One thing I’ve noticed recently is a lot of people complaining about the slow service of many online local businesses. People ordering items and having it take longer than expected to be delivered, people complaining about items being out of stock or even complaining about slow customer support.
People really need to chill a bit because these aren’t normal circumstances.
Before the pandemic, local shopping websites weren’t being used a lot. Sure you had some exceptions but majority of the sales were done at the store and a lot of businesses didn’t even have an online option. But, because of the lockdown, a lot of the places were forced to shift their business online. So imagine having an infrastructure meant to handle 10 online orders a day and now they have to handle 100 or 1,000 orders a day. Imagine if you had just one delivery car for those rare occasions someone would order online and now suddenly you’re getting 100 orders a day. And now imagine the stores that were never online to begin with and had to scramble to set up an online store quickly so they can try and survive this situation. Those guys never had the time to practice or experience online orders before being flooded with them. Everyone is overwhelmed, even giants like IKEA are struggling to cope with the influx of online orders to the point they had to post a message apologizing to their customers. Supermarkets, electronic stores, makeup stores, gaming stores, everyone got caught by surprise.
Add to that a lot of businesses are also operating with a reduced timeframe because of the curfew and some businesses are operating with a reduced workforce. This is why whenever I order anything locally I’m not even following up or asking when the items will be delivered. I know they’re all working as quickly as possible to get the order to me, so I’m being patient and understanding and you should to.
If you want a list of local shopping websites then check out my list here. I’m updating it constantly as new stores pop up so bookmark it.
31 replies on “Local Shopping Websites are Overwhelmed”
Im looking for engine coolants. sultan center salmiya have closed their upper floor hardware and most of the private grocers have started checking IDs for location. All garages closed and i really need one as my car’s coolant is out and it keeps overheating.
Forget the online shops as all of them are overloaded and not delivering.
Any idea where i can buy one?
you can use normal water as coolant
keep in mind even if you do find coolant you need to make sure the color of coolant u find is compatible with the color coolant in your engine. also blue coolant u won’t find anywhere except at specific places, for my alfa i get my blue coolant from the bmw parts store.
Using water in a V8 supercharged engine is not advisable(as it boils faster at lower temps and can contribute to erosion). there is a reason why coolants have anti freeze properties.. The water would only last a while.. Also , the most popular ones are green which my car can use. Just need to find some store magically that i can get access to
you don’t have to use it long term i meant just now till you find your right coolant.
Call Mishref garage (51722224) in their Instagram they only mention “small repairs and battery replacement”but you can call and ask for the coolant and hopefully they can provide it. GOOD LUCK
You can find them in Salmiya Family Center, I guess they are open from 7Am to 3 PM
Are they checking IDs cos I don’t live in salmiya center
No, When I visited them last Thursday
Mark do you know where I can buy distilled water ?
nope
Well every business in Kuwait should have an online delivery service and be able to meet the needs of the customer who enters the store physically or virtually. This difficult time now will help them to fix their errors and hopefully smarten up once when life goes back to normal.
+1
I ordered from Blink yesterday, and my package was delivered within 24 hours. Impressive!
Just ordered a phone from Blink. Hopefully they will deliver within 24h and not disappoint
Does anyone know the opening hours of supermarkets like Lulu, TSC, Oncost, etc?
The Lulu ticker still says 5AM- 4PM, but looks like it hasnt been updated after the extension of curfew hours.
Also, till what time do they let you in? I reached TSC at around 3.30 the other day and they wont let me in
i believe they all close at 3pm, some coops close at 3:30. They also open one hour after curfew ends so most likely 7AM.
True the infrastructure for demand to be met wasn’t ready, no one predicted the sudden forced shift.
I was thinking of a local drop shipping model.
E.g Salwa block x residence can volunteer to a set timeline to collect shipments (packages)/ suppliers and drop them off.
It would surely move products and necessity supplies easier to residents and those in need, and help businesses alike, bring people together in these tough times.
