Categories
Fashion Kuwait Shopping

Gucci in Bulk

I woke up early today morning to take Nat to the Villa Moda sale. She had seen this purse two weeks ago which she liked and she figured with the 50% off it would be a much better deal. After not facing any major morning traffic, we arrived to Villa Moda early at 9:40AM to find a large crowd waiting outside the closed doors. We didn’t wait for too long though before the doors opened at 9:55 and the large crowd started rushing into the building. There wasn’t any running or shoving but everyone was moving pretty fast.

The most popular stores inside were Gucci, Prada and D&G in that order. The guys store was empty since there were practically no guys there, they were probably all still asleep like I should have been.

The most surprising thing was that woman weren’t buying an item or two, they were mostly buying in bulk. Its just crazy, I saw one woman with 8 Gucci bags, a few belts and small boxes probably filled with wallets and scarfs. I saw one woman buy the same bag in 3 different colors. It was unreal, everyone was just walking around with a handful of bags and shoes as if they were buying CDs from the discount bin.

It was an interesting experience and although some of you might disagree, 50% off is a lot and makes everything much more approachable. Of course there are exceptions, a 1000KD leather Prada jacket is still expensive even after a 50% discount but a 170KD Prada nylon jacket is now much more affordable at only 85KD. There were a ton of good deals and it does make sense getting there early. The sale is going to last till Monday so it might be worth passing by although I doubt there is much left.




Categories
Kuwait Shopping Video Games

Cheap PlayStation 3’s

PS3 Kuwait Sony

The Sony dealer is selling the 60GB PS3 for only KD135. According to the salesman at the Souk Sharq branch they also have an offer where you can get a 60GB PS3 with an extra controller and a game of your choice for KD139. Thats a pretty good deal.




Categories
Complaints Kuwait Shopping

Wacom Tablet

Wacom Tablet

Why do companies bother getting rights for a brand if they are not going to bother getting the merchandise? Last night I passed by iCity who are the dealers of Wacom tablets in Kuwait and they didn’t have any tablets available in stock just one which was the display model. The salesman told me they get Wacom tablets only by order and that it takes 4-6 weeks to arrive. What the hell?? I could order the tablet myself from Amazon and have it delivered to me in a week AND it would cost me nearly half the price iCity is charging.

Under normal circumstances I would order from Amazon but I need the tablet in the next few days for a friend and ordering from Amazon is not an option. Does anyone know who else sells them in Kuwait (grey market)? I tried Virgin, Jarir and Hawalli and no one has it.




Categories
Automotive Personal Shopping

Jeep sound system

Alpine X001

Since I will be driving the Wrangler from now on due to my speeding tickets I’ve decided to upgrade the sound system. Marzouq recently upgraded his cars sound system and it made me realize how easy a process it could be to buy everything online.

I don’t have a really huge budget to start with so I decided to take it step by step and order the different components one at a time. The first thing I ordered was my head unit. There are only two brands I was considering, Blaupunkt and Alpine and after a bit of research I decided on the Alpine iDA-X001 (pictured above) which I’ve had my eyes on since before it was released. Its a digital media player that connects to the iPod and allows you to control it using a full color ipod like display. The only downside in the unit is it doesn’t have a CD player but since my music is all ripped onto my iPod anyways its really not a big problem. I found it on Crutchfield for $336 and that includes all the cabling, adapters and harnesses needed to install the unit into the Wrangler.

Next step is replacing the speakers followed by getting an amp and finally some kind of subwoofer enclosure that doesn’t eat up too much space from my tiny trunk. I am looking at JL Audio for the speakers and either Rockford Fosgate or JL Audio for the amps. The subwoofer enclosure will probably be from some generic brand but the sub itself will be either Rockford Fosgate or JL Audio.

If you are thinking on upgrading your car sound system, Crutchfield is a great place to start. You just tell them what car you have and they will tell you what fits. [Link]




Categories
Shopping Strange

Amazon oddities

Found this page on Amazon full of oddities. Some really weird stuff my favorites are the book “Knitting With Dog Hair: Better A Sweater From A Dog You Know and Love Than From A Sheep You’ll Never Meet“, the “UFO detector” and the “Inflatable Party Sheep“. [Link]




Categories
Shopping Video Games

Nintendo Wii for $79

nintendo wii 79

Last year Amazon had an offer where they sold a limited quantity of Xbox 360’s for $100. I tried to purchase one but wasn’t able to because their servers flooded and my connection wasn’t fast enough to get through. This year Amazon have a similar offer except its a chance to purchase the Nintendo Wii for only $79. For some reason they’ve changed the timings this year and now, if I want to have a chance to purchase one of these Wii’s, I need to be up Thursday at 5AM in the morning. Even though, I think I might actually wake up and try it. [Amazon Link]

update: Ok it seems its different from last years campaign. Since there was so much chaos last year, this year Amazon is RANDOMLY selecting 1000 customers who will be eligible to purchase the Wii at the discounted price.




Categories
Food & Drinks Funny Shopping

STAR WARS R2-D2 Soy Sauce Bottle

R2D2 Soy bottle

Best soy sauce bottle ever? It could very well possibly be until someone comes along and creates an Optimus Prime version. Preorders now available for a December release! [Link]




Categories
Information Shopping

Online stores in Dubai

Can anyone recommend an online store in Dubai where I could order electronics off? I don’t need them to ship it to Kuwait but to someone in Dubai as a gift.




