DUBAI – FROM SOUK TO SHOPPING MALL, A TRUE SHOPPER’S PARADISE!
Dubai’s reputation as a shopper’s paradise extends to many aspects of the city’s bustling commercial life. One area where this is especially evident is that shopping centres serve a regional and tourist market – rather than a purely local market.
Delicately Woven Carpets for Inspection
As an open port with low import duties, Dubai’s retail prices are reasonable and the variety of products available matches that of any other major international city. In particular, Dubai’s residents enjoy tax-free salaries and incomes which are among the highest in the world, so there is plenty of money available for the luxuries of life, and the city’s retailers have geared up to meet this demand.
Dubai’s retail trade encompasses traditional souk (market) shopping – where bargaining is very much the order of the day – and modern purpose-built shopping plazas.
The Emirate is teeming with shopping malls and each mall reveals a different theme and experience. The sprawling expanse of the malls, the innovative architecture, the designer boutiques, top brands, vast product range from haute couture to the latest gadgets and gizmos and an endless choice of restaurants and cafés allow visitors the option of passing an entire day within the premises of a single shopping complex.
Souk Madinat
Existing alongside modern marvels such as the shopping malls, are the traditional markets, also known as the souks. With their historic structures still in place and restored to meet the demands of the present day, Dubai‘s different souks may vary in their offerings and character, but are all alive with the buzz of trade and the spirit of a strong and traditional past.
A visit to the souk with its noise, crowds and atmosphere, is a memorable experience, especially at night, when a myriad of neon lights act as beacons, guiding the uninitiated through a maze of alleyways and encouraging potential customers to sample wares and indulge in good-natured bargaining.
With your wits about you and armed with a sense of humour, souk shopping can be entertaining as well as profitable. The sheer variety of goods available is bewildering. Stores teeming with the latest in electronics stand comfortably alongside huge fabric houses offering silks from India. Cut-price CD discs and DVDs are a favourite buy.
Somewhat incongruously, in the midst of this treasure trove of 21st century materialism, lie small booth-type shops where the traditional goods of the east can still be weighed and measured. Spices brought in by dhow from India, Sri Lanka and Zanzibar permeate the air, and perfumed oils are stored ready to be mixed to personal demands. Delicately woven carpets lie strewn for detailed inspection; weighty hookah pipes fill available corners.
Spice Souk
Gold, the traditional wealth standard of the East, is another of the city’s best-buys. For centuries Dubai’s gold trade has flourished. The Gold Souk in Deira is a tribute to the metal’s eternal attraction. Housing row after row of shop windows festooned with glittering jewellery and ornaments, this unique market has become a major tourist attraction. Here 18 and 22 carat gold is beaten, worked and fashioned into a cascade of designs calculated to meet the intricacies of a variety of ethnic tastes. Prices, less than half of those in the West, are mainly determined by weight and not so much by workmanship.
But the eastern charm of the souks is only one aspect of shopping in Dubai. Attractive modern shopping plazas are conveniently located throughout the city. Marble-walled malls and efficient air-conditioning provide a cool welcome to customers. Cosmopolitan stores maintain an affinity with the Emirate’s international population and appeal. Designer label boutiques sit comfortably alongside trend-setting clothing supermarkets jammed with cottons from India.
