Going, going, gone in Dubai sales stampede

Bargain hunters clear stores of discounted items within hours of the start of the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Swati Gandhi, left, from the US, and Suparna Jha, from Bangalore, shop at the Dubai Mall.

DUBAI // Shoppers eager for bargains cleared stores of discounted items within hours of the Dubai Shopping Festival kicking off. As some shops announced discounts of up to 70 per cent, shoppers rushed to take advantage of hefty reductions on electrical gadgets. Sharaf DG in Times Square Center reported nearly twice the usual number of customers on the opening day of its sale and completely sold out of iPod nanos, reduced from Dh699 (US$190) to Dh399, and HTC Dual mobile phones, reduced from Dh2,499 to Dh999.

Shajan Joseph, the store's assistant manager, said yesterday: "We had about 100 iPods but had sold them all by 1pm on Thursday. As more people kept coming we had to turn them away disappointed. "The phones had sold out by 4pm. Those were the products we had advertised so were most popular but there are still significant discounts on other goods available in store, such as flatscreen TVs, cameras and audio systems." Bargains on offer included a BenQ eight megapixel digital camera down from Dh799 to Dh499, which came with a free Motorola phone and credit worth Dh110, an Acer laptop down from Dh1,999 to Dh1,499, a Sony Cybershot camera reduced from Dh1,199 to Dh899 and a Daewoo 37-inch flatscreen television slashed from Dh2,499 to Dh1,899. Sales of some brands of televisions tripled on the first day of the reductions.

Reeju Thomas, 40, a school librarian, snapped up an Acer laptop and a Kenwood food mixer reduced from Dh1,050 to Dh999. She said: "The discounts are very good. We were waiting for the sale to start before getting things we needed." Kishori Kumbhani, 63, bought two discounted Motorola mobile phones and three home phones, down from Dh149 each to Dh69. "I thought it was a great offer so decided to get one for the bedroom, kitchen and living room," she said. Yesterday was not as busy as retialers had perhaps hoped, but fashion stores in Dubai Mall are hoping to entice customers with discounts of up to 70 per cent. Manolo Blahnik, the shoe designer made famous by the TV series Sex and the City, lowered prices on its 2007 range by 50 per cent and offered 30 per cent off last year's shoes. It meant a pair of strappy sandals priced at Dh3,000 could be snapped up for Dh1,500 while a pair of brown knee-high leather boots were reduced from Dh5,450 to Dh2,725. At Thomas Pink of London, all striped men's shirts had 60 per cent taken off the price tag, giving Dh600 discounts on Dh1,000 shirts. A blue corduroy jacket was also down from Dh3,150 to Dh1,260. Mumbai Se had clothes, handbags and furnishings reduced by up to 50 per cent. Christine Cauan, the store supervisor, said: "It has been busy since the sale started." Suparna Jha, 26, from Bangalore, out shopping with her friend Swati Gandhi, 30, from Pennsylvania in the US, said: "We are looking for shoes, bags and make-up. We are only here for a short while so we wanted to make the most of the bargains." Ellen Dittmar, 31, and Jenny Berkedal, 25, both teachers from Dubai, went to Dubai Mall to buy goods for a friend's baby shower but ended up spending Dh800 on themselves. "It was more than we expected to spend today," said Miss Dittmar. "We had no idea the shopping festival was on and came here for a few specific things for the shower but ended up buying lotions and underwear for ourselves. Everything had 50 per cent off so we got a lot for our money." Last year's event attracted 3.2 million visitors to Dubai, who spent about Dh10 billion in 32 days. The festival has become one of the emirate's biggest tourist attractions. [e-mail]