Anecdotal reports of the economic crisis abound in Dubai - 3,000 cars left at the airport (probably not), ships left out at sea, full of supplies (er...), the newly-unemployed choosing to advertise themselves on their Porsches (as opposed to selling the damn thing).But this weekend, I saw some very real evidence of something going wrong: newly-opened shops in Jumeirah Beach Residence, closed and devoid of stock.
Click on the picture for a bigger version - unfortunately, this was the only snap I could get before a security guard asked me (politely) if I had a permit, so apologies for the glare.
Pumpkin Patch, Adams Kids (Adams in the UK went belly-up a few weeks ago), Celio and some other stores were all dark and locked as of the weekend. All belong to the same group: 'BR. of Outfit, LLC'.
I'm sure there's a bigger story here, but someone in the retail world can have a go at that one. Whatever has happened, this is not a good sign.
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Ummmm. You need a PERMIT?
ReplyDeleteWow...
shame really that we are beginning to see this happen. Particularly sad about Pumpkin Patch... their line of kid's clothes was just so cool. Regardless, we are going to see some closures, but this would be a good time to see which hatches need to be closed in to weather the storm. Retailers need to be more careful about managing their inventory, look seriously at pricing, not forget to market/advertise (huge mistake) and overall tighten belts.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they've realised there are only 800,000 Emiratis - which is the only long term customer base they can count on.
ReplyDeleteDubai is a Ponzi scheme, it only works as long as new people keep coming in.