Until recently it was actually illegal to take photos inside a Saudi Mall. The last time I was in the Middle East you could not even have a camcorder in the country. Our correspondent from Saudi Arabia, William Lowe took advantage of the liberalization and made this video showing us the stunning Kingdom Mall in Riyadh It gives us a glimpse into this secretive Kingdom.
Lowe reports:
In my experience most people (read: Americans) envision Riyadh as a bunch of tents in the desert populated by a bunch of al Qaeda-sympathetic extremists with a Koran under one arm and an Kalashnikov under the other.
I hope these vids will show there is a developing urban center and (maybe) a more Westernized culture than most people would otherwise have thought. Most of the Saudi videos I’ve come across on the web are Saudi teens doing donuts out in the desert in their SUVs. Perhaps these might play to a larger audience.
Will’s “I miss you” is his not so subtle message to his girlfriend in Boston. :)
Beautiful building. American oil money buys some nice architecture.
1. American ?? what about the WORLD’s money ! everyone … that’s a lot !
Let the oil money run out… they will revert to living in tents. That whole area is like a bunch of ‘Daddy’s little girls with daddy’s credit card”, but once daddy is gone (the oil runs out) they will prove to be what they truly are: a bunch of tribal nomads with no real skills as a society. Want proof? Iraq.
#3 — you are an ignorant git, aren’t you?
It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve been in that neck of the woods. Will did a lovely job — nice edits.
BTW, Saudi Arabia always used to be the bargain basement of the world for gold jewelry. The tradition of requiring business deals to be finalized with the transfer of gold rather than currency stayed on in the Arab world longer than elsewhere. So, availability was high and the price was low for gold.
1,
Canada sells the US the majority of oil. Yeah, that’s right, CANADA. Just north of the 49th…
#3 Let the OIL run out and WE’LL be living in tents.
#6
That broke me up! And judging from this past week, they will be darn cold tents!
Good video, thanks.
Now, if I tried to make a video like that in a mall in the U.S., I’d have to worry about being detained and asked what I was doing. So what should I make of that?
Oh… and I want one of those toy cars that goes up walls.
5.
That doesn’t mean that they are not making a killing from what we (and the rest of the world) pay them for it.
where r the people?
of course there are american stores, all of the infrastructure was build by halliburton and similar american companies. This was the deal, they spend trillions with american companies, and in exchange we protect the house of saud from any invaders and we allow them to keep power. Sadam would not enter into a similar agreement and now he swings from a rope. Let that be a lesson to any emerging country, you pay american companies and banks or you die. End of story.
I hope we can all wake up and move toward some alternative fuels over the next 10 years – I’m tired of building tremendous wealth for the wealthy – while oil poor countries (in Africa) commit genocide and our government / general public could care less…
Very similar to what I have seen in Dubai. Very westernized.
#3 – Make no mistake, folks from the Middle East are not stupid, nor will they resort to living in tents. They all know that the oil will eventually run out, so now they are already shifting their economies to technology, banking and commodoties (especially gold & gems). The US has spent the last two decades resting on our laurels and have allowed China and the Middle East to play catch up.
Bill Gates for President
Linus Torvaldsfor vice president, Bill Joy for Dept. of Education, Scott McNealy for press secretary… still missing a few key personnel
Very nice mall, but only for the few very rich in Saudi Arabia- thanks to population growth and the concentration of wealth in an elite, the per capita income is much lower than it used to be. The entire Arab world combined produces a GDP just under Spain’s. If you subtract oil, the entire area’s (323 million people) exports are equivalent to Finland’s (5.2 million people).
So I’m guessing those westernized teens driving the SUV’s are only males?
Where on Earth did the idea that malls = liberalization come from? California?
That’s nice.. But I’d rather see the red light district..
Although.. I do wonder if the BigMacs are the same as in NA
#18 Pretty desperate, don’t you think?
Glad to see all that oil they found under the sand hasn’t kept them from segregating their society by gender. I’m truly offended that there are stores like Saks and The Body Shop operating in the land that gave the world Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers.
Like many have already pointed out, just buying western goods isn’t the same as understanding western values.
DUH…
1 mall an 2000 miles…..
I’m with #12….where the hell are the people??? Funny comment though Pedro….got me laughing.
There are a whole lot of well off people in Saudi land, but all of 10 where shopping in this huge elaborate mall. Maybe it needs a food court. 🙂
Pop Haliburton conspiracy nonsense aside…
I think that no country in the world is a sensitive to the perils of a petroleum-centric economy. They have to be. Their (the Saudi government’s) income fluctuates daily (and sometimes hourly) with the price of crude as determined by foreign markets in places like New York and London.
That is not to say they don’t try to maximize the income from their national export. They’d have to be idiots not to. But I think they (really, OPEC) are also well aware of the dangers of overpricing.
Also, diversification is by no means a new concept here. One only needs to look at the gargantuan tourist industry that has sprung up in Dubai.
The point (partially) of the video is that the mall and adjoining tower were built by the Kingdom Holding Company – owned by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal.
His money does not come from oil.
He has made his fortune, primarily, from investments in things like CitiGroup, Saks 5th Avenue, the Four Seasons Hotels, Planet Hollywood, Apple (Computers), Movenpik, and NewsCorp.
It is no coincidence that the some of the same companies have retail shops in the mall.
In that way – I think he (and by extension this mall) could be considered a model for diversification in the region.
As for hokie’s (#12) where are the people question…
1.) When we go, we generally try to hit the malls in the morning. Most Saudis don’t really get going until the late evening. Kingdom mall is bumping after 8PM.
2.) The biggest pain in the @ss here is prayer time. 5 times a day everything shuts down for half an hour. The last of the 5, “Isha” is normally around then – after which one can shop uninterrupted.
3.) 9 months out of the year is goddamn hot during the day. (Think Phoenix, AZ in the summer + 10 degrees).
4.) I deliberately tried to avoid photographing Saudis. I kind of saw it this way: What would I do if I was in an American mall and a young Saudi, in national dress, was photographing me?
Also…
The mall is open to everyone; Pakistanis, Filipinos, Indians, Sri Lankans, Americans, etc. The only people I’ve ever seen turned away were large groups of male Saudi teens who look like they are trouble.
The video was originally done for my girlfriend – thus the upmarket designer shops. In reality, it’s got a bit of everything, both upmarket and down. In retrospect, I think it might appear more elitist than it really is. It is also by no means the only mall in town.
24 – Just remember, we produced Timothy McVeigh, the DC Sniper, the Zodiac Killer, and Son of Sam just to name a few. Anyone can become an asshole. But don’t blast an entire society for the actions of one jerk.
Nice, but I think we in Dubai still have Ryadh beat!
Lots of malls have skating rinks but one of our malls has a ski area! I’ve skied there a couple of times, now, and it’s pretty fun.
Another mall has canals with real boats taking people to local hotels. I think they are in the process of building a mall that will be the world’s biggest.
Riyadh doesn’t hold a candle to Dubai. That place is unreal. I think the one that gets me is the hotel that is completely under water.
Dubai is the dopest city in the Middle East, period. Relatively liberal (for the region) and definitely the most developed. More skyscraper building cranes in the Dubai skyline than anywhere else in the world. They have the worlds best hotels and now the worlds largest artificial islands.
Especially the new artificial island chain they are making known as The World. The ruler of Dubai just gave one of the islands to Michael Schumacher as a gift. Look it up on the internet… you will be blown away.
Dubai is the perfect example of how to do things right, and how to transition from an oil industry to a service/financial industry. The rest of the Middle East should be looking to Dubai as a model of how to move forward, and some Middle Eastern people probably already are.