Slowing retail growth in the UAE has led to a boom in sales promotions and “value” products.
Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), the owner of the City Centre shopping centres and Mall of the Emirates, says the challenging economy has led to a growth in sales of “value” merchandise.
“Value products are doing well, in fact they are growing,” said Ghaith Shocair, the chief executive for MAF shopping malls, speaking at a ground breaking event for City Centre Al Zahia in Sharjah.
He said retailers that were actively pushing promotions and adding value to their customers’ baskets were seeing a response and producing results.
“The current economic climate is producing winners and losers. The UAE’s retailers have had a great run and been very profitable seeing relentless growth. But now there are more challenges and from that the customer will benefit.”
Retailers are being forced to slash prices to tempt shoppers back to malls. Dubai this week revealed details of a three-day “Super Sale” that is expected to run from May 18 to 20.
The Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment is coordinating the sale that will offer discounts of as much as 90 per cent.
Tough trading conditions in the retail sector have led to warnings from some retailers about the negative effect of high rents on tenants.
"Mall operators need to be careful about their charges because there is a point when we look at our operating costs and if online makes more sense then we will leave," Anthony Chalhoub, the co-chief executive of the Chalhoub Group, told The National this week.
The group, which runs more than 600 outlets across the Middle East, closed more than 50 stores last year – or double its normal churn. “Rent is a function of sales. My business is not about wringing every last cent out of our retail partners. If you have a unique concept that I believe will drive footfall to our mall then the rent will be negotiable because I want you there. Dubai’s rents are still at a mid-level compared against other cities when it comes to luxury and premium stores,” said Mr Shocair.
He said the challenge from the burgeoning e-commerce space was still in its infancy, accounting for only 2 per cent of retail spend in the region, but had a challenge of its own to overcome.
“E-commerce accounts for a small percentage of wallet spend,” said Mr Shocair. “It is still not certain how big e-commerce can become here because it is unlike other markets with the lifestyle barriers and other challenges. I believe we must offer an omni-channel experience that encompasses both worlds.”
MAF announced the Dh2.6 billion mall in the new Al Zahia development in Sharjah. Due in 2020, it will have 136,200 square metres of gross leasable area housing 360 outlets, slightly smaller that City Centre Mirdif.
“Al Zahia is in a great location just off the 311 and 611,” said Matt Green, the head of research and consultancy for CBRE. “It is in the middle of an upscale housing development and will be a destination mall for those in the northern emirates with many more entertainment options than most Sharjah malls offer.”
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
