Category: Shopping

If the fact that Healthy Feast and Arabica opening in Shuwaikh wasn’t enough to convince you it’s the next up and coming area, I found out last week that Vol.1 is also opening in Shuwaikh.

There is a new complex that will be completed in a couple of months time called Mayar which is owned by Zaleej Real Estate Company, the same company that owns Lilly Center where Pick Yo and Caribou Coffee are located down the street. The complex will house different businesses ranging from coffee shops and restaurants to flower shops, electronics shops, fashion stores and health clubs. Some of the confirmed places opening up there are Vol.1, Urban Cafe, Brothers Burger, Melenzane, November Bakery, Aya Coco, Brown Boutique, Modish and Tiny Socks. If you work in the area and are hoping for a Vol.1 morning caffeine boost don’t get excited just yet since they’re hoping to open after summer in around October/November.

Here is the location of Mayyar Complex on [Google Maps]

InstaSalla is a new app that allows you to order groceries from your local co-op and have it delivered within 90 minutes. Based on my short experience with the app it seems they have ALL their products available online to purchase which means this might be more comprehensive than the likes of Taw9eel or the LuLu web store.

The app is mainly in Arabic although there is an English option (swipe left to reveal the sidebar). Sadly not everything was translated to English, if you try to order anything or even register an account you’ll be met with Arabic menus even if you had chosen English as the app’s language. Still, not bad for the first release.

InstaSalla is available on both [iOS] and [Android]

Thanks umterchia

Three new projects have opened up at Al Shaheed Park so I figured I’d list them all under one post (Their names below will take you to their instagram accounts):

Fayrouzeyat
The fine dining Lebanese restaurant Fayrouzeyat now have a location at Al Shaheed Park.They’re open from 10AM to 10PM daily.

The Reading Room
The Reading Room is a gift shop and community work space brought to you by the creative ladies behind The Yard. They’re open daily from 9AM to 9PM except on Fridays when they’re open from 1PM to 8PM.

Photo by Inspired Edibles

Three & Barista
Finally, Three & Barista is a new coffee shop that will be opening next month. By the looks of their instagram they’ll also be serving food.

Late last year Alshaya soft launched their “Privileges Club” card. The card provide a number of benefits to Alshaya shoppers including automatically entering them into their monthly prize draws and giving them access to exclusive offers amongst other benefits. Back when I posted about the card their app hadn’t been released yet but now that the app is out I figured I’d post about it because it’s actually a pretty good one.

The biggest issue I have with my Privileges Club card or any other loyalty card for that matter (like my IKEA one) is I never carry them with me since I’ve got one of those slim wallets which can only fit four cards. So I end up leaving my loyalty cards at home and forget to take them with me when I go shopping. The best feature about the Alshaya Privileges Club card app is the fact you don’t have to carry the physical card with you, instead they can just scan the card’s QR code from your screen. Other benefits of the app is that it lets you know how many entries you have in their monthly draw, what new offers are available, the ability to sign up or sign out of notifications and other helpful features. It’s a loyalty card done right surprisingly. So if you’ve got an Alshaya Privileges Club card, download the app. I’m not sure if it’s available on Android but on iPhones just search for Alshaya in the Apple App Store.

Update: It’s also available on Android.

4Sale is a local classifieds app which I have been hesitant to post about since it’s a pretty crappy app with tons of ads, terrible graphics and overall just a big mess. But, the app does have one thing going for it and that is the content. For some odd reason, the app (and their website) is super popular. It’s probably one of the most popular classifieds websites and apps in Kuwait even though they’re both horrible to use.

I hate it and it’s not just me, the App has a 2 star rating in the app store so clearly other people are facing similar issues. But like I said its about the content and you’ll find a ton of stuff for sale here. I’ve been mostly using the app to look for old cars from the 80s, a friend of mine uses it to search for vape products while another for video games. You’re bound to find something in there that interests you so you’ll end up putting up with all the flaws just like I do. To download the app search for “4sale” in the app store or click one of the following links [iPhone] [Android]

Back in 2012, 965 Flowers launched as a local online flower delivery website and I ended up posting about them after I needed to use them one day. Over time though they started adding other items that also fit with the different occasions people gifted flowers, items like chocolates, baked goods and other kinds of small gifts. They also started expanding to other parts of the GCC so their name 965 Flowers became an issue for them. They were no longer just based in Kuwait and they no longer just had flowers so they decided to rebrand and starting today they’re going by Bleems.

