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Revealed: The cost of shopping in the Gulf
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Monday, 12 January 2009Posted on Sunday, 18 January 2009
Will only purchase essentials while in the Gulf
Posted by Cutter at 09:20 UAE time
I work in Qatar and can't believe the mark up on everything here. I only buy essentials while working and living here and do all my shopping at home in Canada for clothing and electronics and save anywhere from 30-50%.
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Posted on Thursday, 15 January 2009
Challenge Al Shaya and we will get to the bottom of this!
Posted by Katherine Shannon at 17:57 UAE time
Well, there we go. As I suspected, Al Shaya refused to comment. Maybe they will take into account the purchasing power of their UAE expatriate target audience in the future. Well, I am an optimist. Very few people these days have the disposable income that was once bragged about in the UAE - for obvious reasons. Al Shaya (and a few others) are clearly overpricing - even with additional costs included. I and everyone else want them to account for this with transparency and honesty. That is all. Your customers want to know!!! Spill. You see, hiding your head in the sand, like an ostrich, is not the way to impress the very people that ultimately line your pockets.
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Posted on Wednesday, 14 January 2009
My wallet is staying closed in Dubai
Posted by Jessica H. at 14:57 UAE time
The holiday season of 2008 saw scores of UAE residents choosing to purchase their christmas presents over internet shopping sites such as Amazon.com. DVDs and books in particular are often sold at more that double of the price for the same item sold in the UK or Europe... and finally we are no longer willing to be exploited. I went to a well-known book store in Dubai and asked for the prices of about 12 books of various sizes and fields of interest. Without fail, every single book was exactly 110% more expensive than on the internet. And last summer I visited the UK for the very first time and was shocked at how CHEAP items such as clothing, DVDs, over-the-counter medicines, etc. are compared to Dubai!
And don't get me started on clothes: I've been in Dubai since 1998 and even with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Western expatriates and tourists, the stores are simply not adjusting to decent clothes sizes! I'm sorry, but hardly any European women I know have the same shoe size as Chinese women. So, for sizes that actually fit and prices that are affordable, PLUS good customer service: Europe for shopping it is!
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UK half the price
Posted by Murray at 12:00 UAE time
Price of Nikon D60 VR in Dubai: 2800 Dhs.
Price of same in UK: 1600 Dhs.
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Whoever said: Money can't buy happiness." Dint know where to shop !
Posted by iPaw at 11:51 UAE time
"Mont Blanc watch £600 cheaper in Selfridges, Oxford St than Dubai....
Nike running tops - 50% cheaper in NikeTown in London than Nike store in MOE....
Ping golf clubs - 40% cheaper buying in ££'s
Order in ££'s and pay with a Dirham credit card........."
PRICELESS
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Posted on Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Dubai Outlet Mall
Posted by dude2000 at 03:48 UAE time
Any one can go to Dubai outlet mall and find what sort of margins the retailers are charging... tag price of AED 600 for a child cloths you can get it for AED 100.... no way they are selling below the landed cost in Dubai (CIF+Custom Duty of 5%).
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Shop Around..........
Posted by Paul P at 13:13 UAE time
Mont Blanc watch £600 cheaper in Selfridges, Oxford St than Dubai....
Nike running tops - 50% cheaper in NikeTown in London than Nike store in MOE....
Ping golf clubs - 40% cheaper buying in ££'s
Order in ££'s and pay with a Dirham credit card.........
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GCC Shopping
Posted by marijke at 12:32 UAE time
I can only speak from experience in Bahrain, but I don't think that the prices here are much higher than in Europe. I was back home in the netherlands last May and it was very very expensive there. I feel that with my income here in Bahrain I can do a lot more shopping than in the Netherlands. But maybe the prices in the GCC differ per country, as I'm sure rental of shops in malls in Dubai are higher. Even here in the recently opened City Centre Bahrain, the prices are slightly higher than in older malls.
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Good luck, UAE retail...
Posted by Doug at 11:37 UAE time
There is not a single retail outlet in the UAE that can match the price of buying something over the internet and getting it shipped here, so why even bother? There is no reason to buy anything from any store here. Buy from a store here and and best you'll get served by underpaid, underqualified people who won't be able to answer even basic questions about a product, and at worst you'll get served by people trying to con you. Add to that a complete lack of consumer protection in the event of needing an exchange or refund, plus the obligatory "You're in Dubai so we're going to rip you off anyway" pricing and there's really no compelling reason whatsoever to participate in the shoddy retail model that operates here. Eventually some store owners might realise that while there is no limit to human stupidity, there is a limit to the number of people who are both stupid AND rich. But untill then, I'm just going to buy online, which means no-one in the UAE is going to benefit from my economic activity. Wake up, retail. There's a reason the Dubai Mall is a ghost town. And it's your fault, not the customer. We're always right.
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Vote With Your Wallet!
Posted by Louie Tedesco at 09:35 UAE time
Educate yourself on the average international price and find a local dealer who's willing to sell competitively. It's often helpful to bring along an internet ad for the exact product and show it to the dealer - if they don't sell at a price which is near the internet price, order the product and pay the shipping fee. I will rather pay a premium price to an international dealer on the internet to avoid lining the pockets of a local dealer who thinks that he has me held captive to his market. Of course this isn't a good idea for every purchase but saving a few hundred (or even thousands of) dirhams for bigger-ticket items does add up. When prices in Europe (or elsewhere) include VAT in excess of 20%, plus import duties that can exceed 20%, any product purchased here should be cheaper as UAE has only 5% import duty. Franchise fees and all the other "hidden costs" mentioned earlier apply elsewhere too, but elsewhere the sales employees are paid adequate wages to afford a proper standard of living. Just imagine- it's normal for a Marks and Spencer employee to actually earn enough salary to afford their rent, save money and to shop at M&S as a matter of routine!
For the basic day-to-day items needed, prices jump by 20-50% rather than creeping up slowly over time. The rampant inflation is only partially caused by the falling value of the US dollar or by other currency fluctuations. Only imports from some countries, only the products from non-dollar denominated countries, justify a price increase equal to the drop in dollar-value against that specific foreign currency. Imported products from the USA, as well as products manufactured locally and regionally should have had very minimal inflationary price adjustments but greed has driven prices up dramatically. In developed countries inflation is a slow, creeping process which is often regulated and sometimes even desired by the Government. Prices are not increased by 20-50% in one go, rather by 2-3% at a time. Pricing does not jump from 2.00 to 3.00 units of currency in a single day- the first inflationary increase would be an increment to 2.05 for example, perhaps then raised to 2.10 six months later. A local newspaper raised the cover price from Dh 2 to Dh 3 in January 2008. If you expected 50% more news or 50% less advertising, you were be disappointed.
The management process of buying, selling and simple inflationary control measures predicates that every merchant has the small coins necessary to give proper change to a customer. In a country where the biggest and best coexist but receiving exact change from a merchant or paying for your petrol with a credit card remains an impossibility, the question that more and more people are asking themselves is not how long will they stay, but when they will leave.
As consumers, we can vote with our wallets - change our eating and spending habits, stop going out and rent a movie or read a book. Then share the book with a neighbour.
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Shopping In Dubai
Posted by Ben at 09:19 UAE time
Shopping for anything besides the basic needs is definitely not a good idea. Most of the stuff available is made in China which is of the lowest quality. I always prefer to shop in my home country as I would get the best for a reasonable price without compromising on quality. Looks like China is dominating the market in Dubai not only for consumer goods but electronics as well.
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Posted on Monday, 12 January 2009
Boycot
Posted by Saeid at 23:33 UAE time
We have boycotted the shopping malls here for sometime now. We travel about once a year to Europe or Hong Kong or Manila. We save our shopping for those places. In the UAE, well, we just window shop (-:
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Retailers know the price
Posted by Martin at 18:20 UAE time
I have the feeling that retailers know the prices in Europe so they know what we are used to pay for things (including taxes).
So they are just greedy and charge the some to have a bigger surplus.
In Europe the even bigger advantage is the collection is top nodge and very recent, and often made in Europe or the US. Here you often find the older collection and made in Asia.
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Cost of shopping ... Contd
Posted by Faisal at 18:14 UAE time
Sorry for the typo ... the cost of the GAP shirt with NY State taxes was 22 Dollars.
By the way, i bought a pair of Clarks (black shoes) from Oxford Street (latest design - very high quality, no reduction, including VAT) for 54 pounds last Aug. I bought GBP @ AED 7.2 i.e. it costed me 389 dirhams. In Sep. i saw something close (but not at all similar quality wise) for AED 580/-. In London i wouldnt have paid more than 35 to 38 pounds for this thing - that too maybe somewhere in Camden - not on a High Street
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Finally!!!!!
Posted by Arjun at 16:59 UAE time
But hey the number of 15% is not right. Also anywayz i am not gonna buy anything which is expensive here as i had commented before on another article about shopping in UAE. I travel atleast 3-4 times to my home country and i am ok with shopping there because the prices are cheaper and i also get a local warranty which is not an issue for me,might be different for others. This is my point of view. Many of my friends who were gadget freaks, shopping for clothes, electrical appliances and many other house hold stuff are not buying here anymore as they feel it is cheaper elsewhere. All i do is SMS the price of the particular product here and i get a reply in about 10 minutes....then i decide on it. Essentials again are something which we can't live without so be it. I definitely dont mind. Let's see how it'll fare in the time of recession.
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