Overly Crowded Malls & Hypermarkets
I find it hard nowadays to shop in hypermarkets and malls in Doha as they are overly crowded, especially on weekends.
City Centre is a total no-no for me these days as parking lots is a major problem. Even though they have opened up new open space parking lots outside the building, still it's not sufficient on weekends. Same goes to Lulu Hypermarket or FFC on Airport Road. It's a nightmare to go to Lulu Hypermarket these days.
If I want to buy foodstuff, I try to go to FFC Al-Rayyan or Al-Meera in Hitmi al-Jadeed. For clothing and household, I'm left with Villagio, Hyatt Plaza & Landmark which I think still offer lack of varieties.
Is there any new hypermarkets/ malls in the pipeline ??
I think they open around 10am here in doha. but you can always go to local market for fresh vegies and seafood or meat. they clean only got hassled for been stare at from all the men there. but if you stay low profile and doing what you doing is cool.
What are the opening hours of the supermarkets in Qatar?
My local supermarket in the UK is open 24 hours and so I find it much more convenient to shop either during the day or very late at night and to avoid the busy weekends; is this not a possibility over there?
Go to The Center in Ramada junction or go to Giant in Al Nasr street to buy food groceries for another options and go to Royal Plaza for clothing shopping. Never hassled with parking in this places.
I'm afraid it has to be in the evenings for me, so I'm stuck with the rat race in the parking lots :)
thats the timing of school run and after school activities. I now normally do my shopping in the morning after school drop off.
Most of the Malls are deserted during afternoon say 2 PM to 4 PM thats the best time to shop and you will find enough parking.
go early, right when the stores open and you'll have no problem. if you go in the evening, you're pretty much screwed.
so true charlene...the parking lot if always full but there is hardly the crowd in landmark.
novita is right...there is no proper seating arrangement at villagio.
happy heart
drive safe because someone is waiting for you at home
You are so right about the parking at Landmark Mall. What I don't understand is the parking lot is always full but there is never anyone in the mall! Has anyone else noticed this?
havent been to city centre for ages ... as you said parking is a pain there. It is the same with Landmark Mall, try to get there after 11 am ... you will spend ages to find parking.
I do my groceries mostly in the morning ... but in the weekend we like to go out as a family ... cinema or just sitting in the starbucks.
Last Saturday we went to Villagio, bought a book for my son and thought we going to sit down in a cafe and have something to drink. Turn out that we can't find anywhere to sit.