Tag Archives | shopping

A Chinese Trading Hub is Set to Open in Bekaa

Business News announced today that Cascada Mall in Bekaa will soon transform into a Chinese trading hub called “Chinatown” that will serve the markets in Lebanon and the neighboring countries.

The hub will be similar to Dubai’s Dragon Mart which is massive mall full of low cost Chinese products and good bargains (think of it like the offline version of Ali Express). I once went to it there and it is so big that you can literally waste a whole day moving from one shop to another in it. Chinatown will not be that big though as the premises stretch over 60,000m2 but the area should double in the near future as the owners claim.

The project is expected to start operating by the end of April and will create no less than 5,000 job opportunities which is a great news to the Bekaa region.

Thanks @ghazayel

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Adana – Shopping In Turkey Now Made Easier

Wings of Lebanon airline has always been known for operating seasonal flights to neighboring countries and European destinations, and one of destinations they have been heavily promoting lately is Adana is Turkey. I was invited to take part in one of their media tours in the city last week and I believe the trip is totally worth it for one reason: SHOPPING.

Although Adana is a nice city with a good feel, it actually has little to offer as a touristic place since it doesn’t have much attractions like Istanbul does for example. However, its proximity to Beirut and the cheaper prices you find there for clothing products simply qualifies it as a shopping heaven.

Adana Vs. Istanbul

I’m comparing the two cities because most people who visited Turkey landed in Istanbul and are used to the shopping experience there.

First of all the fight to Adana takes around 45 minutes, and it has a quite similar climate to Beirut as opposed to the freezing temperatures you experience during this time of year in Istanbul. Moreover the airport is only ~10Km away from the city center so you can basically start your journey there almost the minute you touch down. On the other hand, the airports in Istanbul are 1 hour away from the center.

With regards to product prices, all those who visited Istanbul know about the good deals they there get when shopping, but Adana is even cheaper simply because it isn’t much touristic. I felt like clothing items are cheaper by at least 25% than Istanbul, and the price difference from Beirut absolutely makes up for what you pay for the ticket price and even much more.

The main two malls for shopping in Adana are Optimum and M1, aside from the street shops that you can of course find everywhere.

Pharmaceuticals

In case you don’t know it yet, pharmaceuticals cost 50% less than what you pay here in Lebanon, and some people I know have totally given up on buying their chronic medications from the local pharmacies and are instead relying on people going to Turkey to get them their supplies.

This is of course one more reason that makes your trip very cost effective.

Food

Just like almost everywhere else in Turkey, Kebab is quite popular in Adana and the city is famous for its Adana Kebab which is a wider version of the regular Kebab with unique flavors. Bottom line, meat lovers will definitely not going to be disappointed.

Accommodation

Hotels are also quite cheap compared to other cities, and you can get a booking at a five star hotel with excellent facilities for no more $80-90 / night.

Do more than shopping!

Even though I mentioned that Adana has little to offer in terms of touristic attractions. You can still definitely do more than shopping there by taking a train to a nearby coastal city called Mersin.The trips costs $2-3 and takes 1 hour.

So you can basically book 3 nights for example, spend 1 in Adana to do all your shopping, and then head to Mersin to chill by its waterfront and enjoy the nightlife there.

Budget

Nakhal is currently offering 3 night packages for New Year starting $285 and of course less after that period. The flight schedule on specific days makes it also possible to simply go in the morning do all the shopping and then come back in the afternoon during the same day.

For more information about the packages and flights schedule you can check www.nakhal.com or call their experts on 01 389 389.

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11 Lebanese Online Shopping Websites To Help You Do Your Christmas Shopping

With Christmas only few days away, and knowing how jammed the roads and mall tend to get over this week, I personally avoid to do any shopping during this period. So if you also hate spending several hours on a trip to the mall to get a single item, here are 11 of my favorite online shopping websites in Lebanon who are known for their consistent service and can definitely save you time and effort if you have been postponing your holiday shopping.

JouéClub

Several big toy stores have recently launched in Beirut but Joue Club remains my favorite. Their website has all their popular brands an they offer free delivery for orders above 150,000L.L.

Antaki Group

Antaki is a distributor for several high end brands like DJI, Parrot, Polaroid, Dyson, Yamaha, Bose and many others. They have a lot of interesting and cool gadgets to choose from.

Exotica

I know there are many flower delivery websites in Lebanon, but when it’s Christmas you better not take risk and simply go with the best in the field.

Codeone

This website is specialized in home and giftware items. Their collection is always carefully selected

HiCart

This website has a wide variety of products from electronics to mobiles, home appliances, toys, beauty stuff, and even books.

209 Lebanese Wine

This website offers wines from over 45 Lebanese wineries and delivers them straight to your door, hassle-free. What I love about the website is that it makes your choice easier by telling you what kind of food goes best with each bottle. They offer free delivery for orders over $70.

Feel22

This is your go to website for everything makeup and perfume! They have a lot of brands and cater mainly to women but also have a dedicated section for men’s products.

Sarah’s Bag

Sarah’s Bag is a Lebanese fashion house that creates luxury hand-crafted bags and accessories with original designs that I think would be pretty cool as a Christmas gift.

GS

All the brands you love from GS online! They offer free express delivery for orders above $66.

Como Store

Como is a multi brand concept clothing store. I know from my friends that they have a good customer service and they offer free delivery.

Librairie Antoine Online

For some, a book is always a good idea as a gift, and we all know Antoine is the leading bookstore in Lebanon.

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Shopping & Shipping from the US made easy

amazon

So you decided to spend your hard-earned money on a gadget you’ve been eyeballing for a while, but you noticed that it costs a fortune less in the United States. Well, shopping and shipping from the US has never been easier specially with some major US retailers (see Amazon) accepting non-US credit cards. I’ll be mainly focusing on Amazon since it is where you will find the cheapest prices online.

