Ragab Sons Supermarket Is Open Again

Last year, I posted a blog entry noting the closure (for two years at that time) of the local Ragab Sons supermarket on Lebeney Axis - the very busy road that passes behind our apartment.  Some Googling and asking friends didn't produce much explanation for the closure of this and other Ragab stores beyond, "they were having some trouble with the government."

We were pleasantly surprised this year to see this neighborhood store open again - and some new Ragab signs on it.  The signs were missing last year.  Here are pictures from 2013 and 2024.

  

 

Since we were in need of a few items, particularly eggs, we walked the quarter mile or so up the street to take a look today.  Of course, we had to pass six convenience stores along the way where we could have bought eggs.   The aisles are wide and brightly lit, although customers were scarce.

It was easy to see that the re-opening must have been fairly recent as the lady weighing the vegetables and applying price stickers was receiving on-the-job instruction.  By the way, those are eggs on the right-hand side of the picture above - packaged in convenient Egyptian 30-packs.  30 eggs for 177.95 Egyptian Pounds - that is about $1.42 per dozen.

Things have been rearranged since the last time we were inside.  The sign still says "Detergents" here but the shelves contain cooking oil - a widely used commodity.  And most of the aisles were thinly stocked as is the case with these fava beans on the right. We didn't find everything on our list but we have hope that the future will see a return of a better stocked store as it used to be.

  

Our expensive items were butter, cheese, eggs and cream; but the total only came to $26.  Ragab doesn't list the items on the receipt in English at the customer's option as Metro supermarkets do, so we have to rely on Google Translate if we want to check prices.

We did buy a couple of candy bars while in the store - both a Hobnobs and a Katakito. We chose them just because of their names. Katakito is obviously a spin on Kit Kat and Hobnobs is just an amusing name.

The plastic bags for our groceries now read Awlad Ragab instead of Ragab Sons as they did in previous years. (They mean the same thing.) And, it was good to see the friendly reminder to dispose of the bags properly, "Keep our country clean."  Although a better slogan might be, "Make Egypt clean again."

The Ragab website can be found here.

For any MBAs amongst my readership, this webpage from the Boston Consulting Group from 2022 discussing The Future of Traditional Retail in Africa will prove fascinating.  Describing the retail marketplace here, they note the following:

In Egypt, more than 120,000 small grocers and kiosks account for 75% of retail sales. But modern retailers, particularly locally based ones, are emerging rapidly across all formats. Modern formats posted 21% annual growth from 2015 through 2020. Their market share over that period rose from 15% to 25%, one of the highest growth rates across the continent. The Kazyon discount supermarket has expanded rapidly in Egypt since 2014, with small-format stores in underserved low- and middle-income areas. Other successful Egyptian supermarket chains include Awlad Ragab and Seoudi.

 And, finally, here is a survey from 2022 that ranks ten Egyptian supermarkets for perception of quality.  Carrefour ranks number one, and let's just say that Ragab has nowhere to go but up.  We, however, would rank the young man at the deli cheese counter in our Ragab among the friendliest in Egypt.

 

 

Fruits and Vegetables

We decided to walk up the street to our local vegetable market this afternoon.  It's about a quarter mile walk to "Save Mart" which we first described a few years ago.  Just as we reached the very busy corner near our old favorite local supermarket, Ragab Sons, now out of business for a couple of years, we were approached by our young friend, Nour!  We have lived here long enough to watch him grow up from a 9 year old to now being old enough to drive a Tuk-Tuk (local taxi.) 

  

 

Nour and his friend offered us a ride the rest of the way to the market where we enjoy shopping for our fruits and vegetables.

Nour and his friend waited for us with the Tuk-Tuk and gave us a ride home.  Along the way, the Tuk-Tuk began to sputter and run out of gas.  Nour's friend pulled out a two-liter Pepsi bottle of gasoline from under the driver's seat and topped off the tiny tank of the vehicle.  The two-liter bottle is the standard "reserve tank" in these vehicles - and no, the bottles are not red with special caps - this is Egypt!  

The motor started up and ran fine for the final several hundred yards where they dropped us off.

  

 

Here's our cache of fresh food, including a full kilogram (2.2 pounds) of strawberries that I couldn't resist.  Not a bad value at $3.64 for the entire batch.

Update, the next day.

I didn't do justice to the tuk-tuk traffic in this post so I took a couple more pictures today down at this high traffic corner.

  

It's Cookie Time Again

Our Italian made range/oven is not very precise when it comes to temperature regulation. I was aiming for 375 degrees F when I set the gauge at 190 degrees C. You can see by the internal thermometer that it was actually just short of 350F. Oh well, let's bake them at that temp then.

  

 

When all of our friends hear the word "cookie" they think chocolate chip cookies so that's what I make for them.

 

The typical recipe calls for brown sugar which is difficult to find these days but luckily the Internet tells us that white sugar mixed with molasses makes "brown sugar". In Egypt, molasses is called "black honey". Molasses can be found in nearly all shops, including small convenience type shops.

 

I use the recipe that my grandmother used. I can't say it's her recipe since she probably found it on a package of chocolate chips but I refer to it as "Grandma's recipe".

 

Ten minutes at "whatever" temperature will be perfect.

 

Years ago we found chocolate chips readily available at larger super markets. That is no longer the case so I pack a couple packages in my allotted luggage.

 

This recipe typically makes about 80 cookies--enough for everyone.

 

 

When all the chocolate chips are used, I switch to M&M's which can be found in abundance everywhere. I really don't like using the blue ones in cookies. Such intense blue in food somehow feels wrong but I once removed all the blue ones and discovered that I'd have to buy way too many packages to satisfy blue aversion.