They chose the word Bleems because it doesn’t mean anything and works in Arabic and English. They chose a word that had no meaning because they didn’t want to end up with a name that would limit their ability to expand their business later on down the line. Personally Bleems reminds me of the old PlayStation emulator for the PC called Bleem! while a quick search on Urban Dictionary pops up some interesting other definitions. In any case, it’s still a much better name than 965 Flowers (or 965 anything).

Their official re-launch is today and the owners sent me the video above which basically explains everything I just wrote. Here is a link to their [Website]

Allsaints is one of my favorite fashion stores and they’re opening up in Kuwait next month. Their first location will be at 360 Mall right across from Nike where Desigual used to be located. It’s not Alshaya who are bringing them but instead the UAE company Majid Al Futtaim. Majid Al Futtaim are the same company that brought LEGO to Kuwait so I’m hoping the pricing scheme of Allsaints won’t follow LEGO’s formula which is just doubling the cost of everything.

The mini Sultan Center at the Gulf Road (Shaab) Alfa petrol station opened up last week and surprisingly it also has a Dunkin Donuts, Second Cup and an Ooredoo branch inside. No idea why it took them such a long time to open up a convenience store in that location but I’m glad they finally did although truthfully, there is a much larger Sultan Center located right behind it so I doubt I’ll ever use this location.

Speaking of Sultan Center I noticed they’re opening a new location right next to LuLu and Saveco in AlRai. Like right next door to LuLu. It’s either a really ballsy move or a really stupid one, I’m having difficulty deciding.

Last week I posted about the LEGO store officially opening in Kuwait and a lot of readers were curious to know how the prices were compared to the U.S. So I decided to pass by the store and randomly pick out a few items from the different LEGO collections to compare. Below is a list of 18 different items with their prices in Kuwait as well as their prices on Amazon.

LEGO Star Wars 75095 Tie Fighter
Kuwait: KD149.950
Amazon: KD61

LEGO Star Wars 75059 Sandcrawler
Kuwait: KD159.950
Amazon: KD91

LEGO Star Wars 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter
Kuwait: KD129.950
Amazon: KD78

LEGO Star Wars 75054 AT-AT Building Toy
Kuwait: KD97.950
Amazon: KD48

LEGO Minecraft 21118 The Mine
Kuwait: KD73.950
Amazon: KD38

LEGO Pirates 70413 The Brick Bounty
Kuwait: KD72.950
Amazon: KD45

LEGO Architecture 21019 The Eiffel Tower
Kuwait: KD18.950
Amazon: KD10

LEGO Architecture 21017 Imperial Hotel
Kuwait: KD69.950
Amazon: KD39

LEGO City Police 60068 Crooks’ Hideout
Kuwait: KD32.950
Amazon: KD16

LEGO City Police 60047 Police Station
Kuwait: KD65.950
Amazon: KD24

LEGO City Space Port 60080 Spaceport
Kuwait: KD60.950
Amazon: KD29

LEGO Simpsons 71006 The Simpsons House
Kuwait: KD134.950
Amazon: KD61

LEGO Creator Expert 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper
Kuwait: KD69.500
Amazon: KD39

LEGO Creator Expert 10246 Detective’s Office
Kuwait: KD99.500
Amazon: KD48

LEGO Creator 10232 Palace Cinema
Kuwait: KD79.950
Amazon: KD45

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 31313
Kuwait: KD249.950
Amazon: KD106

LEGO Technic 42039 24 Hours Race Car
Kuwait: KD76.950
Amazon: KD33

LEGO Technic 42030 VOLVO L350F Wheel Load
Kuwait: KD169.950
Amazon: KD74

As you probably noticed, the prices in Kuwait are double that of Amazon and in one case triple. It’s pretty ridiculous considering this is an official store. One of my readers made the extra effort and contacted LEGO to complain about the prices. They replied to him with the following:

Dear Quintin,
Thanks for getting in touch with us.

I’m sorry you’re not happy with the price of LEGO® sets in Kuwait. We know we’re lucky to have so many loyal LEGO fans around the world and we’re always pleased to get feedback – especially when it’s about how we can improve.

