Consumers can buy food at wholesale stores concentrated in Central Jeddah areas such as Bab Makkah, Al-Khaskiya and Al-Hindawiya for prices that are much lower than those in departmental stores and supermarkets. Wholesale merchants do not mind making retail sales; most of them have allocated areas next to their wholesale stores for the transactions. With Ramadan approaching, retail food stores are competing with each other by making special offers. In some stores, areas are designated for products stores want to get rid of because of their approaching expiry dates. The stores also launch promotion campaigns and some of them apply an old trick of offering discounts up to 90 percent on some basic goods and compensate for that by applying slightly higher prices on other basic commodities. Abdullah Bin Ahmad, a supervisor of a wholesale store in Al-Hindawiya District, said: “I have clients who buy from me regularly. They come every month and their number is increasing year after year. Most of them belong to the limited income group.” Ahmad has been with the store for over 25 years. Wholesale stores used to feed Jeddah and meet the requirements of the consumers before the city expanded and added modern supermarkets and hypermarkets. Shopping at the center of the city can be considered difficult because of the traffic, the small streets and lack of parking, but demand at these stores is still high; they seem to be luring customers away from hypermarkets as people shop for the holy month of Ramadan. __
