Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Abu Dhabi: Dozens of old grocery stores in Abu Dhabi city and its outskirts, which did not register for a renovation scheme being implemented by the authorities, will be closed down by the end of next month.
As the location of the stores facing closure are not available it is unclear in which areas consumers will be affected.
But an official on Tuesday promised that many more stores will open soon to replace stores facing closure.
“The recent introduction of convenience stores by prominent retail chains is just the beginning. Many more such companies and other investors will open new stores in the coming days,” Mohammad Jalal Al Rayssi, the official spokesman for the committee responsible for reorganising grocery stores, told Gulf News.
An extended deadline for about 1,300 old grocery stores to register for the “baqala project” expired on February 6 but the number of unregistered stores was not revealed.
As the extended deadline for registered stores to complete the renovation ends on June 30, the committee yesterday revealed that 29 per cent of all stores eligible for implementing the new standards and specifications had not joined the renovation project.
About 71 per cent of the eligible stores have joined the project, a press release issued by the committee said, without specifying the number of stores.
And 52 per cent of the grocery space (the total space for the grocery stores eligible for the new system) has almost completed its renovation and will resume operations soon. The remaining 48 per cent is still under renovation but will be completed before the June 30 deadline, it said.
However, the spokesman told Gulf News that an estimated 30 per cent of 1,300 old stores were too small to be eligible for a renovation project, which is equivalent to 390 stores. These small stores will have to close by June 30.
Earlier, salesmen delivering goods to the stores had said about 40 to 50 per cent of the 1,300 grocery stores were too small to renovate. But the spokesman rejected that estimate, saying it was exaggerated.
“They won’t be more than 30 per cent,” Al Rayssi said. “They were also given the chance and enough time to move to slightly larger spaces; they did not utilise it,” he said.
From the above mentioned figure, it can be estimated that about 910 stores were eligible for renovation but 29 per cent among them, about 264, opted for closure, which takes the estimated number of stores to 654, although the figure was not officially confirmed.
Regarding the stores that did not register for renovation, Al Rayssi said, some of them might have moved to other businesses and others decided not to invest in old stores.
The committee has received good feedback from consumers about the renovated stores, he said.
by Binsal Abdul Kader?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
