This is a very specific post to help anyone ever looking for Loctite products in Kuwait. If there is a specific Loctite product you can’t find at hardware stores like Ace, the Loctite distributor is located in Shuwaikh. A friend for example needed Loctite 660 and he couldn’t find it anywhere except at the dealer. The shop has a generic name and is called Al-Hashemi Const. Materials. They are also dealers for other brands including Devcon, Never-Seez and Moly Slip. If you try to find the place on Google Maps it will take you to the wrong location (their old shop), the actual location is here (inside this plaza).
Category: Shopping
Loctite Dealer in Kuwait
The very popular luxury piercing studio Maria Tash opened in the Prestige section of Avenues right next door to Harvey Nichols. They opened a few months ago but I only just noticed since their location isn’t in a part of Avenues I frequent a lot. This is now probably the best place in Kuwait to get your piercings since they’re always pioneering techniques and have nearly 30 years of experience. They don’t have a dedicated Kuwait Instagram account but their main account is @mariatash
The Palestinian Culture Center has been operating in Kuwait since the early 1970s with the goal of preserving, developing, and disseminating Palestinian material heritage. They hold exhibitions yearly where they sell hand-stitched dresses, shawls, and cushions, as well as handmade ceramics, books, and food aimed to preserve the Palestinian national identity. But recently, the PCC launched an online shop where they sell the same items but minus the food. Their pricing policy is based on a formula where one-third of the price goes towards the cost of materials, one-third is the fee they pay the ladies doing the work, and one-third helps students and families in need.
Check out their website, your support helps sustain the livelihoods of more than 350 Palestinian refugee women and their families. Here is the link.
Pelican Products in Kuwait
I’m a fan of Pelican products, I’ve bought two cases before and they’ve been indestructible while also keeping my gear very safe. The two cases I have, one I got locally from Al-Sabih Marine, while the second one from eBay. This past weekend I came across a local Instagram account that not only carries Pelican cases but also other Pelican products including backpacks and coolers. So if you’re looking for Pelican products, the Instagram account is @pelican.kw and their website is upay.to/kuwaitioffroad
Water Bar at Monoprix
If you haven’t been to Monoprix yet you’re missing out on a lot including their Water Bar. The Water Bar is their selection of premium water and it’s similar to how Dean & Deluca had a nice premium waters section when they first opened that looked like a vodka section. But, what makes Monoprix different is how expensive some of the bottles are with their most expensive one costing 40KD for a bottle of “handcrafted water” called Bling H2O which was voted the best tasting water in the world.
I’m not about to drop 40KD on a bottle to find out how good the water tastes but I might get a less fancy 5KD water the next time I get invited to dinner at a friend’s place. It could be the Kuwait equivalent of bringing a bottle of wine. Although, since we are on the subject of alcohol, Monoprix does carry a good selection of non-alcoholic wines, Champagnes, and even whisky.
Bakers’ Point is a new supermarket that focuses on everything baking-related. They describe themselves as “the first all-inclusive baking destination” and they might be just that. I passed by over the weekend and the place is pretty nice and fairly big for what is essentially just a baking supplies store.
The supermarket is divided into three essential parts. The first area is filled with all the different ingredients you might need (they have a huge variety of flour btw), the second section is frozen and refrigerated items, and the last section is baking tools and accessories.
It’s a pretty nice idea and a lot of the items come in wholesale packaging which is great if you’re a pro-hobbyist. They oddly don’t have a website but they are open daily from 7AM to 10PM. If you want to check them out they’re on Instagram @bakerspoint.kw and here is their location on Google Maps.
Basic Beach is a cool new and local sustainable brand with designs inspired and influenced by the oceans and its creatures. All their waterwear is made out of recycled material while their packaging is made of plants that decompose after a short period of time and can be used as compost.
Their first collection includes rashguards, swim shorts, surfsuits and fun t-shirts designed by local Kuwaiti artist @notnorrah. Their stuff isn’t too crazy expensive so if you want to shop their collection, they’re on Instagram @shop.basicbeach and their website is basic-beach.com
Monoprix Supermarket Now Open!
Yesterday Monoprix finally opened in Assima Mall so I passed by briefly today to check it out and wow. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but definitely not what I saw. Monoprix is easily the nicest looking supermarket in Kuwait right now. Like completely blows everything else out of the water.
Everything from the veggies section to the fish section looks incredible and its definitely going to be my new goto supermarket.
They have a shop and go service as well where you can shop for groceries and then have them deliver it to you later. While browsing the shelves I found a lot of brands I hadn’t seen anywhere else so it’s not just the same products in a nicer environment.
On the other hand, there aren’t any self check out stations which sucks. If you want to pass by check it out, they’re open daily from 9AM till midnight.
Best Electronics carry a few high-end sound systems but they’re only located in their flagship store in Shuwaikh. I’ve previously brushed on this briefly during my home sound system upgrade post but decided it was worth highlighting again since BEST recently moved their Shuwaikh store to a newer location and in the process, expanded their sound system section.
Here are some of the brands they carry at this one specific location:
Anthem
Denon
Definitive Technology
Earthquake Sound
Gallo Acoustics
Paradigm
Technics
You won’t find these items on their website or in any of their other locations. The new BEST store is located right next to their old location and is huge. The premium sound system section is located in the back corner on the ground floor and they even have a small theater room in which they demonstrate different screen projectors and speakers.
