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A Canadian Woman's perspective on Saudi Arabia

SHOPPING IN KSA FEB.21, 2000

I have been out and about with Bob a few times since arriving, mostly for groceries and the few things we need now that he is not "batching" it any longer. The grocery stores are very much like Safeway stores at home. Everything is available, and relatively inexpensive. For instance bread, coffee, milk and eggs are no more expensive here than at home but of course there is no GST and PST sales taxes added on top. And , of course, you are not purchasing from that part of your salary left over after income tax either. Nice! 

Having spent the last three years desperately trying to de-accumulate after twenty-some years of accumulating, I have no great desire to start all over here to build up  possessions. I came to Saudi Arabia with three suitcases, mostly shoes and clothes. I brought a few photographs with me and some favorite things from home. Everything else was left behind with our daughter Laura who now has her own apartment and is using the furniture etc. that we have had for many years. Some things I wish I had brought,  even though I would have to pay extra to do so, like my damask table cloth, my silverware and a couple of family heirlooms. Having said that, Saudi Arabia has everything one could want. Riyadh is a HUGE modern city with everything they cannot manufacture here imported from around the world. I would like to have some local original artwork and some of the magnificent carpets that seem to be sold everywhere. Often you see vendors by the side of the road selling all kinds of things. Carpets, brass, food produce, plants. One of the big surprises was the plant shops. Terracotta pots that cost between $40-$150 at home are only $2-$3 here, so I am considering container gardening. I can sell off whatever I use here when it is time to leave to new people just arriving...common practice here. Thursday this week is the Saudi Saturday so Bob and I are going to a "boot" sale. Translation...flea market. The trunk of a car to the British is the "boot". Afterwards we are going to the Canadian Embassy for Flag Day. It is held now  because July 1 is too darn HOT! I will report on Saturday on the Thurs./Fri. activities. Thurs./Fri. are the Saudi Sat./Sun. however the stores do open after noon on Friday.

Many of the compounds have their own bus for the women and a monthly schedule for daily excursions to the shopping areas of the city. This afternoon is to the shopping center downtown called Euromarche. It has grocery and clothing and other types of stores. A huge mall similar to the ones in North America. Yesterday I tried the bus for the first time since arriving. There were a dozen of us, and three children, all the women in there abayas. We take scarves to wear over our hair if told to do so but if the Muttawa are not present we leave them around our neck or in the purse. I toured the mall all by myself, ordered coffee, shopped for some small things and generally just observed. The other ladies all had previous experience and took off to do what they went there to do, some even left the big mall to shop in other stores across the street. They all came back alive so it must BE possible to cross the street! We go for 2 hours and then back to the compound by noon.

There is everything imaginable in the mall I visited yesterday from electronics to western style clothing, food fair and toy stores. There were two that interested me the most. There was a shop that imports silver from Persia and Indonesia, carries beautiful local native dresses that you would wear at home or to parties, highly embroidered. Also native art in silver, framed in shadowboxes on black velvet with silver frames. Another shop was a fabric store with reams of fabulous silks, cottons and chiffon. Many are highly embroidered with sequins and beads. Fabric is less expensive here and you can have a dress or suit made fairly inexpensively as well. Women who have been here for a long while know the best tailors and what a reasonable price would be. Most take a dress or suit to the tailor to be duplicated because then the size is right and you don't have to have  someone measure you. All the clerks, tailors etc are male by the way. There are shops dedicated to just the traditional native wear and some that are only abayas and scarves...all black. Mine has a touch of purple trim but that is relatively recent innovation in the last year. There is no law or anything in the Koran to say women must wear these or that they MUST be black...however, it is the country's culture so "when in Rome".

One of the interesting things I have noticed is the Saudi preference for bright color and gold gilt on furnishings, accessories and glassware. The jewelry stores are everywhere too. The gold in Arabia is much brighter yellow than we have seen at home. It is mostly 22kt so softer and brighter. Wonderful designs and pretty reasonably priced. Precious and semi-precious stones are set in silver or gold and are in an affordable range too. There can be an entire section of a mall with several jewelry stores in a row...all with similar product so lots of great choice for the consumer. Bob says the gold souk is where he has found his best buys so far. More on gold after I have seen the souk for myself!!

I am off to the afternoon bus so will report on Euromarche later...