Categories
Shopping

Shop Alshaya Brands Online

Alshaya has been quickly working on moving all their businesses online and as of today below are all the brands available to order from:

Online Sites
Bath & Body Works
Foot Locker
H&M
Mothercare
Potterybarn

Online Catalogs (Whatsapp Ordering on 1821212)
& Other Stories
AOC
Aveda
Boots
Charlotte Tilbury
Claire’s
Clinique
COS
Debenhams Cosmetics
Dr Vranjes
Etude House
Harvey Nichols Cosmetics
Harvey Nichols Ramadan
Jo Malone
Justice
Kurt Geiger
MAC
Milano
Miss Selfridge
Monki
Muji
Next
NYX
Oasis
Payless
The Body Shop
Top Shop
Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s Secret Pink
Vavavoom
Vision Express

I really really like the idea of the online catalogs but only those my age or older might understand why. Back in the 80s before online shopping, the way we used to shop from the US was by mail-order. I think that’s how Aramex Shop & Ship started because they had this service as well. We used to get these large fat mail-order catalogs of US brands like Sears, JC Penny, Lands’ End etc.. and you’d place an order by mail and receive it a few months later. Very nostalgic.




Categories
Shopping

True Value is Online

Everything is moving online! Link

Thanks MNS




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

Hot Quarantine Commodity: Hair Trimmers

If you’re a guy during quarantine right now you’re either on the way to looking like Tom Hanks on Castaway, or you’ve most likely already purchased a hair trimmer and are buzz cutting your hair through the lockdown. For the latecomers, you need to decide which direction you’re headed because like with gym equipment, it’s becoming harder and harder to find a good hair trimmer in the market. I lucked out on this since I bought my hair trimmer around 8 years or more ago and barely ever used it. It was gathering dust until they shut down the barbers but I cleaned it up and the battery surprisingly held up over time so I’ve been buzz cutting my hair on a weekly basis now.

Aljothen who are the dealers for Moser brand are completely out of stock of hair trimmers while Xcite who usually carries a large number of trimmers from different brands is also out of stock.

Your best bets right now are the following options:

Best Electronics
They carry Panasonic brand of trimmers which is what I own and love. Their website shows they still have trimmers in stock but I think they’re having major issues with their online orders. A friend ordered a mini-fridge around 10+ days back and she was charged for it but the order never showed up on their system and she hasn’t gotten the fridge yet. According to their customer support which are also impossible to get a hold of, all their accountants are stuck in Jleeb so she can’t even get a refund. Too much drama, but they do have a good selection so order at your own risk. Update: Other people are reporting the same issue, ordering and paying for items but never receiving them.

Blink
They carry a few hair trimmers in between all their beard trimmers including a few Babyliss ones. I ordered an item from them recently and they delivered it the next day. They seem to deliver all their items the next day so if you’re content with their small selection and want it quick, they’re the place to get it from. Link

Eureka
They carry Panasonic and Babyliss brand of trimmers and still have stock. I haven’t tried ordering anything from them so no idea how they’re performing during the pandemic. Link

If you have any other places that have hair trimmers in stock let me know and I’ll add it to the list.




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

Ace Hardware and Bloomingdales Now Online

This couldn’t have come at a better time, over the weekend I was working on my Alfa and realized I needed some tools that I didn’t have. I was trying to figure out where I could get them from when a friend messaged me to tell me that Ace Hardware was now online. I checked their Instagram account and didn’t find anything about it but when I did a google search I found AceKuwait.com

The first day I couldn’t order anything since it seems there was an issue with their website but I tried again yesterday and it worked. I think they’re still in a soft launch phase which is why they haven’t announced it.

Then over the weekend I also found out the Bloomingdale’s website was now live as well. I was looking for Grown Alchemist hand creams since Etheco were sold out and ended up at the Bloomingdales website. They also were out of Grown Alchemist hand creams but they’re stocked up on other brands.

It’s pretty impressive how both these places were able to adapt and move their stores online in such a short period of time. I know West Elm is also coming online pretty soon and other than that maybe the only other place I’d like to see go online is probably Sephora. Hand sanitizers are drying up my hands a lot so all I have been doing is buying different hand creams and hand masks to counter the effects. Oh and if Bin Nisf moved online that would also be great.

What store do you want to see online?

Note: The Aafaq Bookstore website is now working and you can use the code KAFD for free delivery in Kuwait except for Sabah Al-Ahmad residential area and Ali Sabah Al-Salem.

Update: Bin Nisf just went online a few hours ago, perfect timing! Link




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

Local Shopping Websites are Overwhelmed

One thing I’ve noticed recently is a lot of people complaining about the slow service of many online local businesses. People ordering items and having it take longer than expected to be delivered, people complaining about items being out of stock or even complaining about slow customer support.

