Interviewing Ahmed El-Adly from Bazaar magazine

Ahmed El-Adly is the founder and owner of Bazaar Magazine in Q8.
Bazaar Magazine established in 1996, bazaar is a free, monthly lifestyle magazine for urban modernists and recovering cynics. With a unique brand heritage in Kuwait, bazaar has emerged as one of the most influential magazines of the decade. Our credo “freedom to express” is bravely defended by our collective of over 75 freelance writers and photographers from all over the world and from all walks of life. Every issue is packed with articles covering entertainment, art, local happenings, music, movies, fashion, interiors, health, and interviews with the people responsible for said genres. Whether looking for dining reviews, the latest DIY couture or some amusing anecdotes about the crazy little world we live in, bazaar will not disappoint. bazaar is published every month (except August) and is distributed, free of charge, throughout Kuwait at over 250 retail, fashion and dining outlets as well as through a growing subscriber base locally and internationally.

I have been very lucky to interview him. I hope you like it.

1. What made you start with Bazaar magazine? I was bored from my old job of teaching at the university and a lot of my friends were in advertising agencies.I came up with an idea of putting together an 8 page booklet full of ads to give to the students in my class for free.Thats how it all started. We went from 8 pages to 200 pages in 3 years but of course not just ads.Lots of interviews , restaurant reviews and much more.I was finally able to quit my day job after 5 years of doing both! I miss teaching but love publishing so much more! 

2. What is the difference in the market between now and when you started with your magazine in the Q8? (refering to restaurants, fashion, plans...). When we started bazaar, there were no proper malls in kuwait. 2 years after we started bazaar, Souq Sharq opened and the first international coffee shop which was Starbucks in that mall. In fact that was the first franchised coffee shop to open in the entire Middle East and we were the first magazine in it. Now there are a dozen malls and a million international brands all over the country. More importantly, there are now so many local concepts which are even nicer than the franchises. Better food, better décor and all done by expats and Kuwaitis. Even when it comes to fashion, there are so many cool local designers who come up with amazing purses, jewelry, t shirts, dresses and so much more! It just goes to show, that even when a country doesn’t promote creativity, you simply can’t keep creative people down.

3. Do you think Q8 people and expats look for the excellence when they shop or dine? I think they do.If a restaurant has bad service or mediocre food, word gets out quickly and they usually close down sooner or later. Same goes for shopping. If a brand prices itself too expensive, there are a million alternatives so owners have to be very clever and pay a lot of attention to customer service. Unfortunately a lot of business owners spend millions on the location of their shop and on the décor, but then go and get untrained staff from third world countries and pay them minimum wage but expect them to be happy and smile at customers.

4. Everyone knows Bazaar magazine, is it difficult to achieve every month what your readers look for in your magazine? It is difficult because us Arabs like to take our time at everything we do, and tend to leave everything till the last minute, and magazines are all about DEADLINES, so you end up spending the first 20 days of the month chilling and the last 10 days running around going crazy!

5. The year book/magazine for restaurants is the biggest in Q8, the opening and closing of restaurants here is realy frecuent, Is it difficult to include everything going on in the city? Its not that difficult because we have a great team who make it possible. Also most of the restaurant owners are our friends so they let us know even before they open so we have time to arrange it all.

6 and last. Do you tray all this restaurants in the annual guide? Ha Ha Ha I don’t! I have to watch my belly since summer is around the corner which means going to the beach! One of our staff writers came to me recently and said I should pay for her gym membership since she put on so much weight after joining bazaar.