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Shops offer huge discounts

DUBAI - Summer season is associated with travel and travel means shopping, which makes it an ideal time for traders to increase their profits and attract buyers with sales and attractive bargains which lure customers into their shops.

However, some of these offers are too good to believe, to the extent that they are making shoppers skeptical and they think twice before falling prey to advertising gimmicks of some shops.

Customers argue that offering 70 per cent or even 50 per cent discount leaves the shops with a little margin of profit. They say that whichever way they look at the issue of huge sales, they feel that there is an amount of cheating involved. "One thing for sure, is that no shop owner wants to lose at any account. So the sales could not be entirely genuine, and if they are, then the original prices of the items before the sales were exaggerated and the margin of profit was very very high. In any case, I do not believe that the shopper is the sole winner in any sale bargain," said Mohammed S, a Lebanese salesman.

Alia Al Moghani, a UAE national resident of Fujairah who regularly shops in Dubai's malls, told Khaleej Times that she doesn't believe the advertisements put by different shops during the discount period. "Based on my personnel experience and visits to different shops, I've noticed that most of the shops claim to offer a resonable price reduction which does not really make much of a difference to the original price. Most of the shops tend to to exaggerate that they are offering the lowest possible prices whereas in reality they don't offer much discount."

Joe Finsh, an American employee, said: "I am quite certain that the products displayed at the discount period are of low quality than the ones displayed in the ordinary days. I remember buying a Phillips DVD player during a sale, and few days after the purchase, it developed a fault that was irreparable so I decided to buy a new one when there wasn't any sales promotion. Until today, the new DVD functions perfectly. I believe the discount period is the time when the shop managers decide to get rid of the commodities available at the shop for a long period of time. I think a sale to shop owners is the time for selling products that are running out of fashion."

Kristine M., an executive secretary in Dubai, said while other retailers do not provide genuine deals, others were an exception. "Retailers of international brands claim to have a sale which is limited to some few old collections which are still heavily priced. They usually put up big banners with '15 to 20 per cent discount' on their display windows to attract more customers but one cannot buy a single item at a fairly good price," she said.

On the contrary, Dr Sheema Aleem, who recently arrived from New Delhi, said that most of the shops she had visited provided the best deals. "I have been to several shopping malls and the sales promotions are simply fabulous. Cosmetics might be a little expensive, but generally, the prices of bags, garments and other goods are very attractive," she said.

Fady Al Mahmoud, an Egyptian national residing in the UAE for over 24 years, believes that shops offering international brands would not cheat on their customers during a sale. "People should never think that a sales promotion period is the time to sell low-quality products. The shops offering branded items have established their name and have built a good relationship with their loyal customers. They would certainly ensure that they give them the best offers as they don't want to risk ruining their reputation."

Engy Al Qassimi, a graduate of Advertising and Public Relations at AUS, said: "The majority of people think that they are offered low quality products during the sales period but I totally disagree with them because I bought a lot of items during the sales period and they were of the same quality of the non-discounted items. I believe that during the sales period the shops don't deceive people but create needs within them to tempt them to buy the discounted products that are not essentially needed by the buyer in most of the cases."

Commenting on the complaints by individuals against certain retail establishments, Eisa Adam Ibrahim, President of the Dubai Shopping Malls Group (DSMG) which is composed of 34 member malls , said that consumers should address their concerns over the pricing of discounted items to the shop owner, sales supervisor the mall management, or to the government.

"If a customer goes around talking to the wrong persons that there are no genuine deals in the shops, he or she will not achieve anything. If there are any doubts, the customer should verify the prices with the retailer. We want the customer to have a strong relationship with our tenants. If the issue is resolved between them, other customers stand to benefit from it," he told Khaleej Times.

When asked whether the DSMG monitor the prices being offered by the retail outlets of shopping malls during a sale, Mr Ibrahim said that the responsibility lies on the Dubai Department of Economic Department (DED) which checks and approves the applications of tenants planning a sale, conduct shop visits and cross-checks the products available on sale, and accordingly penalises erring retailers.

"But having said that, three Dubai malls which include BurJuman Centre, Mercato Mall and Lamcy Centre, have a mall-wide sale during the Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS), and this time, we have taken in the role of checking all the papers from the tenants. We closely monitor the total cost, the discounts they offer and their margin to ensure that they offer genuine deals," he said.

Mr Ibrahim said that by and large, most retailers selling international brand names offer genuine deals. "They have standardised prices all over the world and so they cannot play with prices. When they decide to offer competitive prices, they have to be lesser than what they were earlier. Nowadays, customers are more aware. They travel a lot and they can check the prices from other shops, in the Internet, and through the phone. I don't think a shop owner of a well-known brand would like to ruin the international company's reputation," he maintained.

Mr Ibrahim is bullish that this year's DSS will achieve a 10 per cent increase in mall sales. "The signs are great. By the end of July, we would have a clearer picture of the initial sales generated during the period," he added.