Category: Shopping

My favorite gym gloves are Harbinger and I’ve been using them for nearly two years now. I had a hard time finding them back then since there were limited places that sold them and not only did I have trouble finding the right model I also had a hard time finding the right size. Over the weekend I noticed Go Sport started carrying the Harbinger brand as well and they had a huge collection of gloves on display as well as support belts. So if you’re interested in new work out gloves you should pass by before they also run out of models and sizes.

Halloween is coming up and Dean & Deluca have some amazing looking pumpkins if you’re into pumpkin carving. But, it might be a good idea to sketch your designs first since at KD12 a pumpkin, any mistake is going to be an expensive one.

A reader going by the nickname “La Revue de Koweit” posted the comment below under the Avenues fight post and I thought it was funny but yet made sense at the same time. Below are 7 fight preventative actions that should be taken:

1) Serious shoppers should avoid going to the Avenues over the weekends and public holidays.

2) Increased presence of law enforcement officers on Segways throughout the mall and mounted on horseback in the parking lot.

3) Videowalls in the courtyard areas with live streaming videos from different fashion houses from Milan, Paris, London, New York and Tokyo plus exhaustive coverage of all the fashion weeks would be a useful distraction to keep the Jahra and/or Saudi set yobs engaged.

4) Rope in LoYAC to arrange activites that excite youth such as, kite flying, skateboarding and karting outside the mall.

5) Organize frequent blood donation drives and free health checks: mobile health camps to make possible blood draws for screening of thalassemia, blood glucose etc, all of which serve as small but rather useful diversions for channeling of youthful energies and making the national sport of weekend birdwatching seem less macabre and more civil.

6) Holding of spelling bees at That-el-salasil.

7) Naming and shaming policy can be a rather useful deterrant. Mugshots and names of the yobs involved in a fight should be displayed on a special bulletein board – the Avenues Fight Barometer for all and sundry to see.

Alshaya recently stopped cash and credit card refunds in all their stores for returned items. According to the article on Arabian Business, this decision by Alshaya has caused an uproar of a sort with shoppers in the UAE but surprisingly I haven’t heard much about this in Kuwait. I don’t think I’ve ever returned anything back to a store so this won’t have much effect on me but I’m sure it’s going to piss quite a few people off. [Link]

Thanks Fred

I was in Dajeej the other day when I passed by Negochi whom I briefly posted about last year. The store is known for their rifles but I left the place more impressed with the other stuff they carried like their huge collection of flashlights, binoculars and even their large collection of glow sticks (ravers rejoice!). The place isn’t that big but it’s packed to the brim with a lot of random cool items that I don’t have any use for but wish I did. For those interested they also carry Leatherman tools although their collection is a bit limited.

I took some pictures with my phone cam hence the low quality shots but you can check out more photos on their Facebook page although their pictures seem old since the shop has a lot more items on display now.

Negochi is located off the 6th Ring Road in Dajeej right behind where the new OSN office is located (down the street from their previous location). You could also call them up if you get lost on 97238543 or 24336426.

I finally got to pass by Payless over the weekend. Payless is the X-Cite Electronics outlet and they’ve been open for a couple of years now (I think) but never really had a reason to pass by until now. I was looking for some Alpine components for my car sound system and I was told I would find some models at Payless. I didn’t end up finding what I was looking for but I still found the place interesting. They had a lot of random stuff all over this large warehouse and some looked like great deals while others didn’t seem discounted at all. They had a lot of laptops, phone accessories and I even spotted a bunch of Sonos devices. They’re located in Shuwaikh near the main Alghanim head quarters opposite City Center. It should be easy to spot since the warehouse has a large yellow sign on top.

Since we’re on the subject of good deals I managed to get my hands on an Alpine PDX-4.150 car stereo amp for just KD21! The retail price for this Amp was $399 in the US before it was discontinued and that’s without tax or shipping cost to Kuwait so KD21 is ridiculously cheap. For some reason X-Cite is getting rid of all their Alpine stock so you can find some really good deals.

If you’re interested in the PDX-4.150 I took a snapshot from their point of sale system showing all the available locations where they might still have them. I passed by the Hawalli and Marina branch but they both didn’t have them even though the computer says they did so I marked them both out. The Rai branch is where I got mine (it was the last piece) and the Baitak Tower branch has one on display but missing some accessories. That leaves 3 other branches which I didn’t pass by but they should have a piece each left so good luck finding one.

