Sustainable products inside the box

Market OTB (Outside the Box) is literally a concept that sells sustainable and environment-friendly products, ‘outside the box’, or in this case inside a shipping container.

The Outside the Box Market getting ready at Burj Park, Dubai on Wednesday. — KT photo by Juidin Bernarrd

If you’ve had enough of high-end retail outlets inside glitzy shopping malls, you might want to take a look at the Market OTB, the region’s first sustainable market featuring retail, lifestyle and food and beverage brands operating out of stylishly renovated shipping containers.

Unlike the usual kiosk-model set-up, the Market OTB houses retail brands in ‘sustainable bots’, which are actually recycled, environment-friendly cargo containers.

Created by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment and organised by the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), Market OTB is all set to open today and will continue till February 1 from 10am to 6pm.

Retailers exhibiting at the Market OTB said it was high time Dubai launched a concept of this sort. “The weather is good and people have had enough of shopping malls. That is what makes the Market OTB unique. We are selling sustainable and environment-friendly products in an environment that is completely different from the usual retail concepts that is very typical of Dubai,” said Ayah Tabari, owner of Mochi, one of the retailers exhibiting at the Market OTB.

“I love the concept,” said Roula Ghalayani, owner of Poupee Couture, another retailer. “There is a global movement towards using sustainable products over mass consumption products.”

Poupee Couture, Kaleidoscope by Mimi, Mochi, and ZinZin are some of the many locally established retail stores that will be participating at the Market OTB.

Apart from the myriad of local and international brands, cafés, food kiosks, there will also be live entertainment for visitors.

Ayah Tabari, a Palestinian national and owner of Mochi, said: “At Mochi, we sell clothing that are handcrafted and embroidered by men and women from different parts of the world. Every collection is from a different country and they are old traditional fabrics spun into clothing that are modern in design.”

Kaleidoscope by Mimi, a fashion brand by Mimi Shakhashir sells fashion accessories and clothing are inspired from her travels across the world. “It is the new wave for shopping and I think the world is headed in this direction,” said Shakhashir.

Lana Nassar, a Lebanese national is one of the partners at Rice Creamery, a brand that sells rice puddings modified to suit modern tastes. Nassar said: “We’ve modernised rice puddings. We have about 20 flavours, from the traditional cinnamon flavour, we also have interesting tastes like tiramisu. The DSF office was looking for local grown concepts that are different. People are tired of desserts like cup cakes and cookies,” added Nassar.

Some of the retailers you can look forward to at the Market OTB included- Baker & Spice, Beyou, Butik, Comptoir 102, Jamjar,

Nails@home, Raw Coffee, and Reema Ameer among others.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE