Category: Shopping

THE One has a pretty cool customer feedback system. Right next to the cashier there is a little device with buttons and statements like “The service was fast and efficient” and “I found the staff knowledgeable” etc.. and answers right next to them like “Absolutely” or “Sort of” or “Not really” etc… While waiting to pay for your item you can just give your feedback on your experience in a process that takes only a few seconds. No need to give your name, number, birthday, time of visit and all that other crap. I think more stores need to implement this very easy to use system since its a quick process and more fun than filling a card with 20 questions.

There was a website address on the machine www.cfs-me.net which takes you to the dealers of the device. On the site they have more pictures and information regarding this system. Pretty cool.

I was checking the blog 4th Ring Road today when I spotted their post on the new Electrozan offer so I decided to pass by them and pick up a BlackBerry Curve for Nat. When I got to the Electrozan showroom I found out the BlackBerry’s were sold out already. The employee told me they will be getting more tomorrow afternoon but I also found out why the Curve’s were being sold for cheap… they are T-Mobile branded. That automatically turned what sounded like a really good deal into a bad deal. Let me explain:

– An unlocked unbranded BlackBerry Curve costs KD135 on Amazon [Link]. With shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD142. Sorry this was for the QWERTZ keyboard.

– An unlocked unbranded BlackBerry Curve costs KD145 on Amazon [Link]. After tax and shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD165.

– Now on the other hand a new unlocked T-Mobile branded BlackBerry Curve from eBay costs KD124 [Link]. With shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD129 which is KD30 cheaper than Electrozan.

So to summarize things, its still a much better deal to order a BlackBerry Curve online since a saving of KD30 is a pretty big chunk.

Update: Just picked up a Curve from Electrozan for Nat. Paypal locked up my account because I logged in and paid for something through my VPN and they assumed someone else got into my account. So now I can’t use eBay for awhile. The BlackBerry is T-Mobile branded and comes with T-Mobile literature. Employee said its officially unlocked so I can do the software updates. Comes with 6 months warranty so it will be interesting to see what exactly that means if something does go wrong from now to 6 months time. They’re out of Bolds at the moment.

Update 2: The Curve’s sold at Electrozan are from T-Mobile Germany which means the keyboard is a QWERTZ and not the regular QWERTY. Simply put, the locations of the letters Z and Y are swapped.

Last month while browsing the web I landed on a website which spoke about some cool solar powered lights that Ikea was going to introduce into the market. To my surprise, while shopping today at Ikea I spotted the lights! They had the whole collection and the most expensive one (pictured below) was for around KD6 and that was because the set contained five light sticks. That’s pretty cool and cheap!

I noticed something recently with my Aramex Shop&Ship mailbox which actually pissed me off until I got a phone call awhile ago explaining to me what was going on. For the past two weeks I’ve been buying a lot of stuff from Amazon and eBay. The problem I was facing was that I would have lets say four packages in my US mailbox waiting to be shipped to Kuwait but then Aramex would only ship one of them. This usually happens during periods of time when people shop online a lot like before Christmas or Eid so it didn’t make sense why it was happening now. Now what confused me with all of this is that the rest of the packages ended up shipping the next day but then all four of my packages arrived to Kuwait at the same time. It didn’t really make any sense.

So after a few emails complaining I got a phone call today from Aramex and it turns out they’ve done something new. Basically they only have two cargo flights a week out of the US. This is why they ship the stuff to Kuwait twice a week. Two weeks ago they struck a deal with Kuwait Airways where they are now able to ship some items to Kuwait on their planes which from what I understood are daily flights. Aramex is limited by the kind of mail and the amount of mail they can ship on those flights so thats why they were “choosing” what to send from my packages. Anything that can’t be sent on those daily Kuwait Airways flights remains in the mailbox until a cargo plane is available to take them to Kuwait which is twice a week.

In short, some of the packages from now on will ship the day after they arrive to the box while others will continue to be shipped only twice a week. Thats pretty cool.

Note: For those of you who don’t know what Aramex Shop&Ship is, its a forwarding mailbox which Aramex sets up for you in the US or the UK and any package that gets sent to that mailbox gets forwarded to you here in Kuwait.