People really need to chill a bit because these aren’t normal circumstances.

Before the pandemic, local shopping websites weren’t being used a lot. Sure you had some exceptions but majority of the sales were done at the store and a lot of businesses didn’t even have an online option. But, because of the lockdown, a lot of the places were forced to shift their business online. So imagine having an infrastructure meant to handle 10 online orders a day and now they have to handle 100 or 1,000 orders a day. Imagine if you had just one delivery car for those rare occasions someone would order online and now suddenly you’re getting 100 orders a day. And now imagine the stores that were never online to begin with and had to scramble to set up an online store quickly so they can try and survive this situation. Those guys never had the time to practice or experience online orders before being flooded with them. Everyone is overwhelmed, even giants like IKEA are struggling to cope with the influx of online orders to the point they had to post a message apologizing to their customers. Supermarkets, electronic stores, makeup stores, gaming stores, everyone got caught by surprise.

Add to that a lot of businesses are also operating with a reduced timeframe because of the curfew and some businesses are operating with a reduced workforce. This is why whenever I order anything locally I’m not even following up or asking when the items will be delivered. I know they’re all working as quickly as possible to get the order to me, so I’m being patient and understanding and you should to.

If you want a list of local shopping websites then check out my list here. I’m updating it constantly as new stores pop up so bookmark it.




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

Packages Are Still Being Delivered

If you’re wondering if Aramex or other companies are still delivering packages during this pandemic, they are! Even though commercial flights in and out of Kuwait have stopped, cargo flights are still operating. And even though places like New York have been hit hard because of the virus, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down or stopping our packages from being shipped to us. So far I’ve had packages ship from the US, the UK, and Germany. Packages are taking around 10 days from arriving at my Shop & Ship mailbox to being delivered to me at my home which is normal.

For example, yesterday I had my Odroid Go Advance delivered to me (pictured above). A reader had told me about it in the comments under one of my posts on March 14th. On March 15th I ordered the device and on March 19th it arrived to my New York mailbox. Yesterday (March 30th) it was delivered to me. So 9 days from arriving to my mailbox in New York to being delivered to me here in Kuwait. Customs in Kuwait are also working normally which is pretty impressive. There is something very comforting knowing I can continue to buy stuff online and have them arrive to Kuwait.




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

Qortoba Co-op Shopping Carts

Qortoba Co-op are sterilizing all the shopping carts after use and then covering the handles with a plastic seal. I love how everyone is adapting to the current situation and fairly quickly too.

Thanks Aisha




Categories
Shopping

Kuwait Shopping Websites (2020 List)

Because everyone is trying to stay at home right now, I realized it was the perfect time to post an updated version of my local shopping websites list. I’m sure I’ve missed a few so if there are any local websites which you think I should add, let me know in the comments.

Categories (click link to jump to the section)
Babies / Children
Beauty / Self Care
Books
Car Accessories
Coffee
Computers
Electronics
Fashion
Flowers / Perfume
Food Products
Furniture
Hardware
Hobbies
Homeware / Kitchenware
Lifestyle / Accessories
Music
Pets
Pharmacies
Phones & Accessories
Photography / Video
Plants and Garden Supplies
Sports
Stationary
Supermarkets
Toys / Board Games
Video Games
Other

Babies / Children
Bonboni’s
Dinoo
Ivy Babdies
Mothercare
Oleana Boutique
Sniggles

Beauty / Self Care
Apotheca Beauty
Bath & Body Works
Bloomingdales
Creamat
Etheco
Jothen
K7L
Klarif
L’Occitane
Rskin

Books
Aafaq Bookstore
Books Room
Brilliant Company
Books for Cancer
Claudia Al Rashoud
Litterae Used Bookshop
Page Turner
Qasr Al-Thaqafa
Red Balloon Books
Saint Books
The English Bookshop

Car Accessories
Auto Depot
Garage Shuwaikh
Garmin
Mafra
Motorworks

Coffee
48 East
Caffeine
Coffee Tools
Qahwety
Stock Room

Computers
Alpha Store
AryCart
Cameoo
Digits
Gait
Personal Computer Center
Quadra
Smartek
Sunmoon
Want it Buy it

Electronics
3RoodQ8
Adawliah
Ali Abdulwahab Al Mutawa
Best
Blink
Eureka
EVA
Garmin
H&S Store
Jashanmal
RTC
X-Cite

Fashion
Alostoura
Bloomingdales
Casio
Centerpoint
Crocs
Dog House Collective
Fjällräven
Footlocker
Grain
H&M
Hind
Local Tees
My Dikaan
Nalbes
Our Trend
Pink Moon
Sprayground
Thahab
Thouqi
Zara

