Category: Shopping

The list of the hottest emerging markets for retail just got released and for the first time ever Kuwait made it onto the list but not only that, Kuwait somehow managed to rank the second hottest market place in the world for retail! China is in first place as expected, India in third and Kuwait squeezed in between the two. This probably has to do with Alshaya being based in Kuwait and bringing in and opening all these foreign brands. I’m still waiting for some kind of news on Shake Shack..

“Kuwait is an attractive opportunity,” said Deepa Neary, a retail industry consultant at A.T. Kearney. She cited the country’s location in the Middle East, which is quickly becoming an exciting region for retailers, and its highly concentrated urban population, which helps make the market more accessible for retailers.

According to Neary, Kuwait can serve as an entry point into the Middle East.

Here is the top 10 list:
1- China
2- Kuwait
3- India
4- Saudi Arabia
5- Brazil
6- Chile
7- United Arab Emirates
8- Uruguay
9- Peru
10- Russia

You can read the article by following this [Link]

Thanks Zoogi

I found this local website by mistake and I’m actually impressed. Not at the design or anything like that but on the items that are listed… luxury watches! There seems to be a good range but I am struggling to find out whats used, whats new, whats from the local dealers and what’s gray market. I am guessing the Rolex Deep Sea for example is used since it’s listed for KD2,250 while it retails for KD3,250 locally before discount. They have the Audemars Piguet Offshore Diver listed for KD4,250 but it retails for KD4,500 at the dealer although they’re out of stock. The Panerai section is beautiful, they’ve got my favorite which is the very limited PAM 26. The Hublot section… lets not even go there. Basically I would have to agree with their tag line, it has to be Kuwait’s premier luxury site since I am not aware of any other one. [Link]

Back in 2006 I posted about the Philips BodyGroom that had just been released. It became super popular and every guy I know ended up getting one. I personally bought two of them, a 110v first followed by a 220v version. Five years later Philip have gone and completely redesigned the shaver which I ended up ordering from Amazon while I was in New York last month.

The new shaver looks better, comes with a prettier stand and most importantly works better. First of all you no longer need to attach various sized comb attachments to the trimmer since with the new design the trimmer is adjustable. Secondly the shaving head now pivots in 3D which results in a more “comfortable” shave. I am not going to go into a lot of details since you can get all the info from the Philips shaveeverywhere.com website. I will say this though, the new BodyGroom performs a lot better than the older one.

You can order it from Amazon since I haven’t found it locally yet. The price is around KD20 and this new BodyGroom is multi-voltage which means its 110-240v. Here is the link to the shaver on Amazon [Link]

The other day I linked to a review of SeaBob which costs around KD4,000. Obviously its not something everyone can afford but there is an alternative… the SeaScooter. Costs around KD80 at Fantasy World and does the same thing although a lot lot slower and a lot less cooler. But, it’s also a lot more cheaper.

Yesterday a reader emailed me telling me that the Electrozan branch in Salmiya got shut down by the ministry. So I emailed my Electrozan contact to find out what happened and it turned out to be a license issue. Now the cool thing is that today they put up stickers on the door which you can see above.

The first message apologizes to the customers for being closed and explains why. The second message tells customers that if they take a picture of the door with the message on it and show it to any employee at another one of their branches they get a 5% discount.

I thought that was pretty cool since usually when shops get closed by the ministry no one knows why and rumors get spread. In this case they actually tell everyone why and offer a nice little discount in return.

I guess the gelatin issue isn’t really an issue.

Over the weekend I found out about a cool real estate website called Masahati that actually works pretty well. There are a ton of websites dealing with real estate in Kuwait but the majority are either outdated, don’t work right or just too complicated to use. Masahati, although doesn’t contain a lot of apartments right now is actually very enjoyable and fun to use.

There are a variety of ways to use the site but I like using it with the map of Kuwait. You scroll around on the map and when there is an apartment for rent it shows up as a 3D icon which you can click and get more info. The search can be customizable and if you don’t like the map view you can flip through available apartments in a list view, thumbnails view or even a photo flow. Hopefully with more exposure they can get more popular and add more apartments. Check out the website [Here]

Update: Here is a link to their facebook group [Link]

Just got hold of an iPad from X-Cite to review and check out. It just arrived from the States and it’s one of the first iPads in Kuwait. So far my first impression is that the iPad looks even cooler than the pictures, it’s really an incredible device I love it, the screen is amazing, better than the screen of my MacBook which I’m currently typing on. X-Cite just got a small batch of iPads today and they’re on display at their Avenues X-Cite branch so you can go and try them out.

