Shop hours are called "Timings". I don't know why I think this sounds funny, but I even laugh at myself when I call the pharmacy and ask, "What are your timings?"
You can get anything delivered to your home. You can call the local shop and have them deliver one can of Coke if you'd like. This is most tempting for me when I run out of milk, but I'm afraid if I call they will look for the oldest milk in the fridge and send that one. Once we were out of all mixes and had company coming, so we phoned for 6 cans each of Soda Water, Tonic, and Bitter Lemon (a wonderful concoction of tonic and lemonade). Five minutes later, a man arrived with six cans of soda, six cans of tonic, and six lemons. Oh well.
You can also have your laundry picked up at your home and returned to you cleaned and pressed. Laundry service is insanely cheap here, running about a dollar for a laundered and pressed dress shirt. This sounded like a dream in theory, but the shirts always seemed to come back smelling of damp and incense smoke, so Jim's taken to dropping his off at the dry cleaner's, for a much increased rate (but stink-free). There are dry-cleaners in our area who drop off cards advertising pick up and delivery, but we haven't had much luck communicating with them by telephone. (See future post on how everyone in Dubai speaks English, sort of). As an aside, I am acutely terrified by the sight of men teetering along on their bicycles in heavy traffic laden with plastic-wrapped shirts from the laundries.
The other thing to have delivered is food. Not just pizza and curry, either. I find it hilarious that you can get Burger King to deliver here. This would be way better for me if I actually liked Burger King. The food delivery men are nearly as terrifying on the roads as the laundry bikes; they weave in and out of cars on their tiny motorcycles with the insulated metal food boxes on the back. Thankfully, they usually wear helmets.
My favorite thing to have delivered is water for the dispenser. The five gallon jugs cost 7 dirhams, or $2, and they will deliver them to your door five minutes after you call. In our case, our apartment building keeps them on hand and a maintenance man will bring your bottles to you in a grocery cart. I love it!
Staffing of retail shops is also an interesting thing in Dubai. Now that I am working in the retail industry, I know for a fact that many shops (not ours) pay their retail staff 1,000-2,000 dirhams (less than $300-$600) a month, and full time is legislated to be 48 hours. I'm sure this seems like a lot to the people who come here for those jobs from Philippines and India, but Dubai is expensive. The low wages have a few consequences. For $300/month, you do not get very educated or well-trained staff. Stores seem to compensate for that by hiring way too many staff, none of whom will know what you mean when you ask for, say, Ginger Ale. I was once with a friend, the only customers in a 400 sq foot yogurt shop with no fewer than 12 people working there. In this case there were way too many of them, but they were all super nice and friendly, and the frozen yogurt was perfect. It all seems like in an investment in quantity over quality to me, and in fairness to the hapless underpaid staff in Dubai, they don't seem to be given much training, or much of a chance to succeed. This is certainly not true across the board, as there are many fine establishments who have well-trained and seemingly contented staff, but sadly it's not uncommon.
Also in shops, the staff have a tendency to follow the customers. This really makes me cranky, though I try to be understanding. I have realized (again from working in retail myself) that many local shoppers expect the staff to follow them around in case they have any questions. It still makes me crazy to be tailed like a teenaged shoplifter, though, and I have on occasion snapped at a camera/phone/shoe salesperson that "I am just looking, I will find you if I have any questions!"
My absolute favorite crazy thing about spending your money in Dubai is that no one ever has change. I totally get asking if you have 25 fils or a couple of dirhams (coins) when you are paying at the grocery store; it makes the change easier. Fine. What kills me is that taxis never have change for a 100 dirham note on a fare anywhere less than 50dhs. That's like not having change for a $20 bill if your taxi ride was six bucks. I've had cab drivers drive around asking other taxi drivers for change. Shops will be the same...Chloe and I went into a self-proclaimed pharmacy hypermarket, and they didn't have change for a 100 dirham note. This would all be fine if the ATM's dispensed 20's or 50's, but they usually give you 500 or 1,000 dirham notes, for which NO ONE has change. I've carried a 1,000 dirham note around in my wallet for days until I could get to a big grocery store, the liquor store, or even a bank. Luckily we keep a bag of coins here at home to pay for small things, like the water delivery. Sadly, we've paid for pizza in mostly coins! Luckily, the delivery guys never speak enough English to give us any crap about it.
Love it!
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