The Sharaf DG fiasco at Mall of Qatar, a first-hand experience!

Wednesday 18th January 2017 was inauguration of 2nd outlet in Doha, Qatar at Mall of Qatar, of GCC famous electrical/electronic store ‘Sharaf DG’. They had the promotion for the inauguration day titled “Crazy Opening Deals”, to be honest the deals were crazy & irresistible; like seriously almost half the price of generally what it costs. News was spread citywide about the promotion like wildfire a week before and a lot of denizens were looking forward to it.

I was calculating all the money saved up in my account and planning to take some amount extra from friends as loan; I mean its crazy deals almost half the price like this Samsung’s 40” UHD smart TV having 42% off. Arranged all the money required, made plans to bunk office with my boss (yes bunk not a day off, cause we were going to get back to work), basically the whole plan was set and eagerly waiting for the big day (yes I know it sounds bigger than marriage, cause it was, who knows I might get an iPhone 7 at 30% discount).

Finally the day arrived, plan was set: “10AM the mall opens, I will be there by 10:30AM, finish before 12:30PM & get back to office”. But no GOD had different plans in action. Got stuck in meetings at office & couldn’t start from office till 10:30AM. Somehow escaped from office and drove towards the mall (of course ditched my boss, cause someone had to be in the meeting right?) as fast as I could, luckily didn’t get any traffic violations. There was this big weird smile on my face during the whole drive out of excitement for all those gadgets I was going to get my hands on. Around 11:15AM got parking in the red zone at basement.

Disappointment Number 1 – I park my car, turn off the engine, thereby abruptly stopping the loud music I was listening to, and open the door to take a step out from the car and BANG!! The announcement was there: “Dear Customers, Sharaf DG will not be opening today due to security reasons, you are kindly requested to leave the mall.” I felt like my heart skipped a beat, devastated and was zoned out thinking “Oh GOD why is it always me?” But then I just pondered over the announcement and giggled, why would I want to leave the mall just because Sharaf DG wasn’t inaugurating? I mean I could be anybody coming for any purpose to visit any store and just because Sharaf DG wasn’t opening I should leave? The little rebel in me awakened and I said to myself “Hell no, I drove all this way, I am at the least going to the food court and treat my belly”.

I locked the car and straight away headed towards the food court for Baskin Robins. On my way to Baskin Robins I got stuck in traffic, I mean human traffic as I was on foot now. A huge crowd, I was thinking these many for Baskin Robins as I could see them all blocking Baskin Robins from where I was stuck. Somehow I battled my way to Baskin Robins to get myself my all-time favorite Al-Dahabi, only to find closed Sharaf DG near it (was just across few meters from Baskin Robins). I took my Al-Dahabi and diluted into the crowd, moving towards Sharaf DG.

Disappointment Number 2 – During this tiresome journey through the crowd I saw it was mostly low wage labors, working for less than quarter of my salary, and I was sure they were present only for those tablets & some of the home appliances which were on the promotion list. Then there were these nerds and gadgets geeks like me, a lot of them, finally I wasn’t alone, but not as many as these low wage labors. A couple of meters before the entrance of Sharaf DG they had put barriers and there were too many security officers, police officers, officials from the government and many managers from the staff of the mall & Sharaf DG, asking the crowd to leave as the store wasn’t going to open that day.

My kind of people, the gadget geeks, and the educated lot understood the situation, as it could turn into a stampede, and started to leave in frustration. The frustration was understandable as the big dream was shattering. The real disappointing issue was these low wage labors, they were not frustrated about not being able to get their hands on the appliances or tablets for which they had come, they were frustrated about the money spent on costly transport only to find the store closed and now to spend more money for their journey back home. To add to their misery a lot of them were present there by taking a day off (in other words loss of pay) unlike the most of us white collar employee lot. These low wage labors don’t actually understand the English language, even if they get the hang of it then they definitely don’t understand the white people’s accent (I am not being racist, so my sincerest apologies if anybody feels offended).

I too was going to leave just when I saw these people (of course the low wage labors) arguing with the staff and authorities for their disappointment & financial loss either in their native language or in Arabic, the language of the land. I got myself involved & moved towards the front to talk to this staff member or manager. I ended up finding there a white guy struggling to explain and apologies to the crowd for what was happening, I talked to him & helped him get the apologies translated into the crowd, while simultaneously arguing with him for the plight of these low wage labors. During this whole conversation I didn’t bother to ask who he was (later found out he was the Director of Mall of Qatar) only to continue with the argument & apologies. He took me with him beyond the barriers towards the closed Sharaf DG so that I could discuss possible solutions for this crisis.

Disappointment Number 3 – As I met some of the managers of Sharaf DG’s Mall of Qatar store there, I explained them the frustration of the crowd (which obviously they already knew, but didn’t care) and assured them that I too understand the impact of this on Sharaf DG’s business & reputation (which is what they only cared & thought of). I asked them to use media to announce it citywide officially in order to stop the inflow of people coming only for the inauguration of Sharaf DG, to which they were reluctant but had to do later. I asked them to arrange for a public transport for this crowd as a token of apology in order to calm down the crowd, which they out rightly rejected saying they came on their own & should go on their own as Sharaf DG hadn’t officially invited them for the inauguration.

As this discussion was ongoing the VIPs arrived like the owner of Sharaf DG, the regional manager of Sharaf DG, etc. They arrived & headed into the store from the back door of the store, minutes later the whole staff of Sharaf DG were called inside. The managers with whom I was discussing also had to go inside. I walked along with them & entered the store from the back door.

I WAS INSIDE THE STORE!!!

Finally!! But couldn’t purchase anything that’s a different story. All these VIPs, officials from the government, staff members & a lot of media reporters were there. The regional manager (if I heard correct, his name was Mr. Ganesh) appealed the media reporters to help him spread the news citywide immediately as a live news about this crisis & the reason being security & safety of people was more important than this inauguration. He also mentioned that they were not expecting such a huge crowd, in my head I was like “seriously who are we kidding here, this isn’t the 1st store in Qatar, plus Sharaf DG is GCC famous, plus you have advertised such crazy deals, who wouldn’t want to come?” He later took questions from media and assured that the store will be opening the next day and they would have all these offers again but in a staggered manner, so that the crowd visiting will be controlled.

Disappointment Number 4 – Towards the end of this media session I finally spoke up, though I was scared the whole time as I was a mere nobody, just a customer, who wasn’t supposed to be there and had sneaked in with those managers. I told in front of the media that I do understand the impact of this situation on Sharaf DG’s business & reputation, but suggested as a token of apology they should organize & arrange transport facility for all these customers who were waiting outside disappointed & frustrated. To this one of the manager instantly replied that already Sharaf DG has faced a lot of business loss and by doing this I would only add to their losses & wasn’t helping. I was just trying to help Sharaf DG maintain its reputation and its loyal customers. One of the managers repeated again that the crowd came on their own transport and should go by their own transport.

Disappointment Number 5 – The media session ended and everybody started to leave the store (of course from the back door). By now I was sure it was hopeless rather pointless to discuss or argue on this issue, I too had office to attend where I had left my boss in the meeting alone. As we all were leaving, all the media personnel were given a gift from Sharaf DG. I asked them what about the disappointed customers who were waiting (including me obviously), to which they just laughed it off.

In short, a highly disappointing Wednesday.

Picture courtesy: thepenisulaqatar.com