Window Shopping
The shopping culture of the UAE is at a correction stage. Shop keepers in malls and merchants in the Gold Souk are complaining of a downturn in sales. The economic and financial situation worldwide has started to show its toll on the UAE. The latest layoffs did not help either. Everyone is in a ‘wait and see’ mode and are reluctant to spend what they have on shopping. On a visit to Dubai Mall, I could only see window shoppers. People were gathered around the Aquarium which offered free viewing, walking in the aisles chatting and looking at shops, or lining up to go to the ice-rink. Some of the coffee shops were busy selling water for shoppers who were tired walking in the biggest mall of all. I did not see, though, any real shoppers. I also visited the bookstore. Again the biggest in the region. It wasn’t only that the place was big, the prices were utterly high. The bookstore is a branch of a Singapore company. Maybe that explains the presence of plenty of what looked like Japanese titles and books. What I couldn’t understand though is the presence of Dutch books in abundance.
Nice work. My wishes.