesaler in over a year but last time I did they were able to special order the lamp I was looking for (a 50w clear MV) and didn't try to up sell me to anything else.