material possessions and other Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Shopping Tips

Name of Shop: material souk @ batha

There is a long alleyway with about 20 material shops and tailors along it.

What To Buy: You can buy any material. I buy cotton (expect to pay SR5 - SR12 per metre, depending on quality) and silk (SR180 for 4m sq.).

What To Pay: Go early in the morning for "best price"

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Theme: Women's Clothes
Address: King Abdulaziz Road
Directions: beside the Omega sign, there is an alleyway, leading to the material souk area

Name of Shop: Batha

Batha is the main souk area in Riyadh. The souk is covered and has many alleyways and different buildings.

What To Buy: Batha souk specialises in clothes, electrical appliances and household goods.
But is also the place for finding cheap bargains of any imaginable artefact or appliance & where almost anything can be made to order.
It comprises a maze of old buildings & stalls, many without air-conditioning & intersected by very narrow alleyways.

What To Pay: How much you pay depends on how good your bargaining skills are. There is always more than one shop selling the same things, so check around a few shops if you're not sure of prices.

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Theme: Discount Store
Address: Batha Street
Directions: Batha's boundaries are Al Washem St to the north & Tariq bin Ziyad/Al Raes St to the south

Name of Shop: Dira Souk

I head straight for the gold and silver shops, there you can find gold, silver, precious stones, pearls etc.
All of the shops will make to order, for very reasonable prices.
Just past the jewellery shops, there are shops selling antiques, kilims, frankincense and Saudi clothes.
There are alleys with shops selling means traditional clothing - leather slippers, thobes (long white shirts), gutras (headscarves) and igalls (coils), supplemented by furwas (thick coats) lined with fur.

What To Buy: You should definitely get some jewellery - either made or brought off the shelf.
Two unique pieces found here in Saudi Arabia - get your name translated into arabic around a ring - looks really cool. And the same again on a necklace.

What To Pay: Gold and silver are sold by weight in Saudi Arabia, so always check the price per gram first. And ask for discount - start at 40% of the offered price.

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Theme: Other
Address: Near Musmak fortress
Directions: in the centre of Riyadh

Name of Shop: Al Faisaliah Center

Al Faisaliah Center soars above the traffic-choked streets of Riyadh. The center, which includes a luxury hotel, mall and restaurants, was built by the Saudi Bin Laden Group, the huge construction company founded by the late father of Osama bin Laden.

What To Buy: Shops include: Harvey Nichols, Reebok, Bennetton, DKNY, Next.

What To Pay: Fixed prices, so more expensive than the souks

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Theme: Department Store
Address: King Fahd Road, Riyadh

Name of Shop: Kingdom Tower

The Kingdom Centre was opened in 2001. It contains wedding chapels, conference rooms, restaurants, bars, shopping areas, social and family facilities and parking garages. The tower is occupied by a bank, a business club, a business centre and a 5 star hotel as well as offices and condominiums.
The shopping centre has a special women-only shopping floor with female security, cleaners and shop attendants. You can even take off and check-in your abbeya at cloakrooms located inside. There is even a beauty salon (complete with gym and spa options) with a hair salon attached (the hairdressers are ex-pats).
There are departments, optometrists, food chains, a grocery store, fashion and beauty store, jewellery shops, homeware stores, camera shops etc.

What To Buy: The One Store, down on the ground floor has some cool home accessories and a good supply of abstract greeting cards all at reasonable prices.
There is a chocolatier's on the ground floor that has a wide variety of dates filled with different nougats and other fillings - and they're happy to let you taste-test.

Kingdom has: Debenhams, Saks 5th Ave, Massimo Dutti, Marks & Spencers, Mango, Zara, Kodak, Nike, Starbucks, Espirit, Colours of Bennetton, La Senza, The Body Shop, McDonalds, KFC, Givenchy, Ninewest, Aldo etc.

What To Pay: Prices are set, depends whether you're after a haircut or Prada knickers.

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Theme: Other
Address: Olaya Street

Name of Shop: saks 5th avenue

Saks 5th Avenue is a showcase of lots of designer pret-a-port clothing.
You can get Prada FMB boots and Galliano balldresses, even Moschino suspenders and DKNY running shoes.
This is where anyone who's anyone in Riyadh buys their latest attire if they're trying for a 'Western' or 'European' look.

What To Buy: Everything is pretty reasonably priced by designer standards, and taxfree of course.

What To Pay: So ladies, stock up on some designer undies starting from SR1000 (US266) a set. Which would probably be the cheapest thing there.

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Theme: Women's Clothes
Address: Kingdom Tower
Directions: On the ladies-only floor.

Name of Shop: Debenhams

Debenhams takes up one end of Kingdom Towers 3-storey shopping mall. The top floor is ladies-only, you can try on clothes from this and the other two floors of the store.
A good tip for ladies is to try your cosmetics on in the ladies section (where the female salespeople know their stuff), but actually buy them on the second floor (where the male salespeople give out all the free samples!!).

What To Buy: It is great for basics like strapless bras, sports socks, crockery, towels, bikinis.
It's good to stock up on 'designer' type stuff like John Roche cushions and vases and Jamie Oliver dinnerwear because it's all so cheap with the exchange rate.

What To Pay: They are reasonably priced, and also have great sales 3-4 times a year 25%-75% off prices depending on the season. No bargaining though :-(

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Theme: Department Store
Address: Kingdom Tower

Name of Shop: Jarir Bookstore

Jarir has quite a few locations around the Gulf States.
I bought a laptop from them almost 2 years ago, and have had it serviced and de-virused for free on a couple of occasions, in both Jeddah and Riyadh.

What To Buy: Books are really cheap and they have a wide selection - light romance novels to autobiographical and biographical accounts of life in various Arab countries. All the latest topsellers also. Even Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks!!
There is also greeting cards, wrapping paper, school/writing stationery, diaries.
Foreign magazines (no FHM/Playboy/Sports Illustrated/Maxim though) are popular, but quite pricey (off the top of my head SR55/US15 for a Cosmopolitan).

What To Pay: From SR2 for an HB pencil, up to SR10,00 for the latest laptop.
Once you've spent SR500, you can get a discount card which gives you 10% off books.

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Theme: Books
Directions: Riyadh - Olaya St/Al Ahsa St/Prince Abdullah Rd/Oqbah Bin Nafa Rd
Qassim
Dammam
Al Khobar - Corniche Rd/Al-Rashid Mall
Al Hofuf
Jeddah - Sari St Falasteen St/Al Tahlia St
Makkah - Al Hijaz Souk

Also stores in:-
Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait
Website: www.jarirbookstore.com