For residents travelling day by day between Dubai and Sharjah, the blue signage of Ansar Mall, proper on the sting of Ittihad Highway, had turn into a outstanding landmark between the 2 cities. That’s now coming to an finish, with the purchasing vacation spot set to shut after 23 years.
Chatting with Khaleej Instances, Advertising Supervisor of Ansar Mall, Hassan Sha, confirmed the mall’s closure on the Sharjah location in addition to that of Ansar Gallery in Karama and Deira.
“We’re strategically relocating our operations to different prime and high-potential places throughout the UAE,” stated Sha.
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No cut-off date has been confirmed for the three branches; nonetheless, discover indicators have gone up on the shops to tell consumers of the approaching closures.
“Particulars of our new department places and opening dates will likely be shared quickly,” reads the discover.
The proposed places embrace key areas in Dubai, corresponding to Sheikh Zayed Highway and Al Barsha, together with places in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
“This shift will permit us to take care of a powerful presence in strategically essential areas with higher accessibility, visibility, and enterprise potential,” Sha informed KT.
Opened in 2003, Sharjah’s Ansar Mall is the group’s first undertaking within the UAE — that initially began off in Qatar — quickly increasing into Dubai, with an Ansar Gallery opening in Muraqqabat’s Deira in 2012 after the success of the Sharjah location and one other in Karama in 2013.
The shops have been well-known for his or her reasonably priced offers throughout grocery store gadgets and prescription drugs to electronics, clothes, furnishings and different way of life items — and have been usually handled by residents as simply recognisable landmarks.
The group now operates A&H Residence, a furnishings retailer in Sharjah’s Metropolis Centre Al Zahia and is planning to relocate to Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
Residents heartbroken over closures
Unfold over 320,000 sq ft, Sharjah’s Ansar Mall, nonetheless, was greater than a landmark. For a lot of expats who constructed their lives within the emirate within the early 2000s, its meals court docket and play zone performed a significant position in a few of their core childhood recollections.
Chatting with Khaleej Instances, Priya M., stated the mall was not simply every other retailer for residence requirements, however a spot crammed with recollections.
“After I heard that it was closing, I could not fairly consider the information. After Safeer Mall’s closure, which was laborious sufficient, it seems like one other gem from the Sharjah skyline is leaving. The mall isn’t just a retailer of things, it shops our recollections. For teenagers born in Sharjah within the 90’s and 00’s, a lot of our childhood was spent operating inside Ansar Mall, consuming with household, and taking part in within the Enjoyable Zone,” stated the Indian expat.
A number of movies shared on social media confirmed huge clearance gross sales throughout the three places, with consumers crowding the centres. Signboards exhibiting a 50 per cent low cost on gadgets is also seen positioned simply exterior the mall.
Taking to social media, one consumer additionally stated that they had by no means seen the place so crowded. “There have been no purchasing carts or baskets accessible wherever. The checkout traces have been lengthy. It felt like an enormous rummage sale,” they added.
A household bonding expertise
In the meantime, residents who later moved to Dubai however began out in Sharjah nonetheless bear in mind the mall as place for household bonding time.
Abubakr Siddiq, a 26-year-old Indian expat who works as a Luxurious Property Advisor in Dubai, was born in Sharjah after his household moved there in 1995.
Visiting the Sharjah mall had turn into a month-to-month routine for the household, whether or not it was for grocery purchasing, selecting up one thing they wanted, or just utilizing Al Ansari Change on the bottom flooring.
“We ended up visiting the mall fairly usually and it turned a well-recognized a part of our on a regular basis life. I’ll miss the time we spent there with our household and associates, from the early 2003 and 2004 days till in the present day. Seeing that it’ll shut and relocate to Abu Dhabi made us actually unhappy due to all of the recollections now we have hooked up to that place. These childhood moments, the purchasing, the enjoyable and the time spent with our family members can by no means come again. That point will at all times stay a particular a part of our lives,” stated Siddiq.
A protracted-time Karama resident, Maria F. — an Indian expat who was born and raised within the metropolis — remembers Karama’s Ansar Gallery as her mom’s go-to spot for any necessity.
“My mom and aunts have been so unhappy after listening to the gallery’s [impending] closure. They went purchasing there your entire day of final week as a result of all the things was on sale.”
First carpet showroom in Abu Dhabi
The Ansar Group has confirmed to Khaleej Instances that it’ll quickly be opening a carpet showroom in Abu Dhabi’s Al Shamkha space, known as the Ansar Gallery Carpet.
The brand new retailer will provide clients ready-made collections, in addition to custom-made carpets. These will likely be sourced from international locations like Turkey, Italy, Belgium, China, India and Pakistan, and is the group’s first enterprise right into a carpet showroom.
“Clients will be capable of discover a formidable number of trendy, traditional, silk, conventional, luxurious, and handmade carpets, starting from elegant up to date designs to timeless items impressed by conventional craftsmanship.”
Established in 1987, the Ansar Group has retail malls and a portfolio of residential and business actual property developments throughout Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, and Oman.