Categories
Information Kuwait Shopping

Like The Home Depot in Kuwait

Home Depot

Someone just told me that Al-Sayer Al-Ghanim are launching a new store in Kuwait thats similar in concept to The Home Depot in the US. Supposedly its going to be called “Platform” and they will be launching some time mid this month. I think its about time someone is opening a decent home improvement place here in Kuwait, the only thing we have is Ace Hardware but it really doesn’t have a lot of things.




Categories
Shopping Technology Travel

Tesco self checkout

self checkout

We were at the supermarket picking up some munchies when on our way to the cashier we noticed a bunch of self checkout counters. It was hard to grasp the concept at first, I check out my stuff? Who will check and see if I was honest and didn’t skip anything? I still don’t know how they make sure people don’t cheat (probably monitor them with CCTV’s) but the idea of having customers check themselves out is unreal.

Its a pretty easy process, you take your items one by one, scan them on the machine and place them in the bag. Then you have a number of ways to pay, I chose credit card and just placed my card in the machine and that was it. Its the coolest thing ever.




Categories
Guest Bloggers Interesting Kuwait Shopping

Baroue, Baroue, Baroue.

Barou

On paper it doesn’t take much to open a store in Kuwait, the business process is comprised of the following: get money, get franchise, get location. The same store you visited a few years back on your summer vacation to an Arab hotspot (London, California, DC) has now shown up in your neighborhood avenue. In the past ten years, most Kuwaitis have grown accustomed to the growth of shopping malls and their associated brand names. The Midases of Kuwait who do come up with their own names are merely an amalgamation of other brands.

So what is one to do if the franchises (or combination of them under a local name) do not carry the products you are looking for?
You make it yourself.

Well, that is what one company recently did with Baroue… The concept was realized by Fahed Al-Mutawa after a bout of frustration finding items for his then newborn. After realizing the need for a child superstore; the idea behind Baroue was hatched, and it came to life through MS (Mutawa/Sayer) Retail (Restaurateurs in previous ventures).

What differs Baroue from any other children’s’ store?

Baroue has gone beyond the cookie-cutter approach of reselling items and retaining franchises; They have created a complete brand/franchise from zero. Their design studio (clothes) is based in London, their factories are in India and their head office is home sweet home, Kuwait.

Their first store is the third largest at the Avenues and carries everything from clothes and toys to a huge dragon that is a playpen in itself. And they have plans of expanding to other countries shortly.

For those who have had the theme song playing endlessly in their head (Baroue, Baroue, Baroue) .. You can blame Yuri Mrakdi, who originally came onboard as a Marketing director (and later sang the song). For the techies, you can track your children (RFID armbands) playing in the dragon through the kiosks scattered around the store.




Categories
Apple Kuwait Shopping

iPhones for cheap

Well not really cheap but cheaper than what a lot of people are selling their iPhones for. Click n Buy are selling the 8GB iPhone for KD219. Compared to Eureka’s KD399 price and compared to individuals who are selling their phones for KD230-KD250, suddenly Click n Buy looks like a good deal. [Link]




Categories
Apple Apps Shopping

Apple Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Leopard

So the new Max OS is available to pre-order from Amazon.com for $109. I placed my order but I wish they had it available as a download on the first day of release. Kinda like the Radiohead album. Actually, like the Radiohead album, it would also be cool if we could decide on the price ourselves, I would have paid $50 instead of $109. [Amazon Link]




Categories
Funny Kuwait Shopping

Order a maid online with Q8khadam.com

OMG this is hilarious! They even have a small shopping cart icon to click on when you find the maid you are looking for. [Link]

via Q8SWS




Categories
Apple Information Kuwait Shopping

Ordering stuff from the US including the iPhone

iphone order

I thought a lot of people knew about this already but I am still getting emails from people telling me they tried ordering an iPhone from the Apple Store but that its asking them for a US shipping address.

What you need to do to order an iPhone from the Apple Store or any electronic item from Amazon for that matter is to set up a US forwarding mailbox. Basically its a mailbox thats located in the States and anything that arrives in it will get forwarded to your address here in Kuwait.

There are four companies in Kuwait that offer this service and I’ve tried all four of them, my favorite and the one I use the most is U Shop We Ship. The main reason I prefer it over the competition is the fact that signing up to their service can be done online and all payments for the shipments can also be paid online. This makes things really practical. Items usually take 3 to 4 days to arrive to Kuwait once shipped from your US mailbox.

I know a lot of people have tried ordering iPhones from the Apple Store and have had their shipments canceled. I don’t know why thats happening and why it works with some people and not with others. I myself have ordered 3 iPhones with the last one around 10 days ago and I haven’t had any cancellations yet. I’ve also received the iPhones quickly without paying any custom fees. I don’t have any advice or tips on how to avoid getting your order canceled, I guess it could be random thing.

update: To find out what firmware you have on an un-activated iPhone do the following dial *3001#12345#* and then push “Call”

If you see 03.12.06_G then your firmware is 1.0.0
If you see 03.14.08_G then your firmware is 1.02
If you see 04.01.13_G then your firmware is 1.1.1