Mon 21 May 2007
We have many many malls here in Kuwait.
The major ones are probably -
- The Avenues
- Souq Sharq
- Marina Mall
- AlFanar
- AlMuhallab
- AlKout
How many of them have proper book stores and libraries??
In all six malls, with their hundreds of stores, I can recall ZERO bookstores!!
Virgin is the closest thing we have, but as a bookstore it is very limited, and is not techically a book store. The one in AlMuthana is the only one as far as I remember.
I don’t buy the crap that people don’t read in Kuwait! Just look at Jareer, which is not the best store and in the worst locations, yet it seems to be busy mostly!
When traveling, there seems to be some sort of book store or library at every corner, even if you go to a place like Dubai, not too far, you will find a Borders! We need a Borders or Barnes&Noble type of store here! I remember checking out Starbooks or whatever its name is when it first opened, and the selection was very very limited and the location really wasn’t great at all.
Is the lack of any book stores based on the myth that we don’t read as a nation (I disagree, and almost everyone I know reads on a continuous basis) and therefore a doomed business, or is it an business opportunity that has yet to be explored the right way??
30 Responses to “Books in Kuwaiti malls??”
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May 21st, 2007 at 1:19 am
Ah, the good old bookstore lament
“Everyone I know reads”
lol Q, a case of selection bias, my friend
you have to admit that you and your circle aren’t exactly ‘typical’.
Amazon to the rescue.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:25 am
Perseus, ur right, it is selection bias, but that statement is made based not only on my friends and family, but on people i worked with in different jobs, random people i know at diwaniyas, and so on….so im sure its not everyone, but it is a considerable number of people!
and Amazon unfortunately doesnt do the job for me, im an impulse buyer, i love browsing and looking around and then just buying with the instant gratification of reading within minutes!!
May 21st, 2007 at 1:27 am
I think it is a really good idea, however the rent would be very expensive, and the question is; would a book store make senough profit?, also more and more poeple are buying books online.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:09 am
i have to side with PerseusQ8 on this
since I’m counting my education here in Kuwait i mix up with other generations , i know my generation as people who hate to read , be it a school book or something general , i thought part of it was duo to people studying in government school but i noticed the same in American / English schools , yes some of them may read novels , but books in general ? no one
and if you see jareer its working and crowded not because people are after books , but for PC’s and laptops and stationary , even when they wander to book section see what section they are in ( poetry or cooking ) same thing happen in Book Fair ( i know because I’m always there )
did you go to Alrubaya’an book store before they move ? i went there and bought couple of books , of course his stock and people lake of interest reading is what lead to his bookstore death
May 21st, 2007 at 2:19 am
http://www.forzaq8.net/2007/03/14/death-of-a-bookstore/
May 21st, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hi Q,
You have a point. But let’s be honest, you’ll be facing these problems:
1. Since the reader-base is so limited, you’re forced to restrict your selection to one of four categories:
A. Popular crap like Grisham and Dan Brown, and whatever light fluff is in vogue.
B. Non-fiction: Cook books, histories (always of *this* region! “The Arabs and this”, “The Arabs and that”.), etc.
C. The proven classics circa Mary Shelley, Melville, and D.H. Lawrence, and maybe Shakespeare. This in not a *hot* market. Stocks of those authors are gathering dust in the Muthanna bookshop.
D. Arabic books: Either conspiracy theory stuff from Egypt, Collected works of arab poets, etc. (I’m ignoring the whole subject of religious books for the sake of brevity).
And I’m gathering your intended area fall outside of those four, no?
2. Of course, you’ll have to be subject to the idiotic whims of the censorship board at the Ministry of (dis-)information.
3. Realities of the market place: To get foot-traffic, you have to be at a popular mall, and as Hasan.B said the rent is too exorbitant (and the type of people who frequent Marina for example might not be your target). Or somewhere less flashy and count on a small but loyal customer base (e.g. The Family Bookshop, may it rest in peace). Either way you’re screwed.
As much as I would *love* for a Borders-type store to open and be a spectacular success in Kuwait, I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. Do you think I’m being too cynical?
