Posted by 
Stores across the United Arab Emirates are preparing for a bumper retail spell as they get ready for the return of Dubai’s 3 Day Supper Sale (3DSS) and Black Friday sales.
The 3DSS – which takes place between Thursday to Saturday – is one of the busiest and most popular retail events of the year, with the 2021 event slated to offer discounts of up to 90 percent across hundreds of brands and thousands of retail outlets.
Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving in the US, is also when retailers offer big discounts in stores and online.
At Marina Mall, in Dubai, stores and shoppers are gearing up for the shopping extravaganza.
Shemeer Thalothil, who heads a Marks and Spencer pop-up shop in the mall, told Al Arabiya English he expected heavy footfall from Thursday onwards.
“I have worked with Marks and Spencer for 12 years and for the past few years this has been a traditionally very busy time,” the Indian national said. “We are expecting a very busy weekend. We have regular offers, and we think – especially with Christmas around the corner – people will be using this time to come and shop.”
Also busy stocking the shelves ahead of the weekend was Liudmyla Titova, store supervisor at beauty shop Sephora.
“We expect very good sales,” she said. “(Shopping) traffic has already been picking up since COVID-19 and of course Christmas is coming. For sure this will be one of the busiest weeks of the year. Even myself is looking forward to going shopping as a customer.”
Cosmetic and skincare brand The Body Shop is also expected to have huge discounts on their items ahead of the Christmas season, said shop assistant Sadia Amjid, as she stocked the shelves with its new Christmas range.
Shopper Bader Bethi was visiting the mall and said he had plans to avail the discounts that would be on offer during the shopping festival, while Assistant Manager at retailer H&M Ali Tawbh said that the shop was expecting a heavier footfall during the three-day shopping festival over the weekend.
“We are expecting a lot of customers for the three-day shopping festival this weekend. It’s not just H&M that is expecting all these customers, but Dubai’s retail industry in general,” said Tawbh.
“We are expecting to make a lot of sales… big figures like last year, we made a lot of money (last year), so hopefully this year’s sale will be even bigger,” he said, adding that H&M was going to have a 30 percent sale off everything in the store for 3DSS.
Source: Alarabiya
