Lets visit the مركز التسوق (shopping mall)

صباح الخير ("Sabah el kheer" or Good Morning) friends. It's Thursday morning. In Saudi Arabia, Thursday is equivalent to Saturday in the US. Lots of people have the day off from work and people are out and about, you guessed it, shopping and spending money. Since i have so many friends that work in retail, I figured that I would tell you a little about the world of retail here in the KSA.
My first impression, the malls are crazy insane. Not because they are so jammed packed and busy all the time, but because there are simply so many of them. On our daily journey to work each day we pass at least three other shopping malls. In the US, this might not seem too strange-for example, in Massachusetts you pass malls like Meadow Glen and Arsenal on your way into Boston to go to Copley Place or the Prudential Center. The difference here is that western style shopping malls are all built on such a grand scale. Here is one of my malls, the Red Sea Mall (Many thanks to Jason for taking pics)...





In the KSA, we do not have other entertainment venues like cinemas or nightclubs, and people go to the mall to hangout with friends. Each mall has some sort of attraction to bring in families to that mall. For example, one of my malls, Mall of Arabia, has a small amusement park AND an ice skating rink in the food court.


The malls are exceptionally clean. The mall itself employes huge teams of immigrant workers who only task is to ensure that the public spaces in the mall are kept sparkling clean. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find a trash can, even in the food court. The other day when Jason and I went to Albiek for lunch, when we were done feasting on our fast food, we both looked high and low for a place to dispose of the evidence of our lunch. As we walked away from our table, where we had so kindly compacted all of our trash into one bag and walked away with it sitting on the table, two men rushed over and took care of our mess.


As you walk through the mall, you notice a wide variety of shops. Lots of Companies from all over the western world have locations here: Marks & Spencer, Payless, H&M, Zara, ESPIRIT, and of course who could forget Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids. In addition, to clothing and accessories there are also food places like McDonalds, KFC (or as the locals call it "Kentucky"), Burger King, Cheesecake Factory, TGIF Friday and Starbucks. Can anyone guess how many Starbucks are in the Middle East? I almost forgot to mention, there are also tons of local shops and chains. STC and Mobily (two cell phone and Internet companies) have stores all over the malls (in fact there is probably two on every corner throughout the city). Here is a photo of a Starbucks....


I hope so far that you are getting a good grasp on malls, and how insane they are. I was joking with my team before I left on this journey about how they should be called be called shopping palaces not malls since they are so vast. What's funny is that we haven't gotten into what the stores themselves look like.


As you all know, I work for the west elm division of Williams-Somoma, Inc, but I'm here in the KSA for the Pottery Barn brands division. The one thing that I'm really excited is that walking into a store here is very similar to walking into a store in the US. Most of the product is the same and stores are merchandised in a similar fashion. What's amusing is that there will are some items (like holly branches or holiday ornaments) displayed in a way that would make any merchant cringe. It's funny because in the middle east they do not have these types of trees and do not celebrate these holidays so they are unclear of the meaning. Here is a photo of the PB at Red Sea Mall


Anyway, back to the store itself. One thing that I first noticed was how clean and shiny everything is. In the US, no matter how good you are, there is always and will always be some kind of dust in a store...it's just the nature of retail. Here in the KSA each store has a team of cleaning associates, who much like in the rest of the mall, are hired to only clean. They do not need to engage with customers at all...they simply sweep the floor and upkeep the store. Yesterday in my Mall of Arabia store they dusted each glass and dish in the tabletop section. (Not just a quick once over dust, they took each item off the shelf and cleaned the entire shelf like they were preparing for a huge visit).


As you walk through the store, you see that there are a lot of employees. Our PB stores have up 45 employees and Kids has up to 35. In the US, I have 30 people, but it's different here as everyone is full time in Saudi Arabia, yes full time. For those reading this, could you imagine the results we would get if we had 45 full time associates? So, lots of employees should equal lots of customers, right? (Not so much the case here, which is one of our objectives here...). Each associate works six 8 hour days and has a zone in the store that he is responsible to maintain. It's insane the amount of manpower that they use to service the few customers that come in. In addition to a large sales and support staff, our stores have large management teams- up to 7 members in the largest stores.


Each store has beautiful fixtures, since they just opened about 9 months ago they are they latest concept, and in the Red Sea Mall both brands are connected, which is AMAZING. As you make it into the back room, you notice that the stock room is just as gorgeous as the sales floor- all have marble floors! Wow! Complete with decent sized manager office, clientelling offices and large scale break areas- each store has such potential to be amazing


Well friends...that's a bit on the malls of the KSA (and it's safe to assume that the rest of the middle east is similar). I know you all want pictures...I'm trying to get some. It's very much frowned upon (or in some cases illegal) to snap a photo of public spaces and of people-but for you...I will do my best.
Like I said, today is Thursday. Last day of my work week! Today Jason and I are going to be writing action plans and mapping out our first week of training for all stores from the hotel. We've got some long days ahead of us...most of which will be challenging due to the language barriers that we will face, but more on that topic later.


Besides work, on my agenda I plan on a lengthy afternoon workout, maybe a nap, some reading and general loafing around. In general, I've adjusted to the time change...finally sleeping through the night! What's taking some time is the travel time to places. Everywhere we go, we sit in traffic; it's about 20km (12.5 miles) to the Red Sea Mall and it takes us about 40-60 minutes to get there. Its the longest roller coaster ride ever. ;-P


What about you my friends? Was Wednesday (aka Hump Day) as wild as it could be? What about Thursday...big plans? I got some great emails yesterday, and I promise that I'll reply today or tomorrow. ن شاء الله, (which is pronounced "Insha'Allah" or God Willing). Keep on emailing me, jayliffejessup@wsgc.com and let me know what's up in your world. If you have question about life in the KSA, let me know and I'll try and get an answer. Have a great day. (Good bye or"Ma’a salama ") مع السلامة