May 21st, 2007 at 7:11 am
Are you on vacation or you quit your job? you are posting daily.
May 21st, 2007 at 7:46 am
The success of bookstores in Dubai and Bahrain is mainly due to the large community of educated expats. In Kuwait, bookstores are failures because most expats are uneducated trash workers or similar, and Kuwaitis themselves are going downhill since the 60s in terms of culture, education and interest in books.
Only recently a small bookstore in Kuwait went into bankruptcy, which was was only saved by the Emir promising to pay for all expenses in order to keep it open. Where in the world such things happens?
This is not a matter of location or selection or even censorship. It’s a matter of the general decline of culture and education in our society.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:22 am
I think you answered the question yourself: bookstores mirror the cultural status of our society. Its simply a question of supply and demand: Where are the book lovers? Where is the demand for serious bookstore? However you look at it in todays bankrupt Kuwaiti culture, there is no demand for reading beyond the newspapers and the fringe cultures. And lets not start about which books are permissible by the greats of the Ministry of Ignorance and the mumbo-jumbo moral watchdogs: even technical books are not immune (somewhere I have an anatomical book that I purchased specially to keep a record of how the censors attempted to keep our decency by magic-marking questionable illustrations
A few decades ago first graders used to be taught that
مع حمد قلم
Young readers were taught that a pen is a mighty instrument that can be used to change the world. ّn more recent years we started to see crap like:
انا اكل واشرب لاعيش
Basically teaching the young ones that they are basically being prepped to be members of a herd.
بتصير موظف وتحصل معاش … وبس
May 21st, 2007 at 9:23 am
you forgot to mention one good store,. better 1000 times than virgin: kuwait bookstores company (sharekat elmaktabat elkuwaiteya) major one in muthanna, and there is another in ahmadi. but actually even jareer, if u move away from the trash books, do have the good reads.
thats mostly for english of course, as for arabic, there is a whole street in hawalli devoted for that.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:32 am
I’ll have to disagree with you here, for me if I wanted to shop for a book I’d head to alMuthanna, they have a nice collection of books, mags, and novels…..!!!
I’m not saying this is enough, I had my share of being unable to find a book that I wanted, for instance I kept on sniffing for Nubohara’s العرب بعيون يابانية for a long time, that I was fed up and stoped looking, reminds me I’ll try to look it up in Amman….!!!
also not to mention, it’s not that people are uneducated, nor loosing faith and interest in books, it’s simply that book don’t give you what the net is giving you, why should I bind myself to a one dimentional stream of information when I can benefit from multi/omni medias, wikipedia for instance kept me hooked for months and still do, I read every thing, and if the content had something I had no idea on it, I’d simply click the link and get “educated”, books don’t give you that edge, you can see video file while reading on WW1, hear audio files of nigro poetry while reading about slavery, then switch to see the KKK, and back to Musashi Miamoto……!!!
if you will say what about novels, well it’s easy, almost every book is found on the net, I found شيكاغو، عمارة يعقوبيان and even Maddox’s book….!!!
it’s natural selection, on manufactured economies, radio was the medium, then came TV, and radio was only saved by the car, cars had TV now, but CD, tape, DVD players kept it on life support, the same happened between books& newspapers when swooped by radio, it’ll happen again, and believe me, paper cover books will be a classic among collectors….!!!
sorry for the long comment…..!!!
finished speaking…..!!!
