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Best Mob

There was an ad in the paper for this new electronics shop that was opening today in Hawalli called Best. According to the ad the store was going to sell Lenova netbooks for KD50, iPod Nano’s for KD20, an 8MP digital camera for KD10 and microwaves for just KD1. The result? An enormous mob gathered around the store waiting for it to open. But, probably due to the fact there was no way on earth they would be able to control the crowd, the store never opened. Check out the pictures and get more info [Here]

Update: Here is a video taken by M.Bahraini. That’s A LOT of people! [YouTube]

38 replies on “Best Mob”

Good thing they didn’t open it.

Some people could’ve been trampled to death. (It does happen) Especially with a mob this big.

I was there at 20:30, at least 4000 people were there, over 80% indians and bangalis I guess its a quick for them to make money. 20:45 the police started dispursing people, when shouting did not work random beating was administered with baseball bats and ropes. To top it all there were only very limited items for bargain prices and all were given away prior to 21:00.

After a long day, I finally got to read the paper at 10:30pm last night, and when I saw this ad… I was like “damn, if only I had known earlier” and was cursing my luck.

Now, after this, I know my luck is great!

Some sources say that this shop is coming under Al Yousifi to counter Al Ghanim’s excite stores. Yousifi currently is stuck with Panasonic products, they want to bring more brands under their umbrella to increase their market share.

I was there at about 20:00 and the scene there reminded me of the movie “Independence Day” and the mass evacuations therein!

By about 20:30 (just as I was about to leave), the people who’d gathered really early,by the main entrance, were almost squashed to PULP, since the entire mob was trying its BEST (pun intended), to get through and barge in.

But the biggest bummer : while all this hullabaloo was taking place OUTSIDE, there were already about a 100-odd shoppers , shopping their wallets out,INSIDE the store! (Wasta : Tell me ’bout it!)

Bad start for an opening šŸ™ They should have thought it out well before making the announcement, Overlooking the response and power of print (word-of-mouth also).

I think it was actually good publicity for them. I don’t recall any launch of any store in kuwait that had a mob waiting outside to get in. This stunt of theirs put them in the spot light.

The fact that there was a lot of people that came was amazing, but not good for letting them walk empty handed. (not to mention them being dispersed by the cops) Somehow sends a bad registration on the people’s mind.

I think this is the perfect launch mechanism ..

1. got the word out ..huge publicity with one paper ad of 1000kd.
2. didnot open the store and hence kill their advertised margins.
3. Todays ad all the prices have increased.

what can be more perfect !

While it was a big publicity, it has created a bad impression on the minds of many people. They wanted to start with a bang but wat it created was just smoke.

I looked into. Best thinking it was some kind of new Japanese electronics supplier store. Since some magazine like unique had articles about it. SO I passed by last week, and was disappointed. Because it was just another Yousifi Panasonic store with a different name |Best| Lacking one thing

RadioShack – which is all the way now in farwarniya šŸ™

Hellraiser: It is not necessary to mention that 80% of the people there were Indians and there to make a quick buck. If these are assumptions based on the Indian stereotype but with no actual proof, it is a statement of racism. Try to not make this blog sour.

Peace.

it would be really interesting to see only made in japan products .

Tip of the day :

NEVER go to hawalli at night ( best time to avoid traffic jam is 10:30 am to 12:00 after noon )

its a crap from YOUSIFI…..they had such a poor start to compete with joints like X-Cite….heeheeheeeehee..

Yousifi is just………….

I went to the BEST and talked with the assistant store manager regarding the promotion they had yesterday if it was real or fake just so they can gain publicity. That’s because I was a victim of yesterday’s crazy mob and that I was standing first in line from 5 pm to gain entry to the store along with two other guys. The promotion that they had was real but they canceled it at 8:30 when mob started pushing me along with many other innocent people through the glass double doors. I kid you not it was impossible to move and I thought I was going to get hurt really badly because if the glass door was to break, glass shards could’ve pierced me along with many others with with deep cuts and wounds.

The crowed started backing away when the police finally a took a late action in beating the crazy people with the red line stand at 9. Later on when the mob started to get lesser and then assistant store manager made an announcement to those who were waiting late that they will have the promotion again at 9 am till 9:30. At the end of the promotion things just went to their regular prices that you still see in today’s newspaper.

Furthermore, I asked him are you going to write a letter of apology to the public about yesterday’s incident and that are they going to take careful measures in the future. He said “Yes.” He will write a letter of apology. However if he doesn’t then it’s not going to look good for his business.

I heard the original name was BEST DENKE*, and since Denke sounded like ‘Donkey’ so they have to change it into ‘United’ Haah! United Donkeys?

*Electronics in Japanese.

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