I was having lunch today at the Avenues and I noticed Victoria’s Secret is opening up next to Starbucks opposite Lorenzino near The One furniture store. It looks like it’s going to be much larger than the Marina Mall branch so I’m guessing they’re going to have a proper lingerie section which is why I find the location a bit weird.

Jleeb residents will be pleased to know that Géant Easy Supermarket will be opening up in 2 days time in Souk Al Jleeb. This will be their second Géant Easy branch in Kuwait with their first being in Salmiya. Géant Easy is smaller than the regular Géant.

They actually have some pretty cool stuff for guys. I bought some jackets from them a few years back from London and I was planning to order some polos from their online store but might as well wait until they open up. They’ve got a very cool iPad app btw.

The watch store “Write.Time” at The Avenues are now the official dealers for Nixon watches in Kuwait. Problem is they’re selling the watches for nearly double the price they sell for on Amazon. For example the Time Teller P series watches similar to the pink and blue one above cost around KD14 on Amazon while they’re selling them for KD28 in Kuwait. The Rubber Player series similar to the green, blue and black watches on the bottom left of the picture below sell for around KD38 on Amazon but KD72 in Kuwait. So the good news is we now have Nixon watches in Kuwait, the bad news is they’re over priced.

There is a shop next to my office that has a discount on everything including Maglite flashlights. They’re selling the 3-D cell version for KD6.250 which is nearly the same price as Amazon and the cheapest I’ve seen in Kuwait. The place is located right next to the NBK branch on Fahad Al Salem Street, opposite the park.

I saw the camera above on Gizmodo today. It’s a digital camera that’s waterproof and costs just KD10. Seems like the perfect thing to take to the chalet on weekends and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. It’s a 1.3MP camera which doesn’t sound like much but it’s more than you need for Facebook or posting on a blog. It also shoots video but from what I read the quality isn’t that great. In case you drop it the camera floats on the water which is pretty cool as well.

Anyway here is the link to the camera on [Amazon]

Update: My friend just told me he got the Kodak camera above from Amazon for KD18. It’s 12MP and looks a lot cooler than the KD10 camera I originally posted. It also comes in 3 colors. Here it is on [Amazon]

[YouTube]

I had been using the WaterField ultimate sleeve case ever since I got it in May of last year and it’s been really great. Only issue I had with it is that it was sometimes to bulky to fit into my smaller messenger bag and Nat couldn’t fit it into her purse unless the purse was also pretty big. So I looked for a thinner case I could use on occasions I didn’t need as much protection and decided to go with WaterField again. They had a model called the suede jacket (video above) which is extremely thin and just allows you to protect the iPad from scratches it might get being carried around freely in your bag or purse. I’ve been using it for awhile now and I love it as well. The material of the sleeve actually cleans your iPad as you pull it in or out which is a great way to get rid of all the smudges. Price wise it’s not that expensive at $19 but when you add shipping and then Aramex’s fee to ship to Kuwait it does become a bit over priced. It’s still a great buy for someone looking for something as unobtrusive as this. [Link]

I was at Al Bader Stationary randomly walking around when I noticed some amazingly designed Lyra brand coloring pencils called ColorStripe. I know it sounds strange.. what the hell is an amazingly designed coloring pencil? Well that’s what I thought was the best part about it, someone actually decided to redesign the coloring pencil as we know it and did such an incredible job the coloring pencils won a gold in the iF product design awards as well as a reddot design award for best of the best. These are simple coloring pencils we’re talking about here.

They look like no other pencil I had ever seen before and that’s probably because these are how coloring pencils would look like in the future except they’re here right now. I of course picked up a box right away along with a matching sharpener. Not sure what I am going to do with them but I just couldn’t resist not getting them, if anything just to say thank you to Lyra for creating something so beautiful. The box of 8 coloring pencils cost me KD2.750 while the sharpener cost me 900fils. [Link]

I was passing through Zahra Complex the other day and noticed a bunch of No Smoking signs. Not sure if they smoking ban is being enforced but at least they sound serious about it.