May 21st, 2007 at 9:35 am
Jarir isn’t that good. They dont get the good brands of books, at least not in the english section. they are busy because its not only a bookstore, they have a decent computer section, a decent stationary section, a decent childrens book section and a decent hobby section. its basically got a large variety of a bunch of stuff.
virgin bookstore isn’t half bad specially with the recent expansion but still doesn’t match a virgin bookstore in Lebanon although I am basing this with my experience in the architecture, design and photography section.
the other two bookshops, familybook shop and kuwait bookshop. well family book shop is on life support, i am expecting it to close down any day now. they barely get anything new.
the kuwait bookshop in muthana, its big, but the majority of stuff is really old. again this is based on the architecture, design and photography sections which is what i check.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:38 am
It’s a Catch 22 (another book you wont find incidentally)
In a nutshell.. Ministry doesn’t allow decent fiction, people stay away, bookstore loses money
May 21st, 2007 at 9:46 am
totally agree … you should listen to what we said about this topic
http://www.deera-chat.com/2007/04/26/why-dont-we-read/
May 21st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Awhile ago, I told my dad I wanted to open a bookstore in Kuwait and he was like “Look at Maktabat Al-Irbay3an (shari3 bin ‘7aldoon), the guy was trying to sell half a million books at .500 fils per book. He wasn’t every trying to turn a profit anymore, he was just trying to get rid of the books.”
Point is, even if everyone you know reads, that’s still not enough people. Sadly, the majority does not read.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
الحكومة قامت بتوقيف الدعم عن المكتبات مثل ما تم لمكتبة الربيعان و غيرهم الكثير، لنكن صريحين ليس لدينا كتاب في الساحة الكويتية لديه مشروع كتاب أو قصة و إن وجد فدور النشر معدودة على الأصابع، ولكل تجارة تعتمد على السعر و الطلب، فإن وجد الجمهور المستهدف وهو غير متوافر حاليا فستجد المطلوب.
عن المكتبات هناك مكتبات كثيرة ولكنها غير مشهوره و مكتبتي المفضلة هي Starbooks
بالقرب من المشاتل
وأحب أوضح بأننا شعب لا نقرأ، وليس لدينا كتاب على مستوى الأدب كان هناك الأستاذ عبد الله زكريا الأنصاري و كتبه التي أثرانا بها و غيرهم من الأدباء تعيد نشرهم دار القرطاس و دار السلاسل و غيرها و على فكره المكتبه تبحث عنها ولا تبحث عنك الأماكن التجارية ليست المكان المفضل لباعة الكتب
نقطة مهمة أحب أن أوضحها بأن المكتبة تعتمد على الكتب المعروضه لديها و المكان للقراءة أعتقد مساحة التأجير لدى المجمعات غالية جدا ولذلك لا تجد و لن تجد مكتبة كاملة كمكتبة التي نراها مثل بوردرز و نوبل و غيرها من المكتبات الأمريكية.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:48 pm
KBS (Kuwait Bookshops in Muthanna Complex) seem to have to most “dust free” books of all the bookstores I have seen in Kuwait which is perhaps due to its relative success. The Family Bookshop in Salmiya used to be a favourite place but I haven’t been in ages.
I recently visited StarBooks bookstore in Dream Mall (LuLu Hypermarket) in Al-Rai area. Many of the books and shelves were dusty. Although it seemed they originally tried organizing the books according to subject, I found the arrangements a bit chaotic. Still, if you like to rummage, you might come away with a good read.
Some book lovers and collectors enjoy rummaging through the Friday Market although I would not recommend it if you are prone to allergies.
The truth is there is no viable profitable market for a good bookstore here in Kuwait. It is known that any profits a bookstore makes come from “other non-book items”.
Books printed in the UK or the US are expensive compared to cheaper publication/printing prices in the Arab world (and of inferior quality.
Why not make use of private and public libraries in Kuwait where books remain new and relatively untouched?
Try Kuwait University libraries, PAAET, British Council Library, Al-Babtain Poetry Library. And the libraries of private universities such as AUK or ACK.
In the end, it IS about profit. You could probably afford to have a bookstore in a place like Safat Al-Ghanim which sells everything from candles to cars. Anything smaller and it would be a loss considering the alternatives available.
May 21st, 2007 at 8:23 pm
السيد الشايع صاحب وكالات العديد من الماركات التجارية و الملابس و العطورات و المطاعم التي يربح منها الملايين. لماذا لا يقدم شيء للكويت عن طريق فتح محل بوردرز مثلا في احد المجمعات التجارية؟ ليس من الضرورة أن يحصل على ربح من ههذ المحل, فيمكنه “دعم” الكتب و بيعها بخسارة, فقد يتولد لدى زوار المجمع اهتمام بالكتاب.
