Category: Shopping

Yesterday the local blogosphere came alive about how starting January 1st The Avenues would turn into a non-smoking mall. I for one was very skeptical when hearing this since the airport for example is supposed to be smoke free yet people there smoke casually without any consequences. At restaurants smokers also usually have the best tables while non-smokers get shoved all the way in the back. Since I was in contact with someone at The Avenues, I decided to find out more about this smoking ban and how they were going to enforce it.

First of all The Avenues is going to be smoke free except for the following areas:
– Designated areas in cafés and restaurants
– Seating areas and space outside The Avenues (open air)
– 9 air freshener machines (pictured above) will be installed at all the basement entrances and those stations will be designated as smoking areas

Regarding enforcing this ban, if The Avenues security personal find anyone smoking they will approach them and ask them to stop. Since they’re a mall they can’t fine smokers themselves but they will be cooperating closely with the police who are present at the mall on a daily basis.

I am a non-smoker and I hate walking in a mall behind someone smoking so personally I really hope this campaign succeeds and The Avenues can truly enforce this smoking ban and set an example.

Last night I posted a sneak peek of the new Choowy Goowy Cafe that’s opening up at 52 Degrees and today Nat passed by and was able to send me pictures of 52 Degrees as well. The place so far looks really cool and that has a lot to do with the fact it was designed by the Kuwaiti architect Ahmed Al-Baghli, the same guy behind the beautiful MELENZANÈ. Nat on the other hand created the 52 Degrees identity. You can check out some sneak peek pictures below, they are soft launching tonight.

For those of you who don’t know what 52 Degrees is, it’s basically a department store that will be filled with Kuwaiti products and creations from clothing and accessories to food and desserts.

A reader sent me two pictures of a very long queue at Geant right now. Seems they have an offer on Samsung 1080 phones, they’re selling it for KD1 and that includes when you buy a KD5 phone line.

Thanks Yousuf

GoNabit is an interesting website that’s been around for awhile now I guess but just recently included Kuwait. It’s a website where they have new offers all the time. Last week for example you could open up an Aramex Shop&Ship account for half price, today for example you can get a KD10 voucher to use at Diva’s for KD5 or you can pay KD10 and get a KD20 voucher to use at Saso Ocean Groove. They have limited quantity on these offers and once they run out they move over to the next offer. For each deal to work a minimum amount of people is required to sign up. For example for the Diva’s offer 10 people need to sign up for it at least. If 10 people sign up then the deal goes through and you get your voucher. If less than 10 people sign up then you get your money back and the offer is canceled. [Link]

Thanks Ghinoua

Update: I added more details on how GoNabit works

I was at Dean & Deluca when I spotted the sign above and I could make out the word seedless underneath the sticker. I love seedless watermelons and always have them whenever I am in the States but never knew why we never got them in Kuwait. So I asked an employee there if they had any seedless watermelon and he told me they ran out but are getting some again in a couple of weeks. Finally seedless watermelons in Kuwait!

So a reader sent me a link to her blog where she wanted me to check out this toy gun she found being sold here in Kuwait. I didn’t see what was so interesting about it until I watched the video. Not sure if I find this funny or serious since it goes both ways depending how you look at it. Make sure you have the volume loud. [YouTube]

Thanks Elle

I noticed Sports Corner in Salmiya has a small section with authentic Red Bull Racing Gear. They had a bunch of their Formula 1 branded gear including Vettel tshirts and Red Bull racing caps and polos. For those of you don’t follow Formula 1, this year Vettel who drives a Red Bull car was the champion.

I’m not a big fan of True Value (I prefer Ace) but I was there over the weekend looking for something when I found two interesting items.

The first is this fire safe/waterproof external hard drive. The idea is that you back your stuff onto it and in case your apartment catches on fire your data would be safe. Price was expensive at around KD180. It costs KD113 on Amazon without shipping and the thing is heavy but I doubt that shipping with Aramex would cost more than KD30 or KD40.

