Shopping - Point of Reference

 i dont, i pretend , and i provoke. ,will be more responsible n my post, not that i dont try, i just cant.love ya both nd apologees for bad behavior

just try shopping in all thse places atleast once. doha has lotta varities. as a westner i prefer lulu for its large variety of imported fresh grocery and low prices. it is more classy than walmart and more trendy than target. dont go by what some people has to say here abt lulu.welcome to qatar nd good luck freind

dedee dear,First of all I only mean those from Europe and not from US.

Iam just trying to show some reason. I still stand by my statement about shopping in US. I mean places like walmart, Costco, publix and windixie. They look tired, dirty and cheap, any place like lulu or giant store in doha looks much more pleasant and well stocked. And u do have some service to talk about. I don’t mean places like wholefood or wild oats.

Wal-mart and traget are not here. But if u want to get anything international, like the stuff imported from USA or UK, then check out Shoprite, It's on the way from Family food center to wakra at the Airport road. Or else visit The mall, they have alot of things too. Airport is the best area in Qatar :D

It's always the small things that make big differences.

on what you call a 'decent living condition'.  If all you want is a big house, big car and a maid, maybe.  I'd much rather do my own housework any day and have nice scenery, good road systems, good quality food in the shops, cleanish air - no dust and diesel fumes mixed in with the smell of sewage and schwarma,  can't walk anywhere 'cos of building all over the place, tripping over rubble and dead cats and overflowing dumpsters.  Time for bed.

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"There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out". - Richard Dawkins

well your comment tells me about your personality neelu and really no point in discussing things with you..keep you head buried in the sand (there lots of sand here to choose from hence probably why you love the "great living conditions" here)........

exactly taliesin, my hubby was earning the same overseas than here, however he relocated for career path amongs other things..hmm assumptions are ripe amongst some people...

coming here because they can't make a decent living there' I think you'll find that for many it's just another stop off on the career path - whether it's London, Paris, Singapore, Oslo, Houston or good old Doha.  More for experience than anything else.

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"There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out". - Richard Dawkins

i love to shop there from food to clothing.here in doha,i prefer to do most of my grocery shopping at Lulu,for fruits ,giant store is my choice.electronics at Carrefour and for imported grocery stuff  its none other than shoprite/megamart.

Yes, we know you prefer Lulu's.  That's great go there all you want.  I prefer other places.  That DOES NOT make me prejudice against Lulu's.   I have been there many many times.  I just flat out do not like the place.   People can have different opinions you know.

My problem with you is what you said about westerners.  It was prejudiced, rude and uncalled for.    I do not consider myself a snob, most of my friends are not either (some are--just as some of EVERY nationality are).

I made an extremely decent living in the US, I make a terrific living here as well.    I DID NOT come just for the money.   I wanted to broaden my cultural horizons and have some traveling adventures, meet other cultures, etc etc.

I love Qatar (most days) and try to look on the positive and count my blessings, rather than dwell on the negative.  I respect Qataris and all cultures, dont' try to generalize, realizing there are bad apples no matter where you are.     Please don't disrespect others by name calling.  It was you who was being disgusting.

I too find lulu untidy theses days, the reason I guess is the renovation work that is taking place .they are retiling the place and  installing double checkouts like some tescos and  also adding new chillers and freezers. So they keep dismantling shelving and changes the sections without any logic. I asked the customer service and they say store will be completely revamped in two weeks, but they have been saying this to me for the last four weeks. but I still prefer  lulu to carrefour, besides the price and variety, it has a better ambience in terms of color schemes and the music they play

...to the first impression you get, Carrefour definitely LOOKS nice - at least for european eyes. When I went to Lulu last week, I was first a bit confused because it's really crowded on the weekends and  looks kind of unorganized - washing powder next to cookies etc. But they had really some interesting stuff, like special bread, cookies, and fruit. So usually I would prefer Carrefour and Giant, but if you're looking for something new, Lulu is not bad. I did not feel at ease there, but maybe it is because it was so crowded.

I don't think anyone in this thread except you has even mentioned the PEOPLE at any store only the stuff the store stocks...or regularly fails to keep stocked.  Give me a break.

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

i agree, there is no one place for everything.overall lulu is the best.availabilty,price,varaiety and ambience. but crowded in weekends

You are close to Lulu's? You could try Shoprite across from the airport. MegaMart/Shoprite same owners. I've not been in Shoprite though but I heard it's similar. The Family Foods are pretty good too. I use the one in Rayyan some and they always have nice produce.  

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Hi,

I have been in doha for only a short while but i have noticed that here each supermarket is good for few things n bad for others.i will try to give u a brief idea of each supermarket

Lulu  :

Yes Lulu is mostly catered for indian crowd. i have found that they have the best chicken  ( only lulu has chicken which is less than 700 gm,which i find good as smaller the chicken better it tastes) n they have very good fish also.

The staff is not all that very good,they keep staring if u r a lady shopping alone. N when i need some one to ask something i never find them.N finding a parking on thursday night, friday n sat is impossible!

Family Supermarket :

I personally prefer to go here coz the shop in itself is not all that very big so shooping getting over pretty quicky. The vegetables r fresher than Lulu but if u r looking for a lot of variety in fruits then this is not the place for that.

