Comments on: First Impression: Dean & Deluca

By: Justine Orme

Justine Orme — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:35:15 +0000

Thanks Mark
I would really like some feedback on how our products are going, what is needed to ensure continuous sales etc etc.

Look for Fruit’n'fire chilli sauces, Bite Me Mango Chilli Salsa, Dining Alfresco Capsicum Apricot dip/chutney, and 2 Hint of Chilli – Tamarillo & Apple jelly and Apple & Clove jelly.

Alshaya have asked me to source more New Zealand products – have been taste testing my way through such items as NZ salmon, macadamia nuts, kiwifruit jams, sauces etc, and fabulous NZ water.

I need educating about Kuwait so bring it on, I want to know.

cheers
Justine

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:14:13 +0000

Hey Justine, you can mention the brands here its ok.

By: Justine Orme

Justine Orme — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:13:10 +0000

Hi All
I have been reading your comments on the Dean & Deluca store in Kuwait with great interest.

I am Justine from New Zealand, one of the suppliers to the Dean & Deluca Kuwait store.

Tell me your comments, being on the other side of the world it’s difficult to guage just how well a product is going.

Our products are in the condiments section – I just read the commenting rules and had to delete the brands for you to look at.

I’m really interested so please let me know your comments.

cheers
Justine

By: Sid

Sid — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:10:27 +0000

GUYS ,,,

Its 1215PM 11th Feb 2009 … Check out the AMAZING Weather out side … heheeheh its RED !!! Lets go to D&D for shopping !!

By: Bu Yousef

Bu Yousef — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:43:20 +0000

A great place. I bought coffee beans on my first visit and I’m loving every cup. We need more of this in Kuwait. Glad they’ve opened here.

By: teach

teach — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:39:19 +0000

Lobster bisque? I’m getting me some of that!

By: Sebamboot

Sebamboot — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:48:20 +0000

I heard the salami is really good as well. gonna try it out!!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:43:09 +0000

just got some spicy salami and bread from dean and deluca…amaaazing :)

By: ok go

ok go — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:16:37 +0000

if you dont like the prices THEN DONT GO THERE.. just dont D&D down just because you did not have a good experience there.. some people will like it and others wont.. this goes for every store in Kuwait.

also.. TSC does NOT have the same products.. most of the products at D&D are from the D&D brand..

true some of the products at D&D are overpriced.. just walk over to carrefour and buy a cheaper version.. not everything there is for everyone..

PS their spicy salami is FANTASTIC.. not the KHAZAN stuff u get at TSC

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:35:27 +0000

jolie_gal: I never said they were not expensive, I said I found the meat cheap. A bottle of small Fiji water here at Dean & Deluca costs like KD1 while on Amazon it costs 650fils so yeah I am sure Dean & Deluca is more expensive than in the US but everything does come in from random places around the world so its more understandable why they cost more. Shipping water from Fiji to the US is cheaper than shipping water from Fiji to Kuwait thats if its direct, it probably comes to us via the US so the price difference at least makes more sense..

By: hilaliya

hilaliya — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:48:47 +0000

Croco, you are right. I hear mixed reports.

Also, some like ‘Al-Oustura’ managed to rent a whole year without rent and this has alienated some others who were paying rent and they in turn have stopped paying (this may have been resolved by now).

By: croco rock

croco rock — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:00:01 +0000

Hilaliya, if they’re paying 2 KD rent they can stay there as long as they like.

Don’t forget most non-Shaya people in there are paying 30-40 KD Rent.

Big, big advantage.

By: hilaliya

hilaliya — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:55:46 +0000

I lived for a total of 10 years on and off in Washington DC and we sometimes frequented ‘Dean and DeLuca’ and the prices we saw there were way, way cheaper than what we are seeing here (especially in today’s troubled economy).

The idea of a ‘Dean and DeLuca’ here is welcome, it is great to have a gourmet food store but seriously if you were into gourmet food, would you drive all the way to the Avenues and buy your groceries or hit ‘Sultan Center’ or the gourmet store in ‘Dahyat Abdulla Al-Salem’?

When I frequent places i tend to look for ‘an easy in, easy out’ mode – I personally think ‘Dean And DeLuca’ would have done much better as a stand-alone-outside-a-mall entity, but I understand ‘The Avenues’ is Shaye-owned and they need to cram all their franchises in it. But that could be detrimental in the long run.

The only way a ‘D and D’ is going to survive here is if they overhaul, improve their cafe and turn the joint into a ‘happening’ hang out place and so far from what I am hearing their coffee shop is in dire straits.

By: croco rock

croco rock — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:06:40 +0000

Very smart, Shaya takes hundreds of thousands in Key money from Napket and opens a similar gourmet sandwich concept – in a better location right underneath him.

By: jolie_gal

jolie_gal — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:47:59 +0000

@Mark: I think the saying is: “why comparing apples and oranges?”

Because comparing McDonalds to Gordon Ramsey is the equivalent of comparing D&D and Co-Op, NOT D&D and Starbucks (the logic doesn’t exactly work there). What NYX tried to say, I guess, is why you think that D&D is not expensive, but you compare the prices of Starbucks in NYC and Kuwait…and find the price of Starbucks here is outrageously overpriced. Is it possible that D&D is actually overpriced too…? I believe s/he did not mean to compare the price of starbucks and that of D&D per se…but rather your sense of monetary value.

Cheers!