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Al Sabka electronics souq favourite for perfume lovers

Two facts strike you immediately as you enter the wholesale electronics souq at Al Sabka Bazaar in Deira. One is the lack of activity, the thin crowds in the 200-metre-radius of the souq so much so that when a solitary shopper walks the bylanes of the bazaar, salespersons saunter out to observe. There is nothing more pressing to tend to.

There is no buzz. And shopkeepers openly attest to this. Business happens on the phone, they say.

According to Pankaj Joshi of Ratan’s Stores, one of the oldest establishments there, which he has been managing for over 20 years, “market is down 60 per cent because of Iran currency crisis, the Gulf wars … it’s affected the trade.”

Siham Albalush at Sadia, a perfume shop

The second is that for an electronics market, there are far more than just a few incidental perfume shops in the area. For each shop that deals in television sets, LCD screens, VCRs, movie cameras, radio and cassette recorders, car stereos, clocks, household appliances, there is a shop that deals in all of these and perfumes. It’s a phenomenon explained by Prakash A. K. of Sadia Perfumes and Cosmetics, a shop that has an antiquated wood finish and the design of a store from the early 1980s.

Prakash says, “Perfumes and electronics in this market were at one point mixed.” Ten years ago, there were old villas here that were razed and made into shops, and not all were electronic goods shops, he says.

Sadia is one among other names such as Khanji Perfumes, and Silver Sand Perfume. All fragrance shops do wholesale business in an area that deals predominantly with hairdryers, epilators, video recorders and a variety of appliances.

Business, according to the oldest traders in the area, has been down for many months now — a year, definitely, but according to some, nearly two years. Another company, Enayat Brothers, has been around since the 1970s. Huseni Haider of Enayat says that the market slump is now pushing three years.

Being a wholesale market mostly means that individual walk-ins aren’t given top priority, if entertained at all. Most shopkeepers agree that if a walk-in customer comes in with a customer known to the shop then it’s a different matter.

At Sadia, the perfume shop, two ladies from Al Buraimi in Oman walk in. Siham Albalush and her younger sister Nujood Albalush, who live near the border have been coming to buy their stock of Versace perfumes and Elizabeth Arden from Sadia because you don’t find the ones they like at the malls any longer. “It’s easy to drive here and back,” Siham says.

But usually, the stores only get wholesale customers. An example helps best understand the price differential. If a 100 ml bottle

of perfume costs Dh160 at wholesale prices, it will be sold in the mall — according to Prakash — for not less than Dh200.

Not all shops welcome walk-ins. Rajesh Bajaj of Dhalumal International Trading, which deals in only branded appliances, as opposed to the 25-300 shops in the area that deal in OEDs or original equipment manufactured, says that mostly their “invoices are cut for 500 to 600 pieces of home appliances” and that they are selling only for re-export, not local use.

Word-of-mouth or a known connection goes some way in getting a deal with the shopkeepers but that is informal and far from routine.

The electronic souq is surrounded by a garment souq and kitchen appliances souq. It’s all in the neighbourhood and in these souqs, individual walk-ins are more welcome.— nivriti@khaleejtimes.com