Category: Shopping

Avenues now have signs up banning hoverboards in the mall. I haven’t found them to be a nuisance yet but they must be causing issues for them to want to ban them. In traditional Avenues fashion, I don’t think the rule is being strictly enforced since I did see a kid on a hoverboard while I was shopping there.

But if anything, Sultan Center should be the one to ban hoverboards just because of how lame it makes people look pushing carts while on them.

You can now shop for Adidas products on the Adidas Kuwait website. Not sure how new this is but I just spotted an ad for it yesterday on Twitter. Shipping is a flat charge of KD2 and you can pay either by credit card, paypal or cash on delivery. Here is the [Link]

Last month I posted a list of Online Shopping Websites in Kuwait but I found out there is a website called Tisawaq with the sole purpose of listing all the online shopping websites in Kuwait. The websites are split up into categories and there is even a Tisawaq app. Check out the site [Here]

Craft And Company is a local lifestyle store which belongs to the wife of one of my friends. He had told me about the website ages ago but I just got around to checking it now and actually found the stuff they’re selling pretty cool. Lots of beautiful random items from mugs to stationary to homeware. I actually just ended up ordering a notebook for myself and a gift for a friend. They’ve got lots of tasteful stuff so check it out [Here]

360 Mall have released new renderings as well as a video showcasing their upcoming mall expansion which will include a tennis complex, a hotel and additional shopping. The tennis complex will have a combined stadium seating for over 7,600 people across two main arenas, each with the capacity to hold 4,000 and 1,600 people respectively, eight indoor courts with over 500 seats and eight outdoor courts with 1,500 seats. The tennis arena will be called “The Sheikh Jaber Al Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah International Tennis Complex” and is expected to become one of the world’s best tennis facilities.

In summary, we should basically all start learning tennis so we could take advantage of the facilities once they open up.

On a side note I’ve managed to confirm that Bloomingdale’s will be opening up where the exhibition hall at 360 Mall is located right now. What I wasn’t aware of was that the exhibition hall is actually three floors tall but because they hadn’t installed the escalators yet, it never showed. Regarding the 5-star hotel thats opening up in the new expansion, all the renderings are pointing towards Hyatt making a comeback to Kuwait. I’m still trying to get confirmation on this but I haven’t been able to as of now. My contact just confirmed the hotel that will be opening is Grand Hyatt and that an official announcement will be made shortly.

This morning while visiting Avenues I noticed they had installed x-ray scanners at various entry points around the mall. Coming up from the underground parking there was only a security guard with a metal detector wand but when coming in from any of their ground floor entrances you now have to put your bags in an x-ray machine. Arraya and Salhiya have also both installed metal detectors at their entrances as well.

I’m guessing this heightened mall security is because of the mosque bombing that took place back in June.

There’s a huge Lego store opening at 360 Mall on the top floor opposite the bowling alley. No idea when its set to open up but the first store in the Middle East just opened up in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.

A redditor started a list of online shopping websites in Kuwait and I decided to add a few more and share the list here. I’m sure there are a bunch of places I’m missing so let me know about them in the comments. To qualify on the list below they need to be locally based websites.

Gaming
Games Q8
Digumz
Game Center Kuwait

Electronics
X-Cite
Blink
Best
AAB World
Eureka
Yeeeba

Computers
Q8 Quadra
Smartek
Cameo Computer Services
Want it Buy it
Personal Computer Center

Food Products
Taw9eel
SaveCo
Natureland
Lulu
FAME
Gourmet Shelf
Gourmet ME
One Stop
Prime Cuts
Kuwait Fresh Fish
On Cost
Sultan Center

Ready Made Food
6alabat
Alshaya Delivery
I Eat Online
Nespresso
Maachla
Tadco
Bilbayt

Variety of Products
uBuy
Quick
Mr Babu
Fen’Teg

Fashion
Yacob Behbehani Sons Co.
The Yard
Pink Moon
Thouqi
Grain
Shop #4
Soccer Scene
Nables

Other
Sheeel (Daily Deel)
Beidoun Online (Perfumes + Cosmetics)
Timeless Baby (Baby Stuff)
K7L (Cosmetics)
Pet Zone (Pets)
Pet Pal (Pets)
Pet House (Pets)
Oleana Boutique (Baby Stuff)
Boutiqaat (Cosmetics)
Dowa (Pharmacy)
Craft and Company (Lifestyle)
Bleems (Flowers, Chocolates, Gifts)
NHE Group (Satellite Receivers)
ProSports (Sporting Equipment)
Pharmatee(Pharmacy)
Page Turner (Books)
Cavaraty (Phones)
Mobile 2000 (Phones)
KWT Cover (Phones)
Digits (Apple Products)

Update: I’ve reorganized and updated this list under a new post [Here]

A reader found some previously unreleased renderings of the new Avenues Phase 4. One of the renderings gives a general idea of how one of the hotel towers will look like. Not sure what kind of view the rooms will have though since Al-Rai isn’t very pretty. If anyone knows what the two hotels will be called please let me know. Also looks like we might be in the race to break the world record for the largest disco ball.

Thanks lovelykuwait and Khaled. [Image Source]

Earlier this year Tamdeen announced they were taking over development of the stalled tennis project next to 360 Mall and that they would be completing it as part of their “massive expansion” of 360 Mall. Renderings of the extension are finally available online along with a bit more information on the courts including that it will have a 4,000 seat indoor arena, a 1,500 seat outdoor arena, 6 indoor tennis courts, 8 outdoor tennis courts, and supporting clubhouse with tennis school. Check out more photos and details [Here]

Thanks lovelykuwait

Sultan Center seems to be expanding since they recently opened their Promenade Mall location in Hawali and now they’ve got two more locations opening up. The one above is at the Alfa gas station on the Gulf Road next to Shaab Park. That location has been empty ever since Alfa took over that gas station years ago and it seems Sultan Center have now taken it over and are opening an “Express” location there.

The second location they’re opening up is a pretty surprising one, they’re opening in Bneid Al Gar in the Massaleh Towers. I say surprising because the other than the Massaleh Towers, the area around them is pretty ghetto.

Thanks Jamal & Patrick

Just an FYI for those of you who use mail forwarding companies to ship items from the States. MyUS which I’ve previously posted about [Here] now no longer calculate volumetric weight, instead they calculate the cost of your shipment based on actual weight. What this means is you now pay a lot cheaper for shipping since if your box is huge or tiny it doesn’t matter anymore. [Link]

A reader just emailed me letting me know that LuLu now have an online web store. I just checked it out and sadly their food and household products sections are still under construction and the majority items that are online are electronics. We don’t need another online electronics store, what we need is a proper online grocery store similar to Taw9eel but with more products.

[www.luluwebstore.com]

Thanks Donny

Winner: talabat.com
Man, do you ever wonder whether you’ve become a misanthrope because of the internet or the internet just feeds your misanthropy? Do you ever wonder what ‘misanthrope’ means? (if so, you’re the reason misanthropes exist).

These days I’m so lazy or unwilling to physically see other humans that not only will I not go to a restaurant to eat, I won’t even pick it up to take home. Not only am I unwilling to pick it up, but I’m also unwilling to get out of my car. Not only am I unwilling to get out of my car, but now, I’m also unwilling to speak to another human on the phone. I exaggerate of course, but not much.

And that’s why, the greatest website/app in the entire middle east is Talabat. Oh heavens, what a convenient little bastard you are. Somehow, some tenacious person convinced various restaurants to outsource online ordering to their website. And I’m sure some had reservations about doing it too. Among my circle of friends, we talk about new restaurants on Talabat as though we had actually been there without having to actually be there. So successful was this enterprise that it had been sold for what we in the FU industry call FU-money. Nary a week goes by without some restaurant relenting and joining this Khaleeji monolith. In my eyes, there is no competitor.

Of course, it’s not without its faults. Namely there are some crap restaurants with crap names and crap descriptions of their food (sandwish anyone?). But these are outweighed by the review section, which I frequently read not for actual reviews from people whose opinions are valuable, but rather for the hilarity of their review.

For example, “The food tastes disgusting and is not what the meal is supposed to taste like. Delivery took too long. Small portions. It just was terrible. 3 stars”. THREE STARS!!! AND THE FOOD WAS DISGUSTING BAHAHAHAHAH.

Or my personal favourite (translated), “the delivery was late. The burgers were cold. Totally unpleasant. 5 stars.” Hilarious.

Runner up: Blink.co.kw
The other day, I wanted to buy Batman Arkham Knight, conveniently checked the price online and conveniently bought it from PSN. THREE DAYS LATER the download finished. Very inconvenient. I could have just gone online and bought it from Blink. And replaced my toaster and bought some cups and wax for the car. But I didn’t, instead I had three days of disappointment, untoasted bread and an unwaxed car.

Shoutout to nespresso.com for having a website so slow, you’d think the server is on the bloody moon.

Winner: talabat.com
Once you get beyond the first page, I think the website looks ugly and outdated. But, there is no denying that Talabat is the most successful online business in Kuwait and they’ve got KD50,000,000 to prove it.

