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Exporting your personal belongings vs. buying everything in Abu Dhabi - part 3 : buying kitchen appliances and electronics

Friday, July 6, 2012 Category : , , , , , 28

You will see it by yourself when you will start looking for apartments (for example on Dubizzle), a lot of properties for rent don't have kitchen appliances. It can be quite unsettling because usually empty apartments for rent in Europe and the U.S. have an equipped kitchen : they're not literally empty :-D
So you will have three main options for your appliances and home electronics: Carrefour, Lulu, or your now best friend Dubizzle!
  • Carrefour is a French supermarket company that sells food and also things for the house. They're kind of like the French Walmart. They have a great choice of appliances and electronics (TVs, home cinema, phones, cameras, computers and IT stuff). They have most of the brands that you would find in your home country. I'm not sure for electronics because I didn't buy anything there, but as far as the kitchen appliances are concerned, delivery and installation is free! The Carrefour store is located in Marina Mall, one of Abu Dhabi's main malls. To get an idea of the prices of all these items, you can check Carrefour's webstore IC4UAE. Carrefour sales staff is very knowledgeable about the products, and they have excellent after sale service. 
  • Lulu is a Middle Eastern supermarket chain. They sell food in Lulu Supermarkets and all sorts of appliances and electronics either in the supermarket or in Lulu Department stores. These stores are usually located into important malls, so they're easy to access and to park to. Based on the Lulu stores I visited, they have a little less choice than Carrefour, but they seemed a little cheaper. They offer free delivery and installation of the kitchen appliances as well.
  • Dubizzle is a cheap way to equip your home, but you'll have to install and deliver the items to yourself, so it might be a little bit of a hassle especially for kitchen appliances. As mentioned earlier in the post about furniture, lots of expats move away from the U.A.E. all the time and are willing to sell all of their stuff at once. Talking directly to someone is this situation might be more convenient for you than buying the appliances to different people. 
A few tips : 
  • If you decide to buy a gas stove (here they call it "cooker"), figure out the type of gas which is supplied in your building. It is important because if your building is equipped with natural gas access (like mine!), your cooker will need to have a specific "nozzle". If you don't have the right nozzle installed, your cooker won't work and you'll have to pay for technicians to come (at your own expense), or even sometimes you might have to return the cooker all together. Don't hesitate to tell your salesman several times about the type of gas your building gets.
  • Deliveries of appliances by Carrefour (and probably Lulu too) are operated by local companies, not by the store. Each of the little delivery companies takes care of one or two brands, so if you bought appliances from different brands, you will get several deliveries. 
  • Delivery and installation are free, but it doesn't mean that you will get both services on the same day :-D When I got my cooker delivery, the guys didn't install it. The cooker just stayed like that in the middle of the kitchen for days! The delivery guys gave me a phone number of a technician to schedule an installation. Supposedly, from what I was told, in this kind of situation, if you give 50 dirhams to the delivery guys, they will install it for you. I had no idea, so I went to my Carrefour store and told my salesmen what happened. They were really mad, and scheduled the installation for me. In case you don't get your installation, don't give the delivery receipt to the delivery guys. It will be harder for you to prove your point when you go complain at the store.
  • Sometimes, delivery/installation people just don't show up. It gets really frustrating, but stay calm. In case that happens, go back to the store and let the sales persons know. It happened to me several times (fridge delivery people never came, cooker installation person didn't come despite the appointment that was taken). Maybe I'm very unlucky, or maybe I'm in the average. Some friends got problems with furniture deliveries too, so unfortunately, I don't think I'm an isolated case. Just get ready for a level of service that isn't really what you're used too. Having someone at home helps a lot, unless your boss is really cool and lets you take several days off on a last minute notice.
  • It's pretty obvious, but check with your realtor/landlord if your apartment has electricity and gas already. My landlord made sure I had electricity when I moved in, but I didn't have gas. The gas connexion had to be set up by my building management, which took a while to happen, as these people are very busy and take forever to return your phone calls...

Exporting your personal belongings vs. buying everything in Abu Dhabi - part 2 : buying furniture

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 Category : , , , , , , , 37

Now that we have considered the possibility of exporting your belongings to the U.A.E., let's see how it would be to buy everything new! Why not, after all? New city, new life, new home! And new furniture! If you're interested in home decor, this could be a fun experience!
There is quite some choice in terms of furnishing your new home in Abu Dhabi. I honestly don't know anyone who told me they didn't find anything that they like here. The only worry when you're still in your home country is that there isn't a lot of information available online, so here's a little help.
  • Ikea : The Swedish God of furniture is very well settled in the U.A.E. They have one store in Abu Dhabi, and another one in Dubai. The stores are big, normal, pretty much identical to those you have in your home country. A lot of expats buy their furniture there, because it's pretty cheap (although slightly more expensive than in the U.S.A. from my personal experience), easy to assemble, and they have a lot of choice (I <3 Ikea!!). Be careful though, they might not have exactly all of the items of your home-store. For instance, they didn't have my mattress. But overall, they have a huge bunch of things. They provide free delivery and assembly when your purchases exceed 2500 AED (around 540€ or $680). It makes it as convenient as shopping in Europe of in the U.S., except that you don't pay for your delivery! I like the fact that all of their products are available online, which makes it easier to plan without having to visit the store. This is also how I managed to evaluate the value of my furniture when deciding if I should export my stuff or buy everything from scratch (see part 1 of this article)
  • Homes R Us : They offer affordable, and more traditional furniture than Ikea. To each their own! They have one store in Abu Dhabi (located in Madinat Zayed mall, a very traditional Arabic mall) and several stores in Dubai. Just like Ikea, they have furniture and home decor items, linen, kitchen accessories (plates, pots, etc.). They have a few products visible on the website, but you will definitely need to go to the store to figure it out.
  • Home Centre : They're a compromise between Ikea and Homes R Us. You can't see their collections online like on the Ikea website, but they have an online catalogue with prices. It will give you an idea of the style of their items. 
These are the three main stores where expats buy their furniture. Of course, there are a lot more options, especially with local independent stores. Additionally, I would like to mention The One which is a trendier - and also more expensive, from what I hear - furniture store in Abu Dhabi. You can't view all of their products online, but if you want to drop by their store, you can take advantage to have a drink or a snack there!

Additionally, if you find yourself a little tight on the budget and can't buy everything new, you can also buy second-hand furniture on Dubizzle. They are the Middle East's leading classified ads website. They always have a million used items available. Maybe you will find something you like? Since there is such a big expat community in Abu Dhabi, people are always trying to sell stuff online, so you can find really good deals, even on cool furniture from the above mentioned stores. Give it a try!

 UPDATE 24/08/2012 : I came across this very useful and well documented article, that I'm sharing with you : http://frugalexpat.com/2010/11/24/where-to-hunt-second-hand-items-in-abu-dhabi/

UPDATE 02/10/2012 : I have spent quite a lot of time by Electra Street (downtown Abu Dhabi) lately, and I found out that they have quite a lot of furniture store. I can't vouch for the quality of the products they sell, but they have lots of items, so it might be worth checking. The style of what they sell is usually more traditionnal, definitely not contemporary. Don't hesitate to park your car behind the buildings and walk around, sometimes the stores are not on the main street but behind. They also have a bunch of stores that sell lights and places where you can order custom made curtains.
The curtains thing is pretty important because in most recent buildings, the windows are large but they don't have blinds. Most likely, you will need to get your own, and have someone install them (or do it yourself ;)). I can make recommendations, if anyone is interested!

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