Thursday, January 03, 2008

You gotta smile.

I really don't like shopping.

It gets worse when sales assistants invade my personal space hovering two millimetres from me, when other shoppers insist on pushing in front of me to look at whatever it is I'm trying to look at, when the shop doesn't bother to display things in an orderly way so that I'm expected to spend hours trying to find what I want. I get very irritable.

But, in Dubai there are plenty of things that make it a little less annoying and even raise a smile or two.

Example, I'm in Spinneys pork department and in the big display of meat there are three trays of obviously different types of sausages. I point at the middle tray and ask the 'butcher' "What type are those?"

His face registers 'you're stupid' as he tells me "Sausages, Sir."

Silly me.

Someone comes from the back room to tell me they're Cumberland.

And simply walking around, you come across things that raise a smile. This is quite a common phrase on signs...



Then, you wonder what on earth they sell at Mega Mall...



Something different to hang the clothes on...



And wandering through Deira yesterday, I noticed this one. Not good for business confidence I would have thought...

4 comments:

sandierpastures said...

There's also Al Boom Gas company and Rainbow Color Separation Services. Dubai offers a lot of humor. We just need to open our eyes a little bit wider. :-)

-Grace in Dubai-

LDU said...

parking in the back side - lol :D

i*maginate said...

Smile indeed.

I leave you with a pleasant encounter with just about any dept store around here:

me: browsing around
them: (barely a minute after entering the shop) can I help you?
me: just looking around, thanks

Yes...I'm just bl*dy looking @ watever's new in your shop, do you have a fricking problem with that???

(words unspoken - highly un PC!)

Over time, I've mastered the look that says "stay away from me, I just want to shop like a civilised person, do you mind?" - and my shopping experience has become somewhat more positive.

Not that the existing privacy factor makes it more enjoyable than shopping in ... other places ... , where a mere twinkle of the eye denotes a request for assistance!

Hello...can I help you?

Anonymous said...

In Sharjah there's Al Shark Builders, always cracks me up.