Tag: alshaya

Late last year Alshaya soft launched their “Privileges Club” card. The card provide a number of benefits to Alshaya shoppers including automatically entering them into their monthly prize draws and giving them access to exclusive offers amongst other benefits. Back when I posted about the card their app hadn’t been released yet but now that the app is out I figured I’d post about it because it’s actually a pretty good one.

The biggest issue I have with my Privileges Club card or any other loyalty card for that matter (like my IKEA one) is I never carry them with me since I’ve got one of those slim wallets which can only fit four cards. So I end up leaving my loyalty cards at home and forget to take them with me when I go shopping. The best feature about the Alshaya Privileges Club card app is the fact you don’t have to carry the physical card with you, instead they can just scan the card’s QR code from your screen. Other benefits of the app is that it lets you know how many entries you have in their monthly draw, what new offers are available, the ability to sign up or sign out of notifications and other helpful features. It’s a loyalty card done right surprisingly. So if you’ve got an Alshaya Privileges Club card, download the app. I’m not sure if it’s available on Android but on iPhones just search for Alshaya in the Apple App Store.

Update: It’s also available on Android.

Arabian Business have released their World’s 50 Richest Arabs list for 2016 and Kuwait made the list three times:

10- The Al Kharafi Family
11- The Bukhamseen Family
26- The Alghanim Family

The richest Arab is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud from Saudi Arabia but thats not a surprise. What is a surprise to me at least is that 7 people from Lebanon made the list including Joseph Safra whom I hadn’t heard of before coming in 2nd place. Due to the amount of wealth in Kuwait I just expected more people from Kuwait to make the list although a lot of Kuwaitis are not on the list like Mohammed Alshaya because Alshaya is a private and family-owned business and so their finances are a secret.

Check out the full list [Here]

Alshaya have finally launched their loyalty card called “Privileges Club”. The card will have a number of benefits including automatically entering you into their monthly prize draws, giving you access to exclusive offers, and also offer you something they’re calling “VIP Experiences” where you will be allowed to pre-shop certain sales before the general public does, or get bigger discounts on certain collections.

I signed up to it yesterday while picking up tea from Teavana. It’s an easy process but you need to give them your name, phone number and birthday. I honestly didn’t want to give them my phone number since I didn’t want to get any ads on my phone but the employee told me she would put a note that I didn’t want to receive any messages. That was a complete fail since 15 minutes after leaving the store I got two messages, one welcoming me to the Privileges Club and the other telling me about a Sprinkles Cupcakes offer. I mean I don’t mind these Privileges Club messages every now and then I just hope they don’t give my number to their other Alshaya brands.

A Privileges Club app will be released soon which will allow you to control things such as what kind of SMS’s to get but right now if you want to unsubscribe from any of the Alshaya SMS mailing lists, all you need to do is call Alshaya support up on 1821212 and request to be removed. The process takes 48 hours and you can thank me later.

Update: Right after I published this post I got another message from Alshaya about a Katsuya offer. These messages should hopefully stop by tomorrow since 48 hours would have passed but if they don’t I’m going to end up canceling my card.

Sidra is another new food complex that is located and opening in Mahboula. This one belongs to Alshaya and includes seven of their American brands including: Starbucks, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s, IHOP, Shake Shack, Pinkberry, and Texas Roadhouse. The complex is opening tomorrow (Wednesday, October 28th) and here is the location on [Google Maps]

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers have opened up their first location in Kuwait at the Avenues opposite The Cheesecake Factory. A friend of mine passed by and tried it for lunch and according to him they only have two items on the menu, chicken fingers and a chicken burger. His recommendation? Skip the chicken burger and order the chicken fingers instead.

Thanks @Qatami

Four Seasons have published a press release a few days ago listing their new hotels that will be opening in 2016 and they had the below little tidbit on the Kuwait branch:

The first Four Seasons in Kuwait will be the 263-room Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya in the central business district. An Italian dining concept created around three wood-burning ovens as well as a pan-Asian restaurant – both with outdoor terraces on the penthouse level – will be among five food and beverage options. Interiors by Yabu Pushelberg will include a spectacular indoor pool in the beautifully designed spa and fitness complex.

I just checked out the portfolio of Yabu Pushelberg and based on his previous work, I’d say we’re going to be in for a treat. [Link]

Update: Hotel is now expected to open on February 15, 2017.

No idea who Raising Cane’s are honestly but I just read that Alshaya decided to bring them to the Middle East. I’m guessing Alshaya probably wanted to bring a chicken franchise to the region and Chick-fil-A would have been too controversial so they ended up with Raising Cane’s. According to the article, Raising Cane’s will open their first location in Avenues this July (probably at the recently closed Olive Garden or Red Lobster locations. [Link]

Thanks James

Years ago I posted about a friend of mine becoming an Alshaya mystery shopper. Back then as a secret shopper you were required to shop at Alshaya stores every week and write about your experience. You also got two meals at Alshaya restaurant every week worth KD14 which you also needed to write about. Pay wise, back then new shoppers would get KD75 a month while silver level shoppers got KD150 and gold level got KD300.