The second interesting thing I found were Daisy brand air rifles. They had the Daisy 840 Grizzly rifle for KD39 (KD12 on Amazon) and the Daisy 880 with Scope for KD49 (KD16 on Amazon). They looked pretty nice.

965 Malls is an interesting new blog that’s basically about all the malls in Kuwait. They post information on the latest shop offers, activities taking place at malls and random tidbits like who shut down, who’s opening up and even about internal mall quarrels. It’s interesting stuff. [Link]

I am not a huge fan of Romain Jerome watches since their style isn’t to my liking but I do like the concept of their DNA series. The ones pictured above are part of the Romain Jerome Titanic DNA collection in which they’ve used steel from the actual Titanic wreck fused with steel from the shipyard in Belfast where the ship was built nearly a hundred years ago to create the rusted watch bezel. You’re literally wearing a part of history on your wrist. They have other DNA collections like the moon dust series in which the watch dial contains mineral dust from the moon while the steel contains fragments from the Apollo XI spacecraft. They even have a Eyjafjallajokull Volcano DNA watch!

Anyway while I was walking through Salhiya on my way to Leila for lunch I spotted the Titanic DNA series in the display window of a shop called Ghaddah in front of LV. I had only seen them in pictures before so it was cool seeing them live. I went in and asked their starting price and if anyone is interested they start at KD3,800 which isn’t too bad considering. Turns out Ghaddah is also the dealer for Richard Mille, now those are watches I really like…

[YouTube]

Looks like Victoria Secret is finally opening a proper shop in Kuwait. The picture above was taken at Marina Mall next to Mac Cosmetics.

Note: No mention of lingerie on the hoarding so could be just their beauty products which would make sense since the space there isn’t that big

For some reason the past two weeks I’ve been obsessed with Casio G-Shocks. I’ve already posted a ton of pictures in my twitter account and I’ve even posted about them on my other blog 248PM. I’m a huge fan of watches but I’m always worried about them getting scratched, lost or stolen so when I started checking out the G-Shocks it was like this is a watch I can get and not have to worry about.

There were a few different models I liked, I first liked the G-5500 special editions which came in two colors (pictured above), a bright yellow representing Tokyo and a gark gray one representing New York City. I then saw the GA-100 (pictured below) and loved how dark and evil it looked. Finally I saw and read about the GX56 (pictured on top of post and the very end) and knew right away that was the watch for me.

The GX56 is Casio’s largest G-Shock ever made. It not only huge but it’s also super tough and I personally think looks really great. It comes in three colors but the Casio dealer in Kuwait gets them in just one color which is the one in the picture above. I ended up getting that and so far I’m loving it. Price wise it’s not cheap since it costs KD50 which is on the expensive side of the Casio spectrum. The GA-100 is for KD35 while the G-5500 special editions are for KD40 each.

The Casio dealer is pretty decent, their prices are slightly more expensive than Amazon but when you add shipping costs and tax it turns out to be exactly the same as Kuwait. The branch I kept passing by was the one behind Souk Al Kabeer in Kuwait City. All the models I posted above are available at their Kuwait City branch. Their phone number is 22458727.

Translation: “We have large sizes available up to 10XL”.
Thought it was funny until I googled it and turns out 10XL is an actual size…

I’m a huge fan of Victorinox Swiss army knives and if I wasn’t so clumsy with sharp objects I would probably have a nice huge collection at home. Thing is I have three Swiss army knives and have managed to cut myself accidentally with all three (one of them pretty deep) so I’ve kinda kept my distance from them.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the knives. They have some really great looking ones with my favorite being the bright emergency yellow RescueTool which I’ve had my eye on for a while now. Majority of people don’t know this but we have a pretty good Victorinox dealer here in Kuwait. The shop isn’t in the best location and the interior design is pretty crap (check photos below) but they do have a pretty huge collection.

The shop is called Shalimar Stores and they’re located in the ground floor of the mall right behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. Prices of knives vary with the majority falling in between KD5 to KD15. They also carry Victorinox scissors, bags and watches as well. Their phone number is 22451270