Just a thought
Some stores are better than others.
We ordered my daughter’s birthday presents from Ikea weeks in advance to be prepared (she’s not four until April 20th) so we could chill and be fairly sure they’d be here in time without panicking. They were terrible during the online process.
I bought a pair of AirPod pros from Xcite the day they came out, and a week later they stopped working. Xcite refused to replace them and told me to go to AlphaStore to repair them. Long story short they’ve been in and out since and still don’t work. Now with the curfew no idea when they will be in again.
So I gave up and ordered from Gait. Not only were they 7KD cheaper than Xcite but they delivered within 24 hours. I will always use gait in future.
Best aren’t good. I ordered a printer ink cartridge from them three days ago and haven’t even had an order confirmation let alone a delivery date.
As for shop and ship they’ve gone to hell. The UK centre is taking more than a week to register the parcel after it’s been delivered and then even longer to ship it. My latest parcel allegedly left Dubai five days ago and is still in the air.
Hello. How long did it take for Best to deliver the goods ? I’ve placed an order too but never received a confirmation. Should we call them to confirm or ? Thanks.
A friend placed an order 9 days ago, they charged her card but the order never went through. She got in touch with them and they told her it was an error and the accountant would get back to her. Nobody got back. She then spent a few days not being able to get in touch because their phone lines weren’t working. Then when she did get in touch they were like accountant will call back but again he never did. Finally today she got a hold of someone and he was like you’re going to have to wait till the pandemic is over since all their accountants are stuck in Jleeb 🤷♂️
Oh damnnnn that’s jacked up !! I tried calling them after reading this but nobody picked up. I then checked my email and saw a confirmation email from them that the order is received. Maybe this is good news so hopefully this went through without hassle. I’ll wait for it and follow up in couple of days. Thanks.
Cases keep rising and rising, all this curfew/lockdown business is not helping very much when people have to stand in line all the time; do you have any idea how fast germs can travel? Here’s a link,https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-how-far-and-how-fast-a-sneeze-carries-contagious-germs . Also, when I visited Jabriya Co-Op and TSC Jabriya, I noticed one employee in each place coughing! When these supermarkets are checking customers’ temperatures, why can’t they check their employees too?
You should get in touch with MOH with your recommendations and comments.
In other countries people are being asked NOT to order non essential itmes – stick to food, medicines, essentials for a possible lockdown because otherwise you are putting the lives of workers at risk who have to expose themselves to possibly dangerous situations. If that happens, be fully aware that will eventually trickle down to you.
So forget cupcakes and phones. Stick to what might be essential and keep the lives of these workers in mind.
Which country is telling it’s people only buy food? Countries are telling people only go out to buy essential items but I haven’t read about any country telling their citizens not to buy anything except for food and medicine.
Amazon India only sells essentials at the moment.
Amazon India only sells essentials because the country is in lockdown, that has nothing to do with what Dojorat is stating.
We’ve been told that in BC Canada, and also Amazon employees have walked out saying they dont want to be working for non-essential goods.
IKEA. Did everyone suddenly realize, after being stuck at home all the time, how desperately their living room was screaming for some cheap Swedish furniture?
Now, if there was a service that was delivering craft good and educational material for all these kids stuck at home. Nah…let them interpret pictograms of how assemble the new Hemmnes dresser!
Honestly never had an issue with an order being late except for ordering from supermarkets a few times. For other shops, I have seen them designate specific dates and timings for when they are open for new orders. (Message would pop up upon open an app or website). I was ordering from Ikea the other day and they weren’t accepting new orders until after a specific date, and even once ordering, they’d mention how long it would take (about a week to deliver), and they kept their word and some Ikea volunteers who werent delivery people but office workers delivered to me that day. It’s just a matter of patience and your turn will come.
Also there are specific hours in the day when there’s a bigger influx of orders than others (afternoon mostly).
Out of stock items are more of an issue for me than slow deliveries.