‘Borders’ opens at City Centre

Borders website.

Basma Card

I am sure that all of you have seen the Basma Card campaign all over Bank Muscat, Oman Oil, Nawras, and Lulu hypermarket outlets. It is a very lame reward card scheme we have in this country, if you check their leaflets, their website, or any of their information packages anywhere, you never actually get to know what you can do with the points you collect using Basma. I've got my card when I applied for a credit card from Bank Muscat, which automatically credits me a Basma point for every Rial I pay using the credit card. I've been using my credit card for a while now and I was really curious to know what the hell I can do with these points I am collecting, I called up their helpline and was told that each Basma point I acquire is worth 1 Baisa at any of the partner shops.

This means that when I spend a 1000 Rials on my credit card.... I get 1 freaking rial to spend at Lulu. There are different point rates for different partners, but the majority of them are just as ridiculous as this one, if you buy jewelry worth 1000 Rials from Damas.... you get to spend 2 Rials at Lulu. There are a couple of better deals at Basma, but the majority of them are just as lame as these, even at Lulu itself, when you spend 1000 Rials at lulu, you get 5 rials in return, I remember that Al Jadeeda stores ages ago had a voucher scheme which was WAY more rewarding as this, Basma Card is such a waste of time, the physical effort to get it out of your wallet, swipp it, and the put in your PIN code is certainly not worth the 5 baisa's I get per rial at Lulu.

What do you guys think, am I the only ungrateful fool who does not appreciate the fact that getting 5 baisa's per rial is better than not getting anything at all?

Is the omani consumer ready for the city center expansion just yet?

I saw muscati's post on the new shops opening in city center and i was like WOW, finally ill be able to get clothes from Oman.
But i couldnt help but think, will Omani's buy from these stores?
Most of these stores such as gap,zara etc will do pretty good since they sell quality products at moderate prices.
Lacoste and tommy hillfiger however are of a much higher caliber. There is im sure a market for it in the sultanate. How long will that last though?
I have noticed that most Omani's spend more than they used to 10 years ago.
But will the number of people purchasing from these stores be enough to keep these stores open?
Countless times we have seen shops and restaurants close in Oman and we think to ourselves , why?
You always thought you saw plenty of people there.
It is however a fact that the reason most of these places closed down is because of cash flow problems. Basically not enough cash inflow from revenue.
I dont work in market research. Heck i dont even work. I do know my country though, and it is questionable whether or not these shops will survive. Lets just hope for the best and pray to god that they stay open long enough for us to shop in them =D .