  

 

Here they are--packaged to give away with a small bag to keep around to serve visitors.

 

The baking was done under the watchful eyes of our cat, Kitty Kat. No cookies for her. She would rather eat chicken.

Ring Road Update

Driving across the Nile to the Carrefour supermarket in Maadi, we were surprised to see many new "Welcome to Giza" billboards promoting the new Grand Egyptian Museum and other treasures. These were all hung on the newly refinished facades of the buildings along the route.

 

This is a welcome contrast to the unattractive bare red brick facades that lined the route just a few years ago.  More on the red brick construction style so prevalent in Cairo can be found on this 2019 blog post.

 

Depending on how much a builder wants to spend, the bricks might be covered with a coat of stucco or even "fancied up" quite a bit as is the case with these two buildings.

  

According to Egyptian Streets, this is all part of a major "visual identity" project to improve the appearance of the area.

The development of the ring road’s visual identity coincides with state efforts to prepare for the Grand Egyptian Museum’s opening.

The project began after Cairo’s Deputy Governor, Engineer Jihan Abdel Moneim, met with local officials to discuss development plans for the ring road. The meeting focused on finalizing a development work plan that addresses both visual aesthetics and functionality. This will involve improving road and traffic flow efficiency, along with refurbishing the facades of residential buildings bordering the ring road.

The ring road’s visual identity upgrade includes unifying building paint colors, installing billboards with distinctive elements, and incorporating greenery, trees, lighting, and displays.

Until recently, people approaching Giza from the airport were greeted by scenes along the Ring Road like this:

  

 

As the Ring Road was widened from three lanes to six (or more), many buildings were taken down in total or in part.  That looked even worse for a while, although it was interesting to see the colors of the former apartments.

  

 

The widening of the Ring was disruptive to many who lived nearby; and it was expensive.  According to this article in Egypt Today from 2022, one and a half billion Egyptian Pounds were paid out in compensation to 1,380 families, 296 shop owners, and 136 workshop owners in the Basatin neighborhood to accomplish the change.  This was less than half of the affected area along the southern stretch of the Ring.

 

 

Last year many of the red brick exteriors were re-finished with a coat of stucco and painted in preparation for the new welcoming look.  It seemed like there was scaffolding everywhere.

 

(I'm not sure these workers on the outside of the 5th floor would be in compliance with all OSHA regulations back home.)

Now that the work is done, of course, the bill is coming due and just who should pay and how is a subject of some debate.  The "investigative journalist" website, zawia3, has an interesting story on the repainting here.  It appears that the painting and other improvements are all a part of a "Visual Identity Project" originating with students of the German University in Cairo, "GUC."

Some quotes:

Egypt’s governorates are implementing President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s 2019 directives for unified facade painting of all buildings instead of red bricks, with a deadline for completing the four facades, or legal action will be taken.

... In the past two years, the government started implementing an old law that was not previously enforced, imposing taxes on properties near public urban development projects, up to 150 meters away. This is Law No. 222 of 1955 regarding imposing improvement fees on properties that benefit from public utility projects, arguing that the projects increase the value of adjacent properties and that the government is entitled to half of the resulting increase.

 ...Sayed El-Din Farag, Professor of Urban Planning, believes that improving and developing the roads around the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Pyramids Plateau, and constructing new bridges are part of the visual identity project. The urban development strategy relies on basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and utilities like water, electricity, and sanitation, alongside public transportation lines such as new metro lines and bus rapid transit, creating a visual sequence for Egypt and reshaping the mental image for visual enjoyment. He cites painting the facades of Tahrir Square buildings, developing Al-Muizz Street, and currently painting residential buildings overlooking the ring road.

Farag believes property owners should share the costs of painting facades, as it increases their market value, fostering a sense of ownership and maintenance.

If the problems associated with financing the visual identity project were not enough, it appears that there was also a problem with a new Cairo logo placed on some of the buildings, per Egyptian Streets.  The logo bore more than a passing resemblance to that of an Italian design studio.

 

In spite of the problems, we have to give credit to the government for a massive improvement in the appearance of the area along the Ring.  It is much more welcoming to visitors.

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

A billboard that I photographed last year provides credits to all of the contractors doing the work on the visual identity development project.  The Google translation is on the right.

 

 

  

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

A Visit to "Scale Street"

We decided it was time to replace our bathroom scale that we've had here for almost twenty years.  It is a dual scale system - but not "pounds and kilograms" as you might expect but "stones and kilograms," reflecting the British influence from WWI up until the mid 1950s.  (There are fourteen pounds in a stone; how did our British friends ever come up with that one?)  

Besides the kg dial being small and hard to read, the scale reads light by about three or four kg.  Lets get modern!

 

 

I have blogged about "scale street" a couple of times previously - first in 2014 and then again in 2024.

Just off El Moez Street near Khan el-Khalili, lies a small street named Beet al Qadi; several shops selling scales can be found on this street and a bit farther up the hill.  Here's the street - it is easy to miss the scale shops because of these interesting souvenir shops that dominate the opposite side of Beet al Qadi.

We stopped at one of the first scale shops when we saw a nice bathroom scale in the window and were greeted by the owner, Muhammad Al-Gazzar.

  

 

Muhammad was happy to pull the scale out of the box, check that their were batteries in it and let us try it out.  We cheerfully bought it for 1050 Egyptian Pounds, about $21.  It was made in China, of course, but with instructions in Arabic.  There is no option for a readout in pounds, only kilograms but we can deal with that now that we can see the very visible reading on the unit.

It is quite an improvement since we no longer have to add three or four kilos before doing the conversion.

Stop by if you need a scale, and be sure to ask for Muhammad.