Finding the right price for a toy isn’t easy and depends on a lot of considerations. To name a few, our marketing team looks at statistical data about a country’s population, transportation costs, currency exchange rates, local laws and taxes and the prices of other toys. No two countries are exactly the same, so the price may be different from country to country.

Futhermore, to date we do not have any official LEGO® stores in the either Kuwait and Dubai. Therefore, it is not the LEGO group who have set the prices in the particular stores you are referring to, but the individual stores themselves

Please let us know if you need anything else.

Kind regards,

Onno
LEGO® Service

What do they mean they don’t have an official LEGO store in Kuwait? My guess is the customer support person hasn’t been updated on new store openings. In any case, based on their response I’m guessing the reason LEGO costs twice as much in Kuwait is because people here can afford to pay that much. Sucks I know.

LEGO have just opened their first shop in Kuwait at The Avenues. According to my friend whom I stole the snapchat screenshot from, he spotted the LEGO Architecture, Star Wars, Friends and Elves series all on display at the shop along with the regular LEGO sets. They also sell LEGOs by the bowl where you get to pick different LEGO pieces and colors like you’re buying jelly beans. If you’re interested, the LEGO store is located in Phase II near the That Al Salasil bookshop.

Thanks @xxmrfarixx

I didn’t think there was such a big comic books community in Kuwait but it seems there is. Below is a list of local online instagram accounts and websites where you could purchase comic books from, if you know of anymore let me know.

Websites
Dragonarab
Games Q8

Instagram
@comics_for_sale
@q8comicscollectors
@q8_superhero
@gtmcomics
@world_of_comics

via Reddit

Dizly is a locally produced app that allows you to buy and send a variety of gifts to people. I’ve had the app for awhile now but they’ve recently made some changes to it that have improved the experience dramatically with the most important change being that you no longer needed to create an account just so you could browse the products.

Since Christmas is in a few days I figured now would be the best time to post about the app. They’ve also given me a promo code “Diz248am” to share with my readers which will give you a 15% discount on all the items. The app is available on iOS and Android and you can check out their website for more details [Here]

Alshaya have finally launched their loyalty card called “Privileges Club”. The card will have a number of benefits including automatically entering you into their monthly prize draws, giving you access to exclusive offers, and also offer you something they’re calling “VIP Experiences” where you will be allowed to pre-shop certain sales before the general public does, or get bigger discounts on certain collections.

I signed up to it yesterday while picking up tea from Teavana. It’s an easy process but you need to give them your name, phone number and birthday. I honestly didn’t want to give them my phone number since I didn’t want to get any ads on my phone but the employee told me she would put a note that I didn’t want to receive any messages. That was a complete fail since 15 minutes after leaving the store I got two messages, one welcoming me to the Privileges Club and the other telling me about a Sprinkles Cupcakes offer. I mean I don’t mind these Privileges Club messages every now and then I just hope they don’t give my number to their other Alshaya brands.

A Privileges Club app will be released soon which will allow you to control things such as what kind of SMS’s to get but right now if you want to unsubscribe from any of the Alshaya SMS mailing lists, all you need to do is call Alshaya support up on 1821212 and request to be removed. The process takes 48 hours and you can thank me later.

Update: Right after I published this post I got another message from Alshaya about a Katsuya offer. These messages should hopefully stop by tomorrow since 48 hours would have passed but if they don’t I’m going to end up canceling my card.

Back in July I posted that Lulu had launched an online store and the problem I had with it was that the store contained mostly electronics and lacked any food items. Now though that’s fixed, a reader emailed me to let me know that the food and household sections of the website are now online and fully functioning.

Just to see if they had all their products online I tried searching for the Dove Men+Care Antiperspirant, a product I buy and know they carry but I couldn’t find it on their website. So my guess is they’re still adding their products one by one.

Still, by just randomly browsing I can tell they are carrying a ton of stuff and they seem to finally be a better alternative to Taw9eel. Check out the LuLu online store [Here]

Areej International Est. is a small business that has been around since 1994 supplying gourmet products to restaurants, hotels and hypermarkets. Last week they decided to launch a website so they could sell their items directly to consumers. I checked it out and I don’t think I’ve run into their products/brands anywhere in Kuwait before which is a good thing since it makes their website more useful.

If you’re interested, check out their website [Here]