If you want to check any of the brands above out, here is the location of this store on Google Maps.
teeplus – create your own tshirts
Threadless is an online community of artists and an e-commerce website
teeplus is a local website that plays two roles, it allows you to buy apparel using local designs, and it allows you to sell apparel using your own original designs. It’s similar to the popular website Threadless except it’s local.
Buy Tshirts by Local Artists
The website contains hundreds and hundreds of designs submitted by various artists and designers with many of them being localized designs or ideas which makes them unique. Prices are pretty good with t-shirts starting at 9KD and sweatshirts for 15KD.
Sell & Create
As an artist, you can also make money by selling products that use your design ranging from t-shirts and sweatshirts to tote bags and phone covers. The way it works is you create an account, upload your design and then decide what you want to apply the design too. For every product, you sell through the website you make a profit ranging from 15% to 20%.
Even though teeplus is not a new idea, it’s still a great initiative since it creates an outlet for local artists to be able to generate money using their work. I’ve already added a whole bunch of t-shirts to my cart and still browsing for more as of this post. If you want to check out the designs or buy a t-shirt, the website is teeplus.co
If you follow Whole Latte Love on YouTube you probably know they’re big fans of Profitec coffee machines and constantly give them high scores. So while window shopping for a new machine recently, I was surprised to find out we have a distributor for Profitec in Kuwait. Rawi Coffee is the local exclusive distributor and their prices are considerably lower than prices online even when compared to Whole Latte Love:
Profitec 700
Rawi Coffee: KD 880
Whole Latte Love: KD 736 (not including tax and shipping)
Profitec 600
Rawi Coffee: KD 680
Whole Latte Love: KD 914 (not including tax and shipping)
Profitec 500
Rawi Coffee: KD 580
Whole Latte Love: KD 613 (not including tax and shipping)
If you’re looking to get a new prosumer coffee machine you should probably consider checking out these Profitec ones. Link
The LEGO store at The Avenues moved to a new larger location closer to the food court, the same location where Tim Hortons (RIP) used to be.
Judging by the photos, it doesn’t seem to be that much larger than the older space, but the storefront is definitely bigger and since it’s on a corner, the space looks more inviting with all the glass windows. The store officially opens later tonight.
Update: Just got the press release and it seems the new store isn’t larger than the older one, just a different location with a new look. There is a replica of the Kuwait Towers made using 21,591 LEGO bricks, a LEGO magnifying glass that allows you to view a model in detail, and there are hands-on play opportunities.
Flora is a fresh flower wholesaler and supplier located in the basement of a building in Salmiya. I live within walking distance from it and didn’t know they existed until a couple of years ago so doubt a lot of people know about it unless they’re really into flowers.
There is no sign outside, no display, it’s just a door that takes you down into a basement of a building. Once you’re done it’s pretty cool because it’s not something you’d expect to find. The space is divided into two main parts, the unrefrigerated area which usually contains plants, dry flowers, and various florist tools, and the refrigerated area which contains all their fresh flowers.
There are two large walk-in refrigerators in the back of the store that house the flowers. The refrigerators have glass sliding doors and there is a switch outside you need to press to open them to get in. So if it’s your first time there you can either have them open the door for you or look for the switch. Once you open the door you can just walk into the fridge and check the flowers they have and pick what you want.
I’m not a flowers person so don’t know much about the varieties they carry so thankfully they do have a website which you can check out that lists all their available flowers with their prices thefloraonline.com
The prices are going to be cheaper than elsewhere since they’re suppliers. They also do make bouquets and arrangements for you, so you can pick what you want and they’ll put it all together. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram is @thefloraonlinekw and here is their location on Google Maps. Once you get to the location you’ll see a flower shop on the ground floor, that’s a different shop, the entrance to Flora is to the right of it.
Self Checkout at Coops
When I mention the lack of self-checkout machines at supermarkets in Kuwait under one of my posts, a reader told me they had them at Shamiya supermarket. So I went last night to double-check and he was right, they had two of them. Turns out Mishref and Qurtoba Coop also have self-checkout machines.
I don’t shop at Coops so wouldn’t have known about this unless someone told me. Are self-checkout machines now popping up in all Coops? Cuz if that is the case it’s even weirder that a private more modern supermarket like Sultan Center or Lulu don’t have them.
While in London I spotted an Amazon Fresh grocery store next to my hotel using their grab-and-go concept. Basically it’s the next step after self-checkout, there is no checkout. You basically walk into the store, open your Amazon app and pull up a QR code which you need to scan at the entrance before going in. After that, you just take whatever you want from the shelves and then walk out without having to go through the checkout process. The store’s AI matches you to your Amazon account and using various cameras knows what you take and just charges your credit card.
The process felt pretty weird cuz on the way out you don’t have to scan or do anything, you just walk out. So it feels like you forgot to do something or that you’ve stolen an item. But it’s pretty great and after my first purchase, I got £10 credit put into my account to use during the day at the store, and then the second time I picked up something, I got another £10 credit put into my account to use during the evenings at the store. So basically was shopping for free.
I still don’t understand why our supermarket chains here don’t install self check out machines. Dear Sultan Center, please install self-checkout machines it’s 2022!