The cold spell that hit the Eastern Province and other parts of the Gulf region has slowed down retail business, owners and operators of commercial establishments said. “The cold weather has discouraged people to venture outside; they prefer to stay in-doors rather than go out shopping,” the operation manager of a leading supermarket with chain of branches across the Eastern Province said. Big malls and the so-called hypermarkets have also experienced a drop in sales since the cold spell started Friday. Early this week, big chain supermarkets started releasing promotional handouts announcing cut in the prices of fruits and vegetables, detergents, biscuits and sweets, frozen poultry, meat and cooking oil to encourage and lure the consumers to shop. Restaurants and other food establishments are also facing a drop in customers. “Our customers for sure would rather stay at home and make their meal; few venture outside to eat in our restaurant,” said John Ambrose, manager of a popular chain of fast food outlets in Al-Khobar. Prices in fish markets, however, have not been much affected by the cold season although fish catch has somewhat dropped during the past few days, according to the Fishery Research Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water in Qatif. “The Coast Guard normally issues warning against fishermen venturing into the high seas, thus slowing down the catch. But demand and prices have remained stable,” a staff at the research department said. Forecasters at the Meteorological and Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA) said the cold spell will last until the coming Friday. “We are still in a very cold weather with temperature hovering between 7-8 degrees,” a weatherman at Dhahran MEPA said. Though the temperature will improve at the start of next week, the cold season will continue to persist for about two weeks more, weather forecasters here said. __