مشكلة تجار الكويت هو ان جل اهتمامهم هو كيفية الربح فقط, دون التفكير في اعطاء القليل جدا إلى الكويت في المقابل.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Anonymous;
I disagree, i beleive that business are doing alot to kuwaitis just by bringing these trands to kuwait, it is not a crime to want to make that extra cash!
May 21st, 2007 at 11:02 pm
busineesmen
May 21st, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Mark - Family Bookstore went through a financial crisis, they’re slowly getting over that and are planning on getting new books…
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:22 am
أعتقد في تعطش للكتب العربية والانجليزية في الكويت، لا وتعطش موهين بعد! واللي بيبطل له بوردرز أو واترستونز أتوقع ماهو خسران
I always thought of it as a good business opportunity; I wonder why we don’t see any of the many business companies approaching it.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
الواحد مو بس يفتح مكتبه ويعي الله ان الناس ايون حق مكتبته. لازم دعايه صح حق المكتبه.
ليش الناس لحد الحين فاهمين ان اذا فتحت محل لازم ابيع حق كل الناس. مو لازم لبيع حق كل الكويت علشان افكر افتح كتبه محترمهsmall is the new big.
انا حايشاتني مشكله في الكويت مع الكتب, مافي كتب زينه عن الدعاية و الإعلان.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
There is a used book shop in the city. Technically, it’s in a mall right behind Johnny Rockets’ and Hashi - if you’re walking towards Souq Al Muttahida from the restaurants, through the courtyard, it’s in the first modern alucabond building on your right, on the second floor. They’re relatively decent - and they’ll even refund some of your money if you bring back a book after reading it.
But they’re short staffed and, being a bookshop, probably aren’t making much money, so sometimes they’re closed when they’re supposed to be open.
Mostly fiction, but you’ll find some other stuff as well from time to time.
Seems more like a grassroots institution than a commercial enterprise.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I agree with cavemen mostly, I think a bookstore as business COULD make money if approached the right way. It needs to be well designed to attract people to just go and spend time there as well as be marketed adequately!
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:17 pm
anything can be sold. I mean look at kanafani, he invented kunafah all over again just by putting it in pizza box and a really well thought ads. now that how you sell stuff.
there is nothing you cant sell. but here in Kuwait they always play it the safe side. just by bringing more clothes and more food to the customer and that sucks big time.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:04 am
we went to avenues for the first time last week and we were discusing the “bookshops” in kuwait issue!
im still hoping enna eykoon fee at least one bookshop.. laken so far im disappointed.
laken i was very interested in what caveman007 had to say, it was part of our coversation last week since im opening my bookshop soon..
November 10th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Hi,
Could anyone please let me know from where i can purchase the following textbook:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Human-Resource-Management-Multinational/dp/0538861371/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1194726415&sr=11-1
isbn:0538861371
I would appreciate if anyone could help.The link is shown above.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I totally agree with you .. good points by the way. first of all for any person to walk into almuthana you’d notice how unorganized it is, there are books from the 1980’s underneath a book published last year, eveythings is messy, which makes it ridiculously hard sometimes to find a specific book. ofcoarse the science and all the good popular science books are totally untouched, all covered with a thin layer of dust lol . and as some people have said, the general public dont usually read a wide spectrum of books in kuwait, or dont really read books like richard dawkins or stephen hawking or any of those scientists. so we end up having barely any proper bookshops, all with very limited sections on proper knowledge containing book. sigh ..
June 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I think the reason people don’t read is because of the way the government and business families run the show, frankly there are less people care about this country, especially those in parliament and also who has businesses, most likely they don’t build their country they physically are like black holes in space, suck their countries money and build another sucking machine(Franchise, Mall, or any other service) the problem is those type of projects doesn’t build the economy they suck the economy big time, and in return people don’t read because there is a culture of “whatever” is going on, and this will through us to age of stone surely