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Middle East Retail & Hospitality Outlets 3 - Saudi Arabia
Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the number of retailers for each category, but what we were able to find was that there are 1,031 supermarkets and 38,416 bakalas (grocery stores) in Saudi Arabia. Also, there are 126 hospitals in the UAE, but we were unable to determine the total number of clinics. More information can be found on the attached spreadsheet.
SAUDI ARABIA SUPERMARKETS
- According to the USDA, “In 2016 there were approximately 1,031 supermarkets in Saudi Arabia, an increase of approximately 8.1% over 2015.”
- Supermarkets are built in a range of sizes. They can be anywhere from 500 to 5,000 square meters.
- Supermarkets accounted for around $10.9 billion of the food products sold by Saudi retailers in that year.
SAUDI ARABIA GROCERY STORES (BAKALAS)
- Bakalas are comparable to corner grocery stores and have a floor size of up to 100 square meters.
- The USDA says, “In 2016, there were an estimated 38,416 bakalas, an increase of approximately 3% over 2014”.
- Bakalas accounted for 50.4% of all food products sold by Saudi retailers in 2015. That equals approximately $19.6 billion.
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
SAUDI ARABIA AUTO RETAILERS
- In 2017, there were a total of 462,293 establishments in Saudi Arabia under the “wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” category.
SAUDI ARABIA HOME FURNISHING RETAILERS
- The key players in furniture retailers are Al Jedaie, Al Rugaib, Al-Aamer, Al-Abdulkader, Almutlaq, Casa D’Argento, Riyadh, Saudi Modern, and Wardeh Salehiya.
SAUDI ARABIA CATERING & FOOD DELIVERY
- In 2017, there were a total of 104,525 establishments in Saudi Arabia under the “accommodation and food service activities” category.
UAE HOSPITALS & CLINICS
- There is a total of 126 hospitals in the UAE.
- According to US UAE Business, “SEHA has 41 primary healthcare clinics, 11 disease prevention and screening centers, 3 mobile clinics, 1 school clinic, 2 blood banks, 4 dental centers, 2 employee healthcare centers, and 1 vaccination center”.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Your research team began by searching for any precompiled information listed in relation to the retail categories we were looking for. Some websites we reviewed were of the USDA, Saudi National Portal, Euro Monitor, and US Embassy. After reviewing these sites, we were able to find a report published by the USDA that provided the number of grocery stores and supermarkets in Saudi Arabia. But this report didn’t have information on anything outside of the retail food industry. Since we were unable to find any more of the data points using this method, we moved on.
Next, we decided to look for any Saudi retail industry magazines or publications looking for any interviews or interview transcripts that may have talked about the number of the required retail stores on their sites. Some websites they visited were Gulf Business, Retail People Magazine, and Arabian Business. The magazines and publications found had articles relating to topics like the top Arab businesses in retail, some talked about the UAE versus just talking about Saudi Arabia. Since we were unable to find any useful information using this strategy, we decided to move on to the next.
For the next strategy, we looked for any business census reports that have been published recently. Your team found the website for the General Authority for Statistics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This website lists how many there are of certain establishments. So, we were able to find the total number of industrial establishments, and the total number of inventory institutions, among others. However, we were not able to find any of the statistic releases that broke those institutions down by industry. Since we were still unable to locate any useful data, we moved on to our final strategy.
Your team was unable to find the number of brick and mortar stores for any of the categories other than grocery stores and supermarkets. For clothing and specialty stores we were unable to find any type of useful information, so they are not listed above. For the other categories, any data that seemed useful was added to the brief.