Fujairah’s Lulu Hypermarket Developing into Shopping Mall

New Shopping Complex
Lulu’s General Manager in Fujairah city, Mr. Asif Moidu Ahmed, believes the time is right for Fujairah to get a big new shopping mall and more supermarket space. He thinks the population growth warrants it and that the increasing number of tourists will also enjoy a shopping mall complex.

Today Mr. Ahmed elaborated on the Lulu Mall and Hypermarket Extension. From the existing Lulu Hypermarket, excavation work, which began three months ago, is almost complete. Currently an enormous cavity extends from the existing building towards the Fujairah International Airport.

Timetable
With a total built up area of 44,500 square meters, this Basement+Ground+1st floor building will be constructed in two phases in order to avoid disruptions to the existing hypermarket. Building work on the project is expected to begin in mid-September 2010 and the opening date is December 2011.

Facilities
The basement will be used for a car park to expand upon the huge parking area that already surrounds the hypermarket.

The ground and first floor will contain the following:
* 100+ shops including chain stores representing popular brands
* An Amusement area for children
* A Cinema with at least two theatres
* A food court

Construction Company
Amana Contracting and Steel Buildings has been awarded the task of construction. This company constructed Ajman’s Lulu Hypermarket in 2003 and is just concluding the construction of the Lulu Hypermarket in Fujairah’s town of Dibba which is due to open in two months just prior to Ramadan.

Hyper-Hypermarket
The existing Fujairah City Lulu Hypermarket, which is to be the flagship for the whole complex, is to undergo a major extension.

The supermarket will double in size and in checkouts—from the current 14 to 28 checkouts.

The existing first floor will also undergo an expansion with a big new area for electronics, clothing and household appliances.

The staff at the Lulu Hypermarket will need to be increased from 300 to 450, meaning many more employment opportunities.

Fujairah Malled
After many calls for Fujairah to have its first shopping mall, there are now at least three malls on the go—the Lulu Mall, the Al Safeer Mall and the Fujairah City Center (which will incorporate a Carrefour supermarket).

Photos
Check out some of the photos taken of the area where the Lulu Mall will be developed. Click on this link.

Further
Plastic Supermarket Bags Slowly Being Replaced by Jute Bags, Fujairah in Focus.
UAE Malls: Shopping the Emirates, Experiencing the Emirates.
Shopping is Super, Hyper and Going Ultra in the UAE, Experiencing the Emirates.

Geoff Pound

Connect with Geoff Pound on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com

T.G.I Friday Market at Fujairah

There are a host of reasons why people are thankful for the Friday Market in Fujairah’s township of Masafi.

Time Out
The Friday market is an ideal spot to break the journey from Dubai-Sharjah to Fujairah and stretch the legs. Approximately 30 minutes out from the east coast, the Friday Market is the place for a snack and to stock up on fresh vegetables and fruit.

Drive-Thru
If you are too comfortable to get out or it is too hot outside you can park your car in drive through fashion and the vendors will serve you through the car window. This is drive-thru Middle Eastern style.

Souq
In this land of malls the Friday Market offers a glimpse of what traditional buying and selling was like before the advent of hypermarkets with their check outs and credit card facilities. Some people think the Friday Market is tired and needs some sprucing up. The managers have recently added some in-your-face signage but it would be a pity if the traditional market was seduced into copying many of the features of a modern mall.

Happy Haggling
The Friday Market gives visitors a taste of authentic living throughout the emirate of Fujairah. It has a unique character shaped by its proximity to the mountains, wadis and the sea. At the Friday Market there is dust and grime instead of the polish and shine of the city. Price tags don’t come with the clay pots and Iranian carpets so one has the chance to experience the bartering and bargaining that people in these parts have done for centuries.

Friday Market?
Fancy a shopping strip named ‘Friday Market’ when it is open eight days a week! This is another example of how Fujairah is rough around the edges and full of delicious paradox. With no set trading hours the Friday Market opens when people are around and if you are coming through in the middle of the night you can still stop off and buy a mouth-watering mango or drink some refreshing coconut juice straight from the nut.

Watch the Gulf News Video Before You Travel



Further
Buying Hats at Fujairah’s Friday Market, FIF.
Buy Yourself a Camel at the Friday Market, FIF.
Buying Oranges and Ouds at the Friday Market in Fujairah, FIF.
Friday Market for Pots and Containers, FIF.
Visit Fujairah for Good Cheap Carpets, FIF.
Picnicking Behind the Friday Market, FIF.
Visit Fujairah for the Friday Market and Tips on How to Barter, FIF.

How to Find the Friday Market
Directions from Dubai to Fujairah, FIF.

Check it out on Google Maps


View Friday Market, Masafi, Fujairah, UAE in a larger map

Geoff Pound

Connect with Geoff Pound on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com

Searching Fujairah With Google

New look for Google
Have you noticed that Google has a new look, a new logo and a new left-hand panel when you do a search?

Google ‘Fujairah’
Check the left-hand panel on the search results page when you put 'Fujairah' into Google Search.

At the top of the left panel you get Everything as you did before.

Next is a red flag icon and the heading ‘Maps of Fujairah’ which when clicked opens up in Google Maps with a flag indicating the location of Fujairah city.

Further down is the camera icon and ‘Images’ of Fujairah. Here it is possible to narrow down the search according to the size, type and color of the photos.

Then there is an arrow down where clicking ‘More’ opens up to Videos, News, Shopping from the Google checkout (posters, books, photos, coins, T-shirts, coffee mugs etc), Books with a Fujairah theme, Blogs (recent blog and web site postings), Updates (new results that appear with the hour as they come available) and Discussions (from forums and site like WikiAnswers).

Time
If that’s not enough, you can narrow down your search by Time (things posted in the past hour, 24 hours, week, month, year or you can insert dates for a custom search.

Sort
Then you can narrow the search according to relevance and date or widen your search to look at Related Items.

That’s Not All
You can narrow the search according to whether you have visited pages before or not.

Google Wonder Wheel
You can try out the Wonder Wheel which currently has links to Fujairah airports, the Freezone, hotels and other things frequently searched in Google.
Google Timeline
Click on the Timeline and you will see references to Fujairah as they relate to the time in history. Currently the earliest reference is to 1670, the estimated date when the Fujairah Fort was built. The Timeline shows how patchy the historical references to Fujairah are until one gets to 1950 and more recent times.

More or Less
You can shape your search according to whether you want sites with more or less images, shopping sites and page reviews.

Sites with Images
Each search result now includes a strip of images from the website, so searchers can get a better preview of what each page has to offer. To enable this new feature, simply do your image-focused query on Google, click on ‘more search tools’ in the left-hand navigation, and then click on ‘sites with images’. You'll notice the search results page completely transforms.

Lost in Translation
The last tool is called Translated Search which offers a list of articles that have been translated about Fujairah especially those from Arabic into English.

These are great tools, not all new but brought together and made more accessible. A great help when searching all things Fujairah.

Geoff Pound

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com