Help re: Safa market - anyone sold there, or shopped there?

The lady who I saw openly stealing my clothes was wearing a full abaya so I just let it go as it may have become messy and besides, not a single police man in sight ! They probably all giving someone parking tickets somewhere. Yes people got very argumentative and aggressive. Every now and then a dignified and sane person would come over and hand me a cash for an item without asking for a discount...... whew. But yes overall I was surprised when I counted out the money at the end. The coffee table books I sold for as much as 40 aed and some shoes for 55 aed ! But they were discerning buyers who didnt even negotiate :-) But the rest was a rabble squabble....

Hi Izzy ! Yes - we were definitely distracted by one guy in a group of men. He was asking me questions at one end of the table and then asked me to show him something in a low box, and asked for a packet (which I had under the table) and his friends were at the other end. When I looked again the whole group was gone and the stuff at the other end gone. The expensive stuff too so they knew what was worth stealing. I saw one woman alone stuff some of my stuff into her bag - she was at the far end, behind the clothes rails. But she was alone so a lot of it was simply opportunistic too. A neighbouring stall holder has done the market 7 times and he said he really believes the groups are quite organised. He now gets 2 extra friends to patrol the front of the stand, mingling with shoppers. I had to do the same with my helper.

Yes I must say everyone came over asking for childrens books I think the organisers need to send a warning email to all the new stallholders as many of us were caught unwares - Dubai has made me so trusting and presume no-one steals, but it was chronic at the market. Highly organised and unfortunately no police in sight to patrol or even to call if we spot a theft. What to do?

Hey ladies ! Just reporting back on the Safa market yesterday in case anyone else tries it. It was sooo busy that when we arrived at 6am there was alread a Q of 50 people waiting at the gates to buy stuff when the gates open at 8am. They were buying things out of our car boot !! We followed Marianas advice and got two guys to help us carry our stuff and so they got in earlier. We also took one of the tables at the end / corner rather than boxed inbetween other tables in a row and I feel we had much more exposure and space on the ground. The stealing was terrible and Dubai had made us a little complacent. The thieves are pros as we were robbed right under our noses. We had taken some expensive electronic stuff which simply disappeared ! and I did see a lady stuffing a t-shirt into her bag but she was gone by the time I got to her. Take a LOT of plastic bags, and water and change. We couldnt get hold of a clothes rail but took a clothes drier and stood it up on a small foldaway table (secured with string) so the hangers were at head height and long dresses etc could be seen from a distance without dragging in the dirt and people could walk around our display. It made a huge difference. Unfortunately one or two stall holders were underselling everything from the beginning (books / clothes for only 1aed !) which put us under pressure to drop prices. I couldnt believe the rolled eyes and sighs when I would say that a new book was 5 aed and they wanted to pay 3 aed or 1 aed and haggled so hard. But we sold nearly everything and made much more money than budgeted. The hottest sellers were : Mens shoes, sunglasses, watches, phones (we didnt have any of these items but got asked continually !!!) and then the first things to well were appliances and electronic / pc goods (at 6/7am!!) especially if you still have the boxes. Then the kitchen cutlery was sold minutes after unpacking (to lots of different people - knives, whisks etc) Handbags and shoes are hugely popular too. Of my books, the self help stuff on yoga, meditation, weight loss and also any fancy coffee table books all sold quickly and I got good prices for those. Perfume, even used, was gone in a flash Things that were slower to sell : Clothes generally take a little time but sold quicker after lunch when other stall holders were packing up. Big sizes slower to sell as quite a lot ot smaller ladies shopping but when a size 14/16 lady walked up and realised we had bigger sizes, she would buy a number of items. The novels were slower to sell and dropped from 10 aed to 2 aed by the end of the day. The scavengers come out when you are tired and ready to leave and offer you 1 and 2 aed for your stuff :-) The DVDs and candles, and jewellry were surprisingly slow to sell and I dropped my prices quickly. Enjoy and get there by 6am and dont expect to sit down for 8/8 hours.... actually the lady in the stall next to us sold very little but just sat far back from her table all day, and played on her Blackberry. Im sure we made much more sales / money just by being really organised and super friendly ! Good luck ladies.

... Does anyone want any help.... i quite enjoyed it... Izzy - you are too funny - It sounded stressful and I imagined that youd never want to repeat the experience again :-) You could bring food and panadol <em>edited by beachymaria on 26/01/2011</em>

Izzy - are books, clothes etc all priced from 5 to 30 aed more or less? I can imagine the books and DVDs are all around 5-10 aed but when it comes to say a large glass vase from The One I could be looking at pricing around 40 aed? Cheapie /costume jewellry around 10 aed each? So hard to guess

Thanks Izzy - hectic about the rails ! I was hoping to get some as well but maybe ill work out something else. Sophia - we should meet up and share coffee and biscuits and a few tears :-)