Category: Shopping

Dear All,
The fire caused a partial damage to the exterior structure of the building. thanks god that the interior of both Burj Al Hamam and Seven Seas was not damaged by the fire. Therefore, for safety purposes, the restaurant will be closed today ONLY and will be back in business by TOMORROW morning.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused… and the necessary actions will be taken to solve the Issue ASAP. For more info, don’t hesitate to contact KOUT FOOD GROUP.

Regards,
Kout Food Group

I passed by Avenues for lunch and couldn’t find signs of any kind of fight that took place. What I did find was the location of the upcoming Dean & Deluca store. Its right in front of Häagen-Dazs. Interesting fact, did you know that Häagen-Dazs is actually an American brand? It’s not Scandinavian, its simply two made-up words that was meant to look Scandinavian to the American eyes. Here is more info on the Häagen-Dazs name. [Link]

I am not a big fan of Eureka Electronics but this deal is just incredible not to mention. Eureka currently have a special offer on the Acer Aspire One and they are selling them for only KD59. Thats super cheap, thats cheaper than Amazon cheap. The Acer Aspire One is an ultra portable notebook computer that competes directly with the Asus Eee and MSI Wind. The KD59 deal is on the Acer with the following specs: Intel Atom 1.6ghz, 512MB RAM, 8GB HD and comes with Linux pre-installed. No idea on how many they have in stock but if you want one I am presuming you need to move fast.

Thanks Cajie

I was walking around Muthana Complex when I spotted a second new branch of My Toy. The main branch is located on the ground floor and sells Tamiya radio controlled vehicles but the branch I found was located on the Mezzanine floor opposite the store that sells all the cool Japanese robots (behind Andalus). This second branch of My Toy is focused on plastic vehicle models… you know the ones that you glue together. I was always terrible at them since I was always too clumsy with the glue but its good to know there is still market for them.

For those of you who’ve never heard of My Toy. Its one of the oldest toy stores in Kuwait. I used to pass by their store in the 80’s when they were located in Salmiya. Here is a link to their website. [Link]

Update: Forgot to mention but their website has a link to their online store.

Louis Vuitton have reopened in Salhiya after shutting down for expansion.

Sephora the leading retail beauty chain in Europe opened at The Avenues yesterday.

A friend of mine called me up yesterday, he purchased Salmon eggs from Sultan Center and while eating them he noticed they tasted strange. He took a look at the expiry date and it turned out the eggs had expired over a month ago on August 18th! Sultan Center is the only supermarket I shop at so its really frustrating that something like this keeps happening over and over. From now on I am literally going to be checking the expiry date on every product I purchase.

My friend has now started a Facebook group so people can voice their concerns on this issue and he is also planning on releasing it in the papers this week specially after the fact that when he went to Sultan to complain they took the matter very lightly and told him to come back next week. Hopefully by shinning the spotlight on this issue Sultan Center will be forced to take action in stopping this from happening again. [Facebook Group]

I posted about the ZX 450’s back in July, what I didn’t know back then was that they would be limited to only 563 pairs! Luckily I found a pair online my size and just ordered them, there are still 3 more pairs available on eBay size UK9 and UK10 if anyone is interested.

I haven’t tried this, its a theory but it seems like a full proof plan. Vodafone in New Zealand sell unlocked versions of the iPhone 3G, meaning unlike the US versions, they New Zealand iPhone would work here in Kuwait without needing to crack/hack it. Vodafone also sell the phone online on their New Zealand website and you can buy the phone using a Kuwaiti credit card without any issues but you can only ship it to a New Zealand address. Whats the solution? Get a New Zealand forwarding mailbox!

Here is the link to the New Zealand Vodafone website [Link]
Here is a link to a company that will setup a forwarding mailbox [Link]

The price of the phone on the Vodafone website is KD212. With the fastest method for shipping (2-4 days) from New Zealand to Kuwait according to the forwading mailbox website it will cost you KD18. That means the phone with the price of shipping to Kuwait will be KD230. Pretty cheap.

If anyone tries it and has success leave a comment below.

Sultan Center recently purchased Giant and Monoprix Supermarkets here in Lebanon and they’ve started rebranding them. Buzberry earlier in the month posted a picture of the TSC PLUS logo which is what they are calling their small branches and today I noticed their really large branch was branded as TSC Mega Market. Sultan Center now has incredible amount of market share since they purchased the two largest supermarket chains here in Lebanon.