I’m going to play around with my review unit for a bit more and post some more details later today. I’m curious to see if I’ll be able to buy books from the iTunes store.

X-Cite are getting the 16GB iPad with WiFi and the price is KD299. If you want to pre-order an iPad you need to leave a KD50 deposit and you can only book one unit since quantities are limited. It’s first come first served. You can only pre-order the iPad from the Avenues X-Cite branch starting at 7PM today. The earlier you book, the higher the chance you get your iPad in one of their next shipments. As an added bonus, if you mention my blog when booking you will get a free flash drive. If you want to play with an iPad pass by the Avenues X-Cite branch after 7PM today since that’s when they will go on display.

I was at Ace Hardware picking up a clog remover (my 4th bottle and I’ve still got a clog) when I noticed they’ve completely restocked. Around once or twice a year Ace Hardware gets their big shipment and it seems a new one arrived. All the shelves are packed with stuff including the pet section. The picture above is of all the doggie treats. The hardware section and car section have also been restocked. Lots of cool stuff.

I was at Virgin today and noticed they’re selling metal lunch boxes. These aren’t the orignal Thermos metal lunch boxes from the 80’s but they’re pretty close. They’re selling for around KD3.5.

Back in January I posted 3D renderings of the Avenues phase III project and today iLSuL6ana uncovered the video presentation above. Simply put phase III is going to be jaw dropping. [YouTube]

Blushberry posted around a week ago that Sultan Center had brought a small stock of frozen White Castle Cheeseburgers and that they quickly went out of stock. For some reason I had a feeling if I passed by Sultan Center today I would find them (I was just really hungry). Sadly I didn’t find any White Castle burgers, just the ones above. Sucks.

I noticed they started getting Chicago Gourmet Steaks. The brand sounds familiar but I don’t remember from where. Two t-bone steaks for a combined weight of 800grams is for around KD10.

The Alpine iXA-W407 which I posted about a few days ago is supposed to sell for around $750 but for some reason it’s being sold for just $379 on Amazon right now. I’m sure its a mistake so I quickly placed an order for one. If you’re interested in it here is the [Link]

Update: I purchased the unit twice and both times the seller canceled my order. Did this happen to anyone else?

Update2: Price is back up now to $550. I placed an order for the fourth time and it seems to have worked now. $550 is still a good deal. I ordered the following items so far for my Toyota FJ install:

Alpine iXA-W407 Digital Media Station
Alpine HCE-C107D Rear View Camera
Peripheral PTR7 Multi control interface bypass module
Scosche TA2076B 2007 Toyota FJ ISO/Double DIN With Pocket Kit
Stereo Wire Harness Toyota FJ Cruiser 07 2007

The PTR7 will allow me to change the system settings and watch movies while the car is in motion and not just parked.

Update: I originally purchased the Scosche adapter for the Toyota FJ Cruiser but it turned out to be really crap and wouldn’t fit the stereo right. I ended up installing the Alpine using the Metra adapter which worked out a lot better. Here is a link to it on Amazon. [Link]

Pottery Barn is going to be opening up in the Avenues in place of where Top Shop and Top Man used to be. I’ve never been to Pottery Barn and according to the sign outside, this will be the first branch outside the States. That’s nice, but what about Home Depot? Costco? In-N-Out? Walmart?

This might sound strange but this little store is probably one of my favorite shops in Kuwait. It’s called Teacher’s Cellar and it’s located in Muthana Complex in Kuwait City. The store sells classroom supplies and it’s unbelievable the amount of stuff they were able to shove into the place. It has everything from scratch and sniff stickers to fake plastic food, washable crayola paint, stamps, hand puppets you name it. It’s mostly supplies for kindergarten and primary school classes so that’s why it’s all fun stuff. It’s really an incredible little store and I wish we had more of these little specialty shops in Kuwait.

They’re located on the Mezzanine floor of Muthana Complex opposite the Internet cafe. They also have a pretty decent website which you can check out by clicking [Here]