Qataris are set for serious shopping experiences with one major international chain opening its hypermarket in Doha, soon to be followed by several Dubai-based stores keen to expand into the neighbouring Gulf state.

But observers said they fear these mega marts would sweep aside many a corner shop - and that Qatar with its population of about 500,000 may not provide the required trade action to keep these stores open.

Carrefour, the French company that operates over 600 supermarkets worldwide, opened Qatar's first hypermarket, said to be the biggest of its kind in the Middle East, at Doha's prestigious City Centre complex on Monday.

"Our Doha shop, area wise, is the biggest in the region," Ghassan Nabil Elassi, personal and administration manager of Carrefour's Qatar unit, said. "The Doha Carrefour covers an area of 11,000 square metres in comparison to our 9,000-square-metre Dubai unit." The Doha Carrefour had over 60,000 products on display with 60 checkout counters and a parking lot for 3,000 vehicles, he added.

The Doha Carrefour, run by Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Group, is the first in a row of major new stores waiting to open their doors for business in Doha.

The Dasman Hypermarket on the Airport Road and the Pick 'n' Save store on the D Ring Road are expected to be ready in a few weeks. Also, work on a third hypermarket, to be run by the Lulu Centre, is fast progressing on the D Ring Road.

"The opening of these new stores will certainly benefit consumers as competition will result in lower prices of goods," the general manager of a Doha supermarket, told Gulf News. "But this will hit small businesses and cornershops hard. They will not be able to survive," he predicted.

He also doubted that Qatar could generate enough business to support all these new hypermarkets. "Doha is not Dubai which has a floating population of thousands every day and the UAE companies looking to Qatar for expansion should realise this." He calculated that the Doha Carrefour with its huge investments would need at least 15,000 customers a day to turn in profits.

"The low margin at which they sell their goods depends entirely on a large turnover, but willQatar, with its tiny population, be able to provide that?" he asked.

But a Carrefour official said the response from the Doha public had been overwhelming so far. "Doha is an expanding city and it needs quality shopping centres with affordable prices," the official said. "We are here to stay."