All in all a better place for weekend grocery.Staff r again staring if u r a lady alone but atleast they are few in number when compared to Lulu

Giant Stores ( in Hyatt Plaza) :

U get the freshest range of fruits here.Variety might not b all that great when compared to Lulu but the fruits available r really fresh.They have the best freshly squeezed orange juice.I never go without buying that if i am near Hyatt.For the rest of the stuff they r fine nothing great nothing bad.

Carrefour :

I am not a great fan of carrefour,though i find that they have better range of fresh creams,cream cheese ,biscuts,etc. N their electronic section is pretty good.

Megamart:

If you have to get imported europe stuff this is the place to go. Other than that i dont like shopping here.

Food Palace:

CRAP.

This all my personal opinion,some ppl might find it diff some same. Anyway i hope this information was helpful for u.But i should say the best way to find out will b to try every supermarket once so u know what suits ur needs.

take care n best of luck for ur stay in doha

Wow!!  This has been a thread that definitely people feel strongly about, huh?

So if I'm reading things correctly, here's what I'm looking at:

Imported food (Megamart)

Produce (Giant)

Meat (Giant)

I guess I'll start off by doing the bulk of my shopping at Family Food Center, since it's nearby (although so would be Q-Mart, I'd just never heard of it), and then make the rounds picking up whatever I didn't find.

Thank you all for your help!

If you want items from the US or UK, MegaMart has to win for me. OK, maybe it's a bit more expensive but that doesn't bother me. I come from England, everything is expensive there.  I love all the American frozen food in MegaMart, I'm sure you'll find some of the things you want.

oh pwb78..half your luck...im envious...enjoy your trip and make most of your bread.....

Headed home in 10 days ladies and I can't wait. Target, Wal-Mart watch out! One thing I do miss when we go back is fresh, hot flat bread for 1 QR. That overpriced "greek" stuff doesn't even compare. :)  

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

... i miss home now...lol....all this talk about food....and shopping...

So true...giant store fresh fruit is best available, its so hard to find here, even the wholesale market i tried and found the quality wasnt good.

With meat i had to shop everywhere and still not satisfied, although i found the giant store the best for me....oh well what can we do hey....sacrifices we make..lol

lol Alexa..thats very funny. I havent been to US but compared to Australia, shopping here is something i have forced my self to get used to. Although im not a fan of target clothes etc, comparing them to Lulu is a joke, the quality in lulu leaves a lot to be desired, give me target anyday..

I prefer giant stores for groceries/fruit etc and if i want something imported i go to megamart.

I guess when you come here its wise to shop at both and make a descision, as clearly shown, people have different preferences and so will you.

i dunno why people here are so prejudised against lulu, just becaus ethey catering to indian and other asian customers.dededd, they not only stock one metre of Ghee, they r the only outlet with iceland , nd jhonwest range. and see their organic and imported cheez section. after shopping in walmart for a long time ,i can say that shopping in lulu is a much more pleasent experience, infact shopping anywher in doha is better than shopping in us

Don't think Lulu's will be your cup of tea. I think I have been there twice in 3 years. Carrefour is the closest thing to Wal-Mart you will find and it's nowhere close. It felt old the day it opened. It's just not the same as a nice, well-organized, well-stocked Wal-Mart or Target. Q-Mart at The Mall and MegaMart at The Centre have to best selection of "western" items but you will go broke if you do all your shopping there. :) As stated above it usually takes 3 groceries to find everything you need and I'm not talking about looking for crazy stuff, just the basics. I like Giant at Hyatt Plaza and I force myself to go to Carrefour for a few things. One tip - if you see it and you've got storage room, buy it up! Welcome to Doha. :)  

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

There is NOTHING   even remotely  similar here to Walmart or Target.  You will go into mourning for a while, then adjust.      Being as you are from the states, I assume,  you will hate LULU's.  It's massively huge and is sort of like a walmart (groceries, pharmacy, jewelrey, toys, clothing, etc )  but is geared, in my opinion, for the Indian clientele.   You will only find necessities there such as bread, milk, veggies, fruit etc.  They have about 1/4 of an aisle of cereal,  but  a huge aisle of Ghee (you don't know what that is, then you won't like shopping here)   Not hardly any American products like Kraft cheese and so forth.   Worse than that is that the people there are pushy, shove, don't understand lines, manners, politeness etc.   That's both the shoppers and the workers.    I would rather go elsewhere and spend more money just so I am not mad and ready to scream at someone by the time I get to the checkout.   Family Food Center is much better as well as Q-Mart which is in "the mall".    Go to Family Food center first.  They have groceries on the bottom floor and household items (pots, pans, brooms, plastic containers, dishes, etc) school supplies & clothing on the second.

also be warned ya might not get everything ya need all in one roof for me sometimes grocery shopping means going to 3-4 places before i manage to complete my grocery list, cos some place is good for this and the other is better for that and so on , but to me grocery shopping day is a fun day .....lol(doint i just love walking down the aisle and inspecting stuff.,......lol) 

life's too short so make the most of it, you only live but once.......

Lulu's is good in that you get a  wide variety  but the service offered is terrible .. the sales girls are surly, parking on the weekend is a hassle so for a few dirhams more Family Food Center is a much better option.. the veggies are fresher,  and staff are always willing to help.

Other options are Carrefour in Citicenter /Villagio or if youre looking for typically western foodstuff try Megamart or Qmart.