Runner up: Blink.co.kw
The runner up really should be Xcite.com since their website looks a ton better than Blinks and they have much more products. But, I just find Xcite more intimidating to use and I’ve run into the oddest issues with them. Did you know up until a few weeks ago you couldn’t even browse their website from your phone. If you tried to you would get a message forcing you to download their app. They weren’t recommending you to use their app which is a common practice but instead they completely lock you out from their website if you were browsing from your mobile phone. So stupid. Thankfully after I complained about how ridiculous that was, they now allow you to browse their site from your phone. If you’re wondering why I don’t use their app instead, well I used to but then one day when I wanted to buy something I had to create an account which is fine but they started asking me what my nationality was and if I was married or not. I couldn’t tell if those questions were mandatory or not to answer so I just ended up filling all the fields with dummy information and created a fake account to try it out. Turns out the personal questions were not mandatory to answer, but then I ran into another problem. Once you create an account with their app you can’t log out and create another one. So now I permanently get greeted by the app as “Hello Jdjdjd Jdjdjd”. I should probably delete it and reinstall it but I’m just too lazy to do so.

Blink on the other hand, although the website is ugly as shit is actually easier to use and find stuff plus their prices are mostly cheaper in my experience. I think it’s probably easier to use because when you land at the website they ask you which section you want to browse. So if you click on video games you end up in their video game section with all the product highlights and side bar sections being gaming related. On Xcite you have to dig deep for whatever you want. I generally use Blink for two things mainly, buying iTunes cards or buying video games. They seem to have ridiculously good deals every now and then and even when they don’t their prices generally reflect Hawalli prices (ie cheapest market prices) without having to go to Hawalli myself and get it. Convenient.

Winner: The Avenues (anytime before you and your friends show up)
I often amuse myself by thinking of Kuwait in different ages. For example, the technique boys and girls would use to secretly flirt in recent history (BB, bluetooth, throwing your number at another human being, high-risk chase with the intention of shouting at your future wife from your car into her car); but more often, I like to split it up into the Ages of Malls. There was The Age of Fanar, followed by The Age of Sharq, followed by The Age of Marina. The age before Fanar was only darkness but today we’re in The Age of Avenues. And sure, 360 is trying, but meh, who cares? The interesting thing about Avenues is that because of it’s massive size, it kept opening new phases years after the first phase and overcame this…mall-ecular stagnation.

And my goodness, what a goddamn mall it is. It has literally everything you could ever need/want. When people visit Kuwait from the west, I always end up taking them to Avenues. We’ve reduced all of western consumerism and fitted it into this outdoor shopaholic theme park with a roof over it. That’s craziness.

But I’ll be honest with you, I’m a guy who goes to the mall with shit to do. All business. I do it and leave. I don’t do the zombie shuffle like a lethargic dancer in Thriller. In fact, when I’m swiftly moving from one end of the goddamn mall to the other goddamn side, and you and your possé are all dressed thematically the same, standing shoulder to shoulder forming some sort of slow moving linear amoeba, I imagine kicking each one of you off a cliff. You’d probably fall slow just to annoy the bitch out of me.

Which is why I cannot strongly advocate more, going to the mall on a morning. Before people show up. Minimum stabbing risk. Plenty of parking, plenty of room to quickly get errands done and restock of the plenty of supplies I need to keep myself from the public, plenty plenty plenty and what better good do you expect from a mall than plenty of plenty.

Avenues Tip:
Less this (Link)
More this (Link)

Runner up: 360 Mall
How could anyone not like 360 mall? It’s never got traffic on the way there and if you can survive parking somewhere, it has probably the most worthwhile unique places in kuwait (not original unique, but single-location unique). It has some good shops. It has some great restaurants I like eating at. It has a great Nespresso store I drink at for free by acting like i’m going to buy a sleeve or two before feeling guilty and buying a sleeve or two. And it’s close to my friend Aziz Humaidhi’s house. Aziz you scumbag, call me man.

Winner: The Avenues
The winner for this category was an easy one and not because the other malls suck (obviously many do) but because Avenues is so way ahead of everything else. It’s a place I also take tourists even though I personally hate going to malls when I travel. I hate malls everywhere actually, except in Kuwait. What I think really makes Avenues special though is the beautiful Grand Avenues. Like Nima I tend to go to the malls when I need something but I actually enjoy going to Grand Avenues to just walk around and window shop. Occasionally I’ll also sit at Veranda and have tea with a friend while watching the same people go up and down over and over. I don’t like Phase I or II on the other hand, they look like any other mall and I tend to refer to them as the ghetto cuz really thats what they are compared to Grand Avenues. Prestige I don’t even think anyone ever goes there and the old souk area is usually filled by people you never see in the other phases. But thats also what makes Avenues so great, it’s so big and the sections are so different, there is something for everyone. It’s a modern day landmark for Kuwait.

Runner up: Marina Crescent (on a Friday morning when the weather is great)
I love Marina Crescent on Friday mornings, it gets packed with people all outdoor enjoying the beautiful weather and having breakfast. It doesn’t feel like you’re in Kuwait and mostly because we spend all year round avoiding the outdoor weather. The rest of the mall isn’t special, it used to be when they used to open the roofs but now its just bleh.