I’m not sure how much of that has changed but my guess it would probably be similar. In any case the reason I’m bringing this up again is Alshaya are currently looking for new mystery shoppers. I know when I posted about it before a lot of people were interested in signing up so if you’re also interested, follow this [Link]

Construction work on The Avenues Phase 4 has begun and the new extension will officially include the following:

– A five-star hotel
– Grand Avenue extension
– Prestige extension
– The Electra District, modeled after Times Square in New York
– The Plaza District, inspired by Piazza San Marco in Venice
– The Orchid District, an area with boutiques and hanging gardens with restaurants at the center
– More entertainment options

They are planning to have Phase 4 completed by late 2016. You can see a rendering of the Orchid District as well as the hotel in an old Avenues Mall animation [Here]. Not sure how accurate those two areas are but everything else in the video was already built and in reality looks similar to whats in the video.

Thanks ChaoticTranquility

Update: According to a contact of mine it seems I might have highlighted both Phase 4 and 5 in yellow on the first map on top. Also I was informed there is a plan for an underpass or bridge similar to Marina Mall that would cross over (or under) the Ghazali highway to the other side where more phases will be built in the future (check map below).

Back in March I posted about Hard Rock Cafe closing down and how possibly Alshaya would be taking over the location. I assumed they would just refurbish the location but turns out they’re completely tearing it down. The location became a landmark of a sort on the Gulf Road with its large glass pyramid and it was pretty popular with photographers as well.

Last year Alshaya acquired the franchise rights for the Lebanese restaurant Babel and rumors are this is where they will be opening their first location.

If you’ve been following my blog for a few years then you’ve probably seen my previous posts on Tesco (here is a link that summarizes them). Originally I had posted that Alshaya were bringing the Tesco brand but then it turned out they were getting Florence & Fred, the clothing division of Tesco. I then posted that Sultan Center was bringing Tesco but that deal fell through and Sultan ended up getting Waitrose products. Now though my source tells me the new SaveCo supermarket will be bringing the brand to Kuwait.

The company that has an exclusive agreement with Tesco to supply their products to the Middle East is called MH Group and they already supply Spinneys in Lebanon and Qatar with Tesco products. Now they’ve supposedly signed with SaveCo who will start stocking the products in around a months time once they arrive.

Based on the order list my source sent me it seems they will mostly be stocking non-perishable food items like canned goods, sauces and spices. That’s similar to the Waitrose items Sultan Center stocks although it looks like SaveCo might be bringing in a much larger selection.

I can’t publish the list of products they’re bringing but if there is a specific Tesco product you’re interested to know if they’re getting, let me know and I’ll check and see if its on the list.

Arabian Business released their list of “World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabs” and only two from Kuwait made the list, Mohamed Alshaya of MH Alshaya and Omar Alghanim of Gulf Bank. The 100 people on the list were grouped into various groups, Mohamed Alshaya made it into the “Leaders” group while Omar Alghanim made it into the “Thinkers” group. Check the full list out [Here]

Friday night I passed by with a friend to the Alshaya Staff Shop in Shuwaikh. The shop is located inside the Alshaya headquarters and its only for Alshaya employees, their family and friends. The store sells heavily discounted leftover stock from previous Alshaya sales, and my friend told me there were a ton of items left over from Harvey Nichols which is why I HAD to pass by.

For those of you who’ve been to the Villa Moda discount store when they were open, you’ll feel right at home at the Alshaya Staff Shop. The place is packed with luxury items but packed on top of each other and you basically need to flip through the items one by one to find anything. The first section I tackled was the shoes and for some reason it felt like Black Friday, so I started flipping through everything as if there was a crowd behind me fighting over the shoes. In reality though, the shop was empty except for me and my friends but I kept getting the feeling that if I didn’t go through the shoes fast enough they would quickly disappear. I panicked, I was all over the place and I was in heaven.

Once I was done with the shoes section I started flipping through the clothes. According to the employee there, the last time the mens section got restocked was three months ago and I was flipping through the leftover of the leftover. That didn’t make sense because I found a bunch of gorgeous Alexander McQueen shirts just sitting there, three of which I had my eyes on when they were still displayed at Harvey Nichols. How those shirts were still available at the Alshaya Staff Shop I have no clue but better for me. Not only were most of these items being sold at 70% at Harvey Nichols when they were on sale, but once they get moved to the Alshaya Staff Shop they get discounted even further and then on top of that discount there is an additional 30% off if you’re an Alshaya employee or you’re with an Alshaya employee.

I ended up leaving with a couple of sneakers and shirts. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculously cheap the prices were, I got the pair of hightop sneakers pictured above for just KD17.5 after discount. KD17.5 for really soft leather sneakers that are more comfortable and look better than my Loubs. Their original price at Harvey Nichols was KD220 and they’re still selling for nearly KD200 online. So if you have a friend that works at Alshaya, force them to take you to their shop. Women are supposedly getting a restock this week.