Flowers / Perfume
Arablly
Beidoun Online
Beauty
Bleems
Boutiqaat
Floward
Souq Perfume

Food Products
Alaman Coop
Baqala
Blue Passion
e-Baqala
eGroccery
Exotic Snax
FAME
Furdtk
Gourmet ME
Gourmet Shelf
Healthy Shop
Ikil
Kolita
Natureland
Sinbad Filipino Store
Taw9eel
The Approved Market

Furniture
Abyat
IKEA
My Athath
Pottery Barn
Safat Home
The ONE
West Elm

Hardware
Ace Hardware
Al Qatami Fire Fighting Equipment
Bin Nisf
I Buy Safety
Jawad AlSaffar
Makhazan
Makita
Mawady
Royal Tools
Safety International
Sanam

Hobbies
7erafy
Al Zame
Arts & Crafts
Camp N Sea
Dr Cue Billard World
Explorers Base
Ikarus
Mogahwi
Pro-Hobbies
The Horse Co
The Sandy Needle
Wood Crafter

Homeware / Kitchenware
Lawazm
Mabrook
Tavola
TP Green

Lifestyle / Accessories
Caravan
Craft and Company
Ecru
Fen’Teg
Fk Jewellers
Ontime
Paper & Nest
theblockdown
The Soap Box
The Yard
VisionE Boutique

Music
Adawliah
Misfits
Salmeen Music
Vinyl Destination

Pets
Pet Center
Pet House
Pets Market
Pet Zone

Pharmacies
Alessa
Hadi Pharmacy
International Optics (Contacts)
Dowa
Kindi
Pharma Zone
Pharmatee
Ultramed (Dental)

Phones & Accessories
A Store
Anker
Cavaraty
Chips Store
Huawei
MoBax
Mobile 2000
Switch
Vortek

Photography / Video
35MM
AAB World
Ajas
CRATE
Falcon
Fuji Film
Gulf Pixel
Lumen Store

Plants and Garden Supplies
Bio Hydro
Grow
Mashatel
Organic Value
Plant More
Q8 Orgnanic
Sustainable Organic

Sports
53 Sports
Al Sabih Marine
AlNasser Sports
Ananda
BeFit
Beyond Equipments
Champion
Decathlon
Extreme Sports
Float & Ride
Gym Doctor
HYPRID Fitness
Intersport
Kuwait Watersports
Nomad Strength Co.
Perform Athletics
ProSports
Q8 Kite Boarding
Sportsman
Sports Group
The Horse Co
The Magic Shop
Wawan

Stationary
Maktaba
Mogahwi
Nottah
Pilot Pens
Starlight
Stationary Online

Supermarkets
Lulu
On Cost
SaveCo
Sultan Center

Toys / Board Games
Board Games Q8
Bricks
Fairy Hub
Fantasy World
Games United
Good Game
Ufff

Video Games
Alfuhod
AX Store
Blink
ComplexQ8
Feesha
GamesQ8
Game Store
Level Up
ProGaming
Retro Games
Taw9eel
Xcite

Other
As Seen on TV (Random Stuff)
Sheeel (Daily Deal)
UTC (Department Store)
Yoghi (Office/School Supplies)




Categories
Coronavirus Mags & Books Shopping

Get Books without Leaving the House

If you’re bored at home and looking for a good book to read, Aafaq Bookstore have an offer at the moment in response to the Coronavirus situation where they will deliver any book to you for free, no minimum order required. Their website is still under construction but you can use it, for now, to browse for books and then call them or whatsapp them to place the order. They have over 1,400 English books available and over 2,400 Arabic ones. Their website is aafaqbookstore.com and to place an order call or whatsapp them on 55524066

This offer is valid until March 29th when the public holiday is over.

Update: Their website is now live! Use the code KAFD for free delivery in Kuwait except for Sabah Al-Ahmad residential area and Ali Sabah Al-Salem.




Categories
Coronavirus Shopping

My New Favorite Supermarket

Yesterday while in the city picking up lunch I decided to pass by Shamiya Co-op to pick up some stuff since it was the close. As I got closer to the entrance I noticed a sign outside in English and Arabic asking me to sanitize my hands and pick up gloves. Once I walked in they had a sanitizer machine for me to use and a basket full of disposable gloves to wear. Everyone shopping had gloves on which was pretty cool since it made me feel a lot more comfortable.

I’m not sure if other Co-ops are doing the same thing but private supermarkets like Sultan, Lulu, and City Center aren’t doing this for sure. Some places like Trolley don’t even have contactless payment yet and require you to still type in your pin code which it the last thing I want to do right now.

