BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: Business is dull for mobile phone shops in Al Watan shopping complex eight months after they were evicted from Souq Najada, The Peninsula has learnt.
Wearing a desolate look, operators of at least 20 shops selling mobile phones and accessories in the renovated souq say sales are sluggish and business has not picked up even three months after they have moved to the complex.
They blame the inconspicuous location for the meagre turnout of customers even during weekends when they used to witness thousands of customers while they were still in their former location.
“I am selling my shop as soon as I find someone who is interested to buy it,” Afaz, one of the businessmen in the complex, said in desperation. “This is not a good location for my business. It is very hard even to raise the QR8,000 monthly rent for the shop,” he added.
Apart from a couple of mobile phone shops on the ground floor, many of the shops are located on the first floor hidden from people’s sight. Except for tiny signs posted on the glass doors of the entrances to the complex, the building does not bear any mark of a huge number of mobile phone shops could be found inside.
Ismail, another shop owner, missed his old shop in the 19-year-old Souq Najada which had already become a landmark in the city for housing around 300 shops most of which were dealing with mobile phones. He said Souq Najada was a prime location which attracted lots of customers because of the huge number of shops selling similar goods giving customers more options.
“We moved here altogether thinking we would be able to attract more customers as happened in our previous location, but until now very few are coming here,” said another tenant at the souq, adding he could hardly sell one mobile phone in a day.
Proximity to Souq Najada and other retail centres was another reason why the mobile shop owners chose to move to Al Watan complex despite the higher rents compared to their previous location.
Souq Najada shut down in June last year but hasn’t been demolished as yet and as to what would be built there remains unclear.
Some tenants at Al Watan complex however just shrugged off the situation with rumours the building and others adjacent to it would be torn down to give way to a massive Doha Metro project.
“Anyway we heard this building will be demolished maybe this year for the construction of the metro,” said a tenant.
The Peninsula
