Category: Shopping

I passed by IKEA earlier tonight, the new one which is located at the Avenues Mall. It IS huge, very huge. I really liked the new place, the whole mall although still closed looks massive. The most noticable update at IKEA has to be the restaurant, its now around 4 or 5 times larger then it was before. Actually what am I saying, the whole place is like 4 times larger. Its now a really long walk from the beginning till the end.

I had dinner at the IKEA restaurant, Chicken Masala with Rice. It was pretty good but to help paint a picture on how big the new IKEA is, by the time I got to the exit I was hungry again and ended up ordering food from the snack stand near the exit. The new snack stand by the way is a huge improvement over the old one. Other then corn, ice cream, and hotdogs they now have shawerma. I decided to order one just to try it, I would probably give it a 3 out of 5, still need to pass by and try it one more time before I can give my final score though.

The biggest change in the new IKEA is that you now have to pick up your packages yourself just before you get to the cashier. You enter this huge warehouse like room and its just shelves and shelves of packed goods. Someone told me IKEA did this to bring down the prices of the products by 10%. Whatever their reason I know many people will not like the fact that they now have to do manual labor. I took a picture of one of the shelves which you can view by clicking [Here]

Overall I think its a really great improvement. Although I really liked the old IKEA I think the new one is better in every way.

Yeah I know I just posted that I wouldn’t post today but then I remembered I needed to post this. LG have a 71inch plasma TV with home theater setup thats gold plated. Its currently displayed at their Salmiya branch adjacent to Alghanim Electronics. Its a really ugly setup as you can see and in person it also looks pretty cheap.

Can you guess how much it costs?

The LG setup you see in the picture above costs KD25,000! Its just ridiculous, not only that but its a display model. If I was the store manager I wouldn’t have a KD25,000 TV on display where everyone can come in and touch it, that would depreciate its value. If I a buyer on the other hand and was planning on splashing out KD25,000 I wouldn’t want a display model.. I wouldn’t want an LG either!

Both GAP and Banana Republic will be opening up at the new Avenues mall early next year. Although I am not a fan of either of them but at least they are new brands in Kuwait.

zMacShop got the new iPod Shuffles in stock. They are selling them for KD35 each. I pre-ordered mine from Amazon 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting for it to ship.

update: clicknbuy are also selling the shuffle for KD35. Mac&More were selling the shuffle for KD35 but they ran out of stock. Mac City on the other hand is selling the Shuffle for KD43.

I found the easiest way to order flowers today. I needed flowers for Nat and I didn’t have time to pass by this place near my home so I searched online and found a site called Q8Flowers.com. They had a decent variety of flowers available, they accepted Knet and best of all they had same day delivery. I sent her the bouquet called Soul Mate which is a mixture of pink and purple roses. It turned out to be pretty cool and large. Here is a link to the site. [Link]

I am also reading many positive comments regarding ClicknBuy. Seems they are quick to deliver and very cheap. Its pretty cool seeing all these local e-commerce sites starting to pop up.

My Nintendo DS Lite arrived today with my SuperCard and SuperKey. I found out recently that playing pirated games on the DS has become extremely easy and that all that was needed were two cards called the SuperKey and SuperCard. I got the cards from Real Hot Stuff and it cost only $72. Here is a link to the SuperCard and SuperKey bundle. [Link]

Just found this online store called Lo3baty which turned out is located in Kuwait. They aren’t selling much just one product, a radio controlled helicopter. Looks cool and its cheap but I am guessing its tiny. I emailed the owner asking if he would send me one so I could review, haven’t gotten a reply yet. [Link]

note: I don’t think its the same Lo3baty as My Toy located in Muthana. The reason is if it was the same I would think they would atleast have their contact numbers and shop address on the site. I also did a whois on the domain name and the information there is fake. If it was the same My Toy as Muthana they would have had the correct whois info. I think this site is just someone taking advantage of the Lo3baty name but isn’t actually connected to the real Lo3baty in Muthana.

Mac & More in Marina Mall have the red iPod Nano in stock but they are selling it for KD95 for some reason which is too expensive. Probably because they have a limited quantity, when I checked they had just 2 left.

Threadless are having a discount, tons of t-shirts for only $10 each. The offer ends Tomorrow. [Link]

Some Bling Bling. [Link]

I own this camera, I purchased it I think around 2 months ago for like $170 and its now selling for $132. Its really a great camera and I lug it around everywhere I go. My Nikon D70 is too big and doesn’t fit in my laptop bag while the Canon A530 is very compact and can even record videos at a resolution of 640×480. If you are looking for a good portable cam and a really good deal then this is a good camera to get. Check it out on Amazon. [Link]

Introducing: International Direct by Amazon!
International Direct offers Amazon customers a unique service: providing duty and tax estimation during checkout and customs clearance by the courier on your behalf. Your order arrives at your door without surprise duty charges. International Direct is also a great way to send gifts overseas. International Direct currently provides service to the following countries: Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.

Currently Kuwait isn’t on the list but since UAE and Saudi Arabia are then Kuwait could be next. [Link]

I was in Hawalli yesterday when I decided to pass by the store Best Buy Kuwait (not official Best Buy just a copy). Turns out they had the Sony UMPC on display. I had only seen it before online so it was cool seeing it in person. Its super tiny and I really wish Apple would come up with something like it. They were selling it for KD699. [Link]

If you can’t wait till the movie 300 gets released next year then you could buy the comic to keep you occupied till then. How close is the comic to the movie? I took two pictures from the comic and two screen shots from the movie trailer and you can see for yourself below.

If you are interested you can buy the hardcover version of the comic for only $18 from Amazon.com [Link]

I am sure at one time or another you tried purchasing an item using your K-Net or Visa card and the merchant asked from you an extra fee because you are using one of these cards. They would give you the excuse that Visa or K-Net charge them a certain amount for every transaction using these cards and that you need to pay it. Well here is what you the consumer needs to know.

First lets start with K-Net. K-Net is owned by the local banks in Kuwait. They do NOT charge the merchant any transaction fee. So if an item costs KD10 and you pay using your K-Net card, the merchant will get KD10. They will not be charged a single fils by K-Net. This is a fact and you can contact 2431280 if you need any further information on this. If a store tells you that they will have to charge you extra because you are paying with K-Net then you need to report that store to K-Net using the number above.

Now Visa is a different story. Visa DOES charge the merchant 4% for every transaction. This means if you buy an item for KD10, the merchant receives KD9.600. Although the merchant pays 4% for every transaction they do NOT have the right to pass on that 4% to you. According to Visa the merchant should not charge the customer for a Visa transaction and neither are they allowed to set a minimum amount in which you could use your Visa card with. So even if the item you are buying costs 100fils, you can pay with you Visa card. In case a store does try to make you pay the 4% transaction fee, report them to your local bank and they will take care of it. If you would like more information regarding Visa, you will also need to contact your local bank.

Hope this information was helpful.