Repair shops seek fix for throw-away culture

Dubai: In an era when everything is seemingly disposable, some repair shops in Satwa say business is waning amid a growing throw-away consumer culture.

While walking through the teeming streets of Satwa, the sight of repair shop employees amusing themselves with their phones or making conversation with their colleagues for want of business is quite common.

Almost every street in Al Satwa is home to a shoe, watch or electronic repair shop that has witnessed, over the past few years, the slow crumble of their 20-year business.

Shopkeepers say they can’t pinpoint the exact cause of their dwindling customer base but feel many factors could contribute to the situation.

“Business is down, customers bring their broken electronics but never come back to pick them,” said Mohammad Naeem, whose small shop is stacked with hundreds of restored electronics such as video casette recorders and old televisions.

“We ask for a Dh100 deposit and the repairing cost for electronics is usually around Dh200 to Dh300. So after we fix it and the customer finds out the price, they never come back to pick it up. I think that they prefer buying a new TV or another electronic item rather than paying a Dh300-Dh400 fee for repairing it.”

Naeem, who works for Saber Saleh Electronics and Watch Repairing, a shop established 22 years ago, says his boss eventually sells off items that customers don’t come back for even after six months.

There are other factors contributing to the hard times that have befallen repair shops, said Sirajudin P.K., owner of another shop named Golden Finger Key. He said he had noticed that business had been slow for two months in a row.

“We get around 10-15 people a day and the full-day sale is as low as Dh150-Dh170. This can be because of the increasing competition from malls and other repair shops. We also can’t forget that this is a holiday season and people are out of the country,” he said.

Mohammad Shuaib, the shoe repairer working in the shop, offered a different point of view. “We will never go out of business because people who buy expensive shoes will repair them if they get damaged rather than throw them away given their high price; for example the shoe I’m fixing now is worth Dh1,800 and cost of repair is only Dh5-Dh20,” he said.

Shuaib said he learnt his craft from his father.

Gulf News spoke to some residents for their views on repairing faulty appliances or damaged goods. Many of them said they would consider repairing something if it was a one-of-a-kind item, or something fairly expensive, or an item they really liked.

“If it is a shoe, watch or electronic item that I really like, I would send it to the repair shop. But if it gets run down a second time, maximum a third time, I eventually throw it and buy another one,” said mother of three Salam Al Khatib, 47.

Dubai resident, Ayah Mohammad, 23, also said she would repair items she really likes or found it hard to let go off. “If it was an expensive designer item and the store I bought it from refused to fix it, then I would go to a repair shop. It also depends on whether the item is something that is one-of-a-kind and I really like it.”

— Maria Botros is a trainee at Gulf News