If your local co-op has the same setup let me know in the comments.




Categories
News Shopping

Contactless Payment Limit Increased Due to Coronavirus

Knet and the local banks have agreed to increase the transaction amount for contactless payments without having to use your pin code from KD10 to KD25. I’m a big fan of just tapping to pay, especially now with the whole corona situation so pretty glad they’ve done this.




Categories
Mags & Books Shopping

Borders & Paperchase Now Open

When I found out the American bookstore Borders was opening up at The Avenues I got pretty excited because I thought finally, a bookstore! Well they opened over the holidays and guess what? They don’t sell books! Borders in Kuwait is a toy store for some reason with not a single book for sale.

The stationary and arts & crafts store Paperchase also opened as part of Borders. Both are located side by side in Avenues Phase I.




Categories
Shopping

Virgin Megastore is Now Open

Virgin originally opened in Kuwait back in 2002 and was the second-largest Virgin store in the world at the time. They had books, music, movies and electronics but it eventually had a lot of music and movies banned and then slowly started shrinking in size until the store no longer existed. But now it’s back.

The new Virgin recently opened in Avenues and it doesn’t have any books or music this time around. Instead, it’s more of an electronics shop selling items like phone accessories, headphones, portable speakers, drones and random trinkets. They have a small gaming section and a large selection of Crosley record players but they don’t sell any records.

The Virgin in Dubai Mall is actually a cool place with so many different things on sale which makes you at the very least want to walk through the store. The one in Kuwait on the other hand, at this stage, doesn’t seem to have the same allure. In any case, it’s worth checking out if you’re in Avenues, they’re open in phase 2 near Carrefour.

Update: Turns out they actually have a tiny book section.




Categories
Shopping

New 360 Mall Extension Now Open

Over the holidays 360 Mall opened up their new extension which is located in the same building as the new Tennis Complex. The extension has it’s own parking lot but you could also continue to park in the old 360 and then cross over via a long bridge that connects the two buildings.

There are a few new brands in the extension including the sneaker stores Dropkick and FILA. Lakeland is also back in Kuwait after previously closing down its locations in Marina Mall and Avenues. My two favorite breakfast spots Lunchroom and Cocoa Room are also both opening up in the new extension soon. It’s not that big of an extension but it’s still worth passing by to check out.




Categories
Shopping

Shop & Ship FLEX

I have zero loyalty when it comes to mail forwarding services and I’ll flip flop between Shop & Ship, MyBox and MyUS without hesitation. They’ve all got issues and end of the day all I care about is getting my items to Kuwait at the most reasonable rate possible. I know Shop & Ship gets a lot of hate here but I have a nostalgic connection to the brand since I was one of their first customers 20 years ago. But, for the past few years, I had been using MyBox for all my US and UK shopping since they were cheaper than Shop & Ship. But recently I moved back over to Shop & Ship because of their FLEX membership program and because MyBox was starting to get on my nerves.

One of the most annoying things about MyBox was the fact they would send me an SMS, email and app notification all at the same time whenever a package arrived to my mailbox, a package shipped from my mailbox or when a package was out for delivery. Three notifications at the same time and there wasn’t a way to stop it (from within my account at least). Another thing I found annoying was that every single time I logged into my account I would get a pop-up asking me to rate my experience. Every single time and I really really hate pop-ups. The final straw I think was when they most recently started charging 90$ a year for the option of consolidating packages. I thought that was too much to pay but it made me go back and take a look at the Shop & Ship FLEX program since that was only $45 a year. I ended up realizing that I could actually be saving money going with FLEX so I shifted all my shipping back to Shop & Ship.

FLEX has been around for a while now but I never signed up for it because I was happy using MyBox. The service costs $45 a year and has a number of benefits but the two most important ones for me were:

– You’d be charged in 100g increments instead of 500g increments
– You’d get a 20% discount on shipments weighing over 3KG

The 100g increments thing is obviously useful but the 20% discount on heavy items helped me out a lot recently since I was ordering a bunch of car parts for my Datsun 240z and they were mostly all over 3KG (pictured above). So far these two benefits combined have helped me save a bit of money compared to if I had shipped it with MyBox. For example:

13.4lbs
S&S Flex: 23.93 KWD
MyBox: 26.500 KWD

8.56lbs
S&S Flex: 15.69 KWD
MyBox: 16.500 KWD

1.88lbs
S&S Flex: 3.44 KWD
MyBox: 4.500 KWD

So not major savings but enough to justify signing up to FLEX and, I’ve actually already made back the $45 membership fee in savings this past month alone. So if you use Shop&Ship but haven’t signed up to FLEX then you should since you could be saving a lot of money. For more details on FLEX you can check out this page.