In order to make a purchase on amazon you will need the following:

  • An Amazon account.
  • A US suite address (an address in the US where your goods will be shipped; explained later on)
  • A credit/internet card.

How it works?

In order to ship from Amazon or other online US retailers to Lebanon, you will first need to have a US address that your goods will ship to. This address will be given to you by the shipping provider you will choose. That being said, There are many providers to choose from, the most widely known being Aramex’s shop and ship service, and DHL’s borderlinx service. I personally use borderlinx and I am satisfied with their service so far. I advise that you compare both offerings (and others) and decide which suits your needs best.

Next step is to add your credit card information as well as your billing and shipping addresses to your Amazon account. To avoid any confusion i’ll explain what these addresses exactly stand for:
Your billing address is the address associated with your credit/internet card. This is provided by your bank.
Your shipping address is the US address (suite address) that is provided by your shipping provider.

And that’s about it. You are now ready for your first purchase. You will be notified by email once your items have shipped from Amazon to your US address. You will also be provided with a tracking id so you can continuously check on the delivery process. Once the items have reached your US address, you will be notified of that as well by your shipping provider. Once shipped from the US, expect your items delivered to your doorstep in 1 business week max. You will receive 2 invoices: one from customs, the other from your shipping provider. Mabrouk!

Since the main objective of online shopping is to pay less, here are some tips to optimize your savings:

  1. Look for the cheapest seller.
  2. Make sure your item is eligible for free shipping (mentioned next to the item price).
  3. Choose “standard shipping” on checkout (all the items I have bought using “standard shipping” got delivered to my US address in 4 days tops which is totally acceptable in my opinion).
  4. No matter which provider you are shipping with, always consolidate your packages in order to PAY LESS shipping fees (benefits of consolidating packages explained here).
  5. Before proceeding with your purchase, check the Lebanese customs tariffs in order to know the customs fees applied on the type of product you are buying (note that you pay 0% custom fees on laptops and computer parts!)

Some useful links:

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eezmeez.com

eezmeez graffiti

For those who don’t know about it yet, eezmeez.com is a Lebanese online t-shirt store offering cool and sarcastic designs. I got to try them earlier this month and was quite happy with the t-shirt I got.

tshirt

My main concerns when it comes to buying clothing items online is how good the fabric will be, and if I’ll get my size correctly, but fortunately eezmeez got these two covered.

The overall ordering process was quite smooth and easy. Regarding the size, I had absolutely no difficulty choosing the right one thanks to their T-shirt size guide which specifies the dimensions of each size they have. And when I got the t-shirt, it turned out of a really superior quality.

tshirt 1

The t-shirts prices start at $20 for kids and $24 for adults (for both men and women), which I believe is fair given their original designs, plus an additional $4 delivery charge if you’re in Beirut and the surroundings, or a bit more depending on how far from Beirut is your location, and it’ll take up to 7 days for your t-shirt to get delivered.

Make sure to check their collection if you would like to order one of their t-shirts. I personally got the jongar one in the above photo, which along with the other designs make a cool gift idea in my opinion.

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Always double check your receipt

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I was at one of the large supermarkets in Beirut a while ago when I noticed they had an offer on one of KDD’s juice products, buy 6 for the price of 4. So I grabbed a pack and headed to one of the cashiers only to be surprised that they’re billing me 4,500L.L instead of the advertised 2,490L.L.

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I decided to ask the customer service attendant for an explanation and it turned out the pack I picked didn’t have a promotional sticker on it, and they suggested that I just go get another pack with a sticker on, which was pretty stupid in my opinion since all the packs were placed on the same shelf!

Anyway, I’m not posting this to target a specific supermarket but rather to point out that you notice a difference between the shelf price and what you get billed almost everywhere and I’ve experienced it more than once, so you better double check your receipt next time you shop at one of those big supermarkets!

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Updated list of group buying websites in Lebanon

I already published a list of group buying websites a year ago, but I thought of compiling a new list now since several new websites have been launching lately, and you can find some pretty nice deals on them sometimes. So here you go:

  1. Living Social Out of business.
  2. Makhsoom
  3. goSawa
  4. ScoopCity
  5. Grofferon
  6. Living Lebanese
  7. Awfar
  8. Deal
  9. Deal Booking
  10. MarkaVIP
  11. Sukar
  12. Cobone (They’re currently posting travel deals only)
  13. Waffeer
  14. Go For Low

Did I miss any other website?

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Lebanon can now shop online

Lebanon finally got itself a real online shopping website! Mizalla.com

Mizalla, who launched their service just today, are promising to be an online mall where business owners can setup their virtual store to sell their goods online (check their “Businesses” page), which means the range of available items (mainly electronics) is expected to expand.

I’m still not sure how do their prices compare to the market but I’ll make sure to let you know about it. Meanwhile do check their website, it’s really worth a shot.

Update:

I compared prices between Mizalla and Khoury Home, and they were both selling TV’s and surround systems at the same price.

However, you can get some computer accessories like external hard drives and SD card for a cheaper price at  PCandParts.com. For example a Seagate 1TB external hard drive is selling for $132 at Mizalla, while it sells for $112.2 at PC and Parts ($102+vat).

Still when it came to digital cameras, PC and Parts turned to be a bit more expensive.

So prices are very close to what’s available in the market.

Update 2:

It’s better to buy SD memory cards from PC and Parts. 16GB cards class 4 are priced at $41.8 from PC and Parts while class 2 16GB cards are priced at $37.5 from Mizalla. Note that class 4 cards are twice as fast as class 2.

I’ll stop the comparisons as I guess you now have an idea.

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