Doha: As 2017 is just around the corner and kids are also enjoying the winter-break, almost all shopping malls, hypermarkets and brands have launched massive promotional campaigns to pull maximum customers.
Apart from the imminent arrival of New Year and winter vacations in schools, Christmas has also triggered rush of shoppers at the markets. From garments to furniture; electronics to jewellery; home décor objects to cellular phones; everything showcased in luminous malls is on discount deals.
If an outlet is offering ‘Buy Two, Get One Free’, the other is there to outclass the first with ‘Buy One, Get One Free’. “I visited one of the malls two months ago to buy a watch which was priced at over QR1,000. But, today the same watch I am buying at 50 percent discount under New Year promotional sales,” said Tariq, an expat from India.
While low income groups are fully availing QR10, QR20, QR30 sales at various hypermarkets, residents having paying capacity buying branded garments at 30 to 50percent discounts. Some outlets of international brands are offering discounts due to New Year while others to celebrate Christmas.
As children are on winter vacations, toys sections at hypermarkets and shops in various malls are crowded with kids and their parents. A number of customers are happy over ongoing promotions but some say there is no big difference in prices. “Actually there is no big difference in the prices. For me I have noticed only very small difference,” said a Filipino customer.
Check prices before and after promotion: Ministry
To safeguard consumers’ rights, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce has also urged consumers to check the prices of commodities before and after promotion and inform the Ministry in case of any violation.
Customers have the right to access the shop’s goods statement which reveals the prices of goods prior to and following discounts as well as the approved discount percentage.
The ongoing promotions are not only in terms of discount in prices but a number of brands and hypermarkets have also introduced lucky draws to attract maximum number of customers. A brand dealing in gold and diamonds jewellery has announced ‘Win 1.5 KG Gold’ while others are luring customers with raffle draws.
Most of the promotions will continue until the end of the first week of January next year but Christmas-related sales are likely to end after two to three days.
“The number of customers is lower than our expectations. A number of expatriates from Europe and the US have left the country to celebrate Christmas with their families,” said a salesman at the outlet of an international brand of outfits.
The hope of winning a luxury car by spending a few Qatari riyals has always been behind the announcement of such lucky draw scheme. This year too almost all hypermarkets have announced luxury BMWs to bring residents to their pay counters after shopping from their collections. “It is the seventh coupon being filled by me to take part in BMW winning race. One gets one coupon by spending of QR50,” said Krishan Chand.
Talking to The Peninsula, some people said that they would make their minds of purchasing something particularly of some costly nature after visiting a few malls and comparing the available offers.
“Some shops at the malls just want to get rid of old stocks by announcing huge discounts or attracting customers through lucky draws. The pair of pants I wanted to buy is not included in discount-sales items and the pairs they are offering are not acceptable to me,” Joey said.