Monthy Python fans will appreciate this. One of the funniest scenes in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the scene with the black knight. Now Computer Gear is selling a black knight doll featuring tear-off and stick-on arms and legs and also shouts out famous quotes like “Tis nothing but a scratch” or the famous “I’ll bite your legs off!”. It’s only $30 which isn’t too bad. [Link]

If you’ve been living in a cave all your life and never watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail here is the YouTube video of the famous black knight scene. [YouTube]

The Villa Moda warehouse which was originally located in the free trade zone recently moved to their Mubarakiya branch since they outgrew the original location. But, according to a Villa Moda employee by the end of September the Villa Moda warehouse will be moving to their new branch in Hawally. Many of you might have seen the building already, its next to the Qadsiya football stadium and originally was rumored to be a new Sultan Center. The new location is around 2000sq/m which is more than three times the size of the Mubarakiya branch but I think the building looks like crap and so very not Villa Moda like.

Update: Seems like they won’t be moving…

Dear Mark & Others,

Thank you for your comments and views, they will be duly noted.

On behalf of Villa Moda I would like to announce we will not be moving to Qadsiya location or relocating the warehouse to any other site.

Since moving to the Mubarakiya store we have had a great response from our customers. Enjoying the ability to shop for vintage or previous season merchandise whilst being in a unique environment.

Thank you once again.

Has anyone by any chance seen a store still selling the original iPods? I suddenly have the urge to get one. I found one still shrink wrapped in the box on eBay but I think its going to end up selling for over $300 easily which is more than what I am willing to pay for one. If a store in Kuwait still has one though they might be willing to let it go for cheap. I remember back in the day Eureka was selling the 5GB one for KD220. I wonder if they still have them in stock somewhere gathering dust?

Update: Wow, found an old post on Gizmodo where there was a competition called “Show us your iPod”. I don’t remember this but it seems I submitted a photo of my iPod mini autographed by the iPod inventor Tony Fadell and it actually was a finalist in their giveaway competition. Don’t know how I missed that, its from back in 2006.

Update 2: While I am being all retro here. The picture above is of Nibaq taken back in November 2002. I took the picture so we could submit it to iLounge for their iPods around the world gallery. Back then they didn’t have any submission from Kuwait. [Link]

While I was in Thailand I spotted the Acer Aspire One at one of the electronic stores. The Aspire One was recently released to compete with the likes of the Eee PC and I think its got a pretty good shot at it. For one thing the Acer is around $150 cheaper, I just checked Amazon and the Aspire One is selling for KD100 which is pretty darn cheap. It also comes in different colors, the one I saw was navy blue but if I was going to get one I would probably get the white one pictured above.

Also today while I was at Carrefour I spotted the MSI Wind which is also competing in the same category. Carrefour had it priced at KD185 but its cheaper on Amazon although its currently out of stock. Here is the link to the Acer Aspire One on Amazon. [Amazon Link]

A bunch of people now have the new iPhone’s here in Kuwait and if you are wondering how to get a hold of one well it seems the easiest solution is eBay. You have two kinds of iPhone 3G’s you can get, you can get the regular locked version which is the one thats being sold in most parts of the world like in the US or you can get the Italian version which at the moment seems to be the only one that is officially unlocked.

The regular locked iPhone 3G is cheaper and sells for anywhere from $700 to $1000. Most users on eBay list them as unlocked iPhones but at the moment thats just not true. If you read the posts carefully they all promise to have the unlocking done a week after purchase… they are basically just waiting for the unlocking software to get released. You can go ahead and buy this version if you want but as of this post you won’t be able to use it in Kuwait at the moment. Very soon though with the next update of the unlocking software Pwnage you should be able to unlock it.

The Italian version is currently the only version available “officially” unlocked. This means if you buy the Italian version of the iPhone you can use it in Kuwait without needing to hack it or anything. This version is available for sale on the regular ebay.com but a larger collection is available on the Italian eBay which is ebay.it. The Italian iPhone sells on average for around $1400 which is pretty expensive but the advantage is that it works in Kuwait without a hitch.

If you’ve got the extra cash it might be a better deal to fly to Italy, spend a night or two there, buy an iPhone and then come back. If you don’t have the extra cash just wait a couple of months and the prices will probably drop down but I doubt they will go down under $500 or $600.