Gaza’s first indoor mall defies the odds
1,800 square metre Capital Mall is banking on tiny middle class to stay in business
In a welcome sign of normality, the first indoor shopping mall — complete with an international retail chain, three-storey bookstore and bustling food court — has opened in the Gaza Strip.
The owners have overcome war and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade to build the gleaming 1,800 square metre Capital Mall.
Now, they just have to find enough free-spending customers to keep the place afloat.
In many ways, the centre is a reflection of the fragile local economy, which has been flooded by consumer goods from Israel that few people can afford. Stifled by the blockade, Gaza produces very little on its own, and poverty and unemployment have soared.
Food court is favourite
The mall, like the rest of electricity-starved Gaza, requires a generator to keep the power flowing.
In the short term, the mall appears to be thriving. Thousands of Gazans have visited as it slowly opened in recent weeks, buying shoes and clothes from the Turkish chain De Facto, searching for gifts and school supplies in the bookstore and heading up to the fourth-floor food court to enjoy burgers, pizza and ice cream.
People can often be seen stumbling and giggling as they ride an escalator for the first time. “The mall has added a beautiful touch to the Gaza Strip. Instead of visiting more than one place, we go to a specific place and select everything we need,” said Hedaya Iqtifan, a university graduate who has been three times.
There are stores that sell perfume and makeup, home decor and mobile phones.
There are clinics and office space, two parking lots and plans to bring a supermarket. The busiest area of the mall is the food court, where a cheeseburger with potato chips and a drink costs about $5.
“We made this according to international standards to relay an image to the world that Gaza has a mall similar to the malls in other countries,” said Mahmoud Haniya, the mall’s executive director.
International brands
He noted that several international brands refused to allow franchises in Gaza due to the “stereotype they get about Gaza, a poor country with no economy.”
He declined to identify them, but several international brands, including KFC and Domino’s Pizza, operate in the West Bank.
The Capital Mall spends $500 on diesel fuel for an industrial 400 KVA generator every 10 hours to keep the lights on. “It’s like one of our partners,” Haniya joked.
The owners of the mall are well-known for running the Mazaj chain, a group of upscale coffee, dessert and spice shops in Gaza City. They have no connection to Hamas, though the group will certainly benefit from increased tax revenues generated by the mall.
The mall is banking on Gaza’s tiny middle class to stay in business. The Palestinian Authority continues to pay salaries to tens of thousands of former civil servants who have not worked for the past decade. Others include those who work for international aid groups or the United Nations, as well as some senior Hamas employees.
A small number of businessmen have also managed to profit from the consumer sector. As Israel allows in mostly consumer products, businessmen compete on how to best attract buyers, opening lavish supermarkets.