Winter in Egypt, 2025 - New Shops in the Neighborhood

Much of our shopping happens within a half-mile or so of our apartment.  Numerous small markets, coffee shops, bakeries, and other shops line Mariottia and Lebeny streets which stretch north in parallel to the elevated section of the Ring Road just outside our building.  Another half mile walk along this route brings us to the brightly lit three-story building that is a branch of Al Tawheed & Al Noor, a well known department store featuring clothing, furniture, housewares and much, much more.

About three months ago, a competitor store, KOKO&S opened just across the street.  We saw it while passing by at night and noted the name in bright lights so decided to stop in the next time we were out for a walk in this direction.

KOKO&S appears to host a number of small retail shops around the outside perimeter in addition to their main display area.  We walked in and headed upstairs to the second floor where there is an extensive display of clothing, linens, towels etc.

You might notice that KOKO&S participates in President El Sisi's "We are all one initiative" to maintain low prices. 

The customer service seems greatly superior to Al Tawheed & Al Noor.

We were quickly approached by a helpful salesman, Aimon, who immediately recognized us as Americans and spoke excellent English. Aimon is from Sudan, Egypt's neighbor to the south.  If you were not aware of it, Sudan has been the site of a major civil war which has displaced about 8 million of its citizens and created 2 million refugees - needless to say, many of the refugees have ended up in Egypt.

Continuing farther up the street we came to a butcher shop (brightly lit in the center of the photo) that we had been told was a good source of fresh meat.  

Checking out the refrigerated case toward the rear of the shop, we found some good looking ground beef and Linda asked for one and a half kilograms - about 3 and 1/4 pounds.  The young butcher portioned it out and wrapped it for us with a pleasant smile as the older butcher at the cash register handled the money.  

  

There are quite a few choices on the meat menu although prices are all about the same, around 400 EGP per kilo, roughly  $4 per pound. The hamburger seemed like a safe choice.  (Sign translation by Google, which makes for some interesting names.)

  

We are looking forward to the beef since Linda describes our usual Egyptian diet as "Chicken, chicken and chicken. Followed by a meal of chicken."