There is a Lamborghini Diablo for sale on Q8Car for only KD14,500. I think that’s not a bad deal although I am not too fond of the color. [Link]

Asking price? A ridiculous KD20,000! You could probably buy two from eBay for that price and ship them to Kuwait (ok maybe not two but still) or just wait until the local dealer gets them and sells them for around KD11,000. [Link]

I found out about this online BBQ store from Buzberry and I think the idea is pretty interesting. But there are a few things I would fix like adding pictures of the products, better descriptions, decreasing the delivery time to a few hours instead of 48hours, and lowering the minimum order down to KD5 or something instead of the current KD20. Adding an option to have them BBQ the stuff for you in case you don’t want to go through the hassle of doing it yourself would also be cool. [Link]

I finally got to pass by the new Sultan Center branch in Hawalli. First I have to say the location is crap since its located in traffic hell Hawalli, also if there is anything going on at the stadium next door don’t even think about passing by this branch since the stadium and Sultan Center share the same parking lot.

On the other hand the supermarket itself has really wide aisles and everything is nicely spread out. They seem to have more varied products compared to the main Salmiya branch but thats probably because they can fit more stuff. I think I’m going to do all my shopping at this branch from now on. Here is a link with a map and more info. [Link]

A reader emailed me a link to a Kuwaiti online sex shop. I spent a bit of time on the site trying to find something PG rated I could attach to this post but had problems finding something. They have vibrators, S&M stuff, costumes, creams and a ton of other random stuff. I am guessing this stuff is illegal in Kuwait and that someone is going to get into a bit of trouble now… [Link]

Thanks yaki-CHAN!

A reader sent me pictures of two Samsonite Swarovski Edition bags which a Samsonite representative dropped off to him. The smaller bag is going for KD3,500 while the larger one is priced at KD7,000. You can check out the pictures he sent me by clicking on continue below.

Thanks Karim!

I love watches so when the owner of Q8 Chrono emailed me the link to his site I quickly went to check it out. It’s kinda like Q8car.com except for watches or at least thats the kind of site I hope it turns into. The site lists a lot of new watches and also around 20 used watches (which is my favorite section). There is a pretty decent used watches market in Kuwait but all the stores that sell them are scattered around Kuwait. Having them all online on one site would be pretty practical. The site is still being worked on and the owner still has many things he wants to implement but for now you can check the site by going to Q8chrono.com

I hope the used section gets updated often and there should be a way of contacting the site if I want to sell a watch or maybe an automated form? I also just realized the used watches section is 2 pages long, you need to click on older entries at the bottom to get to the second page. Not very practical, he should ditch wordpress and set up a proper e-commerce site.

Update: Ok found the contact information, it was on the main page but there should be a link to the contact info on every page.

K5 has an interesting post about this cool little store he found called Nawader Al Kuwait. The place has a huge collection of vintage Arabic vinyl records and also vintage radios and record players. The place also has other random items, personally I am interested in the painting of the musicians above so I might pass by tonight to check the place out. You can see more pictures and information about the place on K5’s blog [Here]

Géant hypermarket will be opening in Kuwait at the 360 degrees mall in June 2009. Although Sultan Center purchased and took over the Géant franchise in Lebanon, Tamdeen Group will own the Géant chain in Kuwait.

Thanks YBhatti!

I picked up the latest issue of brownbook and they had an article on Kuwait’s online fashion market mentioning how there were nearly 60 online stores and highlighting their favorite 7. Here they are:

1. www.gojiboutique.com
2. www.krayvstore.com
3. www.cash-art.com
4. www.q8-fashion.com
5. www.butterfly-g.com
6. www.pinkmoonboutique.com
7. www.labiella.com

British Airways have amazing offers on their flights to London. A round trip economy ticket to London is for only KD140 with tax while a round trip Business Class ticket is now only KD512 with tax. Those are really great prices. [Link]

Here is a screen shot of the economy class price [Picture]
Here is a screen shot of the business class price [Picture]