Finance

First shopping center with international branches in Erbil

Saturday, November 28th 2009 2:38 PM
 


Erbil, 27 November (AKnews) - Iraq's most luxurious and modern shopping center, Majidi Mall, was opened Monday in Iraqi Kurdistan Region's capital city, Erbil.
Majidi Mall
It was only the first day of operation of the three-storey shopping center, but was swarmed with thousands of customers most of who found the prices very low and that it could play a big role in offsetting the high market prices in Erbil, nonetheless some complained about the prices.

After Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Prime Minster Barham Salih opened the mall, Erbil Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dara Jalil Khayat, said the commercial importance of the region had been steadily increasing and that the mall would ease the lives of locals.

The Majidi Mall is situated on 130,000 square meters of land. Its unique parking lot can accommodate 2,500 vehicles.

Kuwait's renowned hypermarket City Centre was also opened during the ceremony which was attended by several Kuwaiti officials and businessmen as well.

City Centre Hypermarket sells 450,000, products on 13,000 square meters, on the first floor of the three-storey building.

With the first day of its shopping activities, people stormed all categories and lanes of the City Centre.
There were people who had piled up all kinds of food, household appliances, and other stuff on their trolleys as if the mall would close down forever the day after.

In City Centre, which is the main hypermarket opened during the grand opening, and the most visited, one woman, whom one could tell by her appearance that she was not well-off, complained that the prices were high and were not same as advertised, pointing to a little girls' dress in the store that she had seen in the ads.

"This was supposed to be sold for 4,500 Iraqi dinars, and here is says 30,000 thousands" she holding the dress.

However, it seemed that the problem was just that she couldn't find the right dress she was looking for, and had confused it with something of a world brand, because later on the saleswoman found what she was looking for with the price that the women mentioned.

Another citizen, Arif Isma'il, found the mall very interesting and that the prices were very good and affordable. "The prices are very good, but if continues like this. There is a big difference between the prices here and the market, it is much cheaper here,"

"They have good brands… we have looked all around and they have good stuff" Isma'il added.

The focus seemed to be mainly on food stuff prices as most of the shoppers mentioned the food stuff before anything else. Most of them found it much cheaper to shop in the luxurious mall than in the market.

One man, whose trolley was like a camel's back with the food and cleaning stuff he had piled up, Bakir Khdir, found the prices much less than the market.

"Prices of some stuff here is 50% lower than the market." as he put it.

Khdir mentioned lentil as an example to show that the prices were lower. "Lentil sells for 2000 Iraqi dinars in the market, but it sells for 900 dinars here."

Khdir admitted that there were also some goods that were more expensive as compared to the market, but accredited that to the quality of the stuff sold in City Centre.

Khdir believed that the new mall could affect the market positively in the interest of the public if continued at this rate. "It can bring market prices down, for example, a bag of 5 kilos of Zaytuna rice, sells for 5,000 Iraqi dinars here, the same is sold for 7,500 thousand in the market, therefore the market prices will have to be cut or else people will not buy from them"

Despite the delight and enthusiasm customers were experiencing, one citizen who had been to the Dubai branch of the City Centre, said he expected "something more", for example to see more "original goods", referring to some electrical appliances in front of him in the lane, "most of the these appliances are Chinese.", Sardar Taha said.

"But what I have noticed is that their food stuff is very good" Taha added.

In light of the customers' viewpoints, General Manager of Majidi Mall, Indian national Rafiq Soopi, talked about the shopping center policies and tried to explain certain misconceptions that customers held.

"We have international strategies, City Centre is an international branch whether the market prices are there or not there, we are not competing with the market… but we have certain promotion strategies in every category, every month the suppliers support us and we give the same to the public" Soopi said.

According to Soopi, supermarkets in Kurdistan region, in particular in Erbil, have monopolized the markets with their high prices, "while everywhere supermarket prices should be below the market"

Supermarkets rely on volume rather than selling for high prices, according to Soopi, who noted that customer count inside his store on Wednesday was 23,000.

Since this is the first time a mall with international branches opens in Erbil, people have not come to realize that the prices are not fixed by the shop owners or operators in Majidi Mall, rather "the franchisers."

"When a franchiser like Mango operates in Majidi Mall, they will decide the prices not the shop operators" he stressed.

"You can go to Lebanon, go to Dubai, you can go Turkey, Turkey will be more expensive because the taxation is there, but other parts of the Middle East the price is the same", Soopi added, however, he did not rule out the possibility that prices may be a little higher here, and that is due to the "logistic part"

Transportation is high, he said, but in 6 months when the new airport of Erbil opens which enhances air cargo transportation; it may affect the prices.

But, most of the visitors are window shoppers and that the real customers have not visited the large shopping complex as of yet, Soopi neted, because they are waiting to get the rush over.

Despite the unexpected rush of 23,000 customers to the City Centre, Soopi found Kurdish public "very good and very easy to handle" as compared to other parts of the Middle East.

But, Majidi Mall was not free of inconveniences during the first days of operating.

The 18 cash counters in the City Centre were not sufficient to relive the swarm of people with their trolleys lining up in a queue of more than 10 meters before each.

Soopi admitted that they were expecting 10 to 12 thousand customers to visit to the mall, but it is was stormed with almost double the sized, 23,000.

We are going to increase the number of cash counter to give more convenience to the public, he said.

City Centre also gives a kind of support to university students by providing part time jobs of 4 to 5 hours in the evenings, according to him, which is also a rather new phenomenon in the region as most of the employers hire full-time workers.

ry AKnews

 
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