My Visit to Fortune Cookie

by Tareq Alaskar on May 21, 2012

Lately I have been hearing a lot about the fortune cookie store, and I have been amazed by their instagram feed, That I decided I should go take a look, even though the store is mostly aimed at woman in general. The look and feel of the store and the atmosphere it had was very energetic and the experience of just being there is fun. It is not really a traditional store, the best way to describe it is that it is an experience and a place where surprise is the name of the game. It has a very traditional yet upbeat trendy feel that words cannot describe, and the vibe it gives off is unreal bordering on surreal.

looking for designers, Kuwaiti women with high quality products

It is an experience that everyone in my mind should feel. The owner is very friendly, and when you enter the store she is there most of the time. She gives the store a more homey and familiar feel. I was lucky enough to ask for an interview and she agreed. So here is my interview with Areej Al Kharafi owner of fortune cookie store. Pictures of the store and a video to follow is there as well, enjoy. Make sure to check out the video and tell me what you think.

So can you tell us how it all started?

We started around 4-5 years ago, we had a online shopping website where we used to sell gift baskets. After the gift baskets, we decided that we wanted products as well. So we got new products that you can get with the baskets. So you had a choice to buy the product and put it in the gift basket. So people started to buy the products more than the gift baskets. little by little orders for the gift baskets got less, so we increased the number of products from accessories, funky stuff to T shirts then dresses each time it increased and started to branch out and got bigger. So the gift baskets were faded out and we focused purely on the products. People wanted to see the physical product so we opened up in Charisma, in front of Al Ameeri. It was small around 3X3 meters. People loved it and we had the capacity to do more and better. So after a year or so we opened up here at Olympia, and now we can say we have a real store as opposed to just an online website. However the site is still there and we instilled in it the spirit of the store itself. If the products arrive at the store within a week they would be available online. You know, because of the photography and other stuff.

Where do you deliver?

All of Kuwait, we deliver outside kuwait as well. However not directly through the website yet, through emails we get in contact with them and get their products delivered within 3 days.

So do they pay through the website?

Its cash on delivery for now.

How did you come up with the name?

When we first started we were named pick your tag. Idea came up where in we have a lot of tags and brands, so pick your tag. When we got the store we wanted a name that was interesting and different and does not have to have a relation to the place your in. So we came up with fortune cookie, you know each time you open a cookie you get a new fortune. so each time you come into the store you find something new sometimes furniture, other times dresses, so each time its something new and it’s a surprise with something new. Today is your lucky day is our slogan. So each time you come to fortune cookie its a surprise, its something nice that you will buy just like a fortune cookie.

What brands do you have?

We are a multi brand store, our products are from all over. We have products from USA, Britain, Lebanon, Saudi arabia. Our other brands are from Kuwaiti women where we get their products and have them available at the store for free. And we will market their products and it will be available on our tags and shopping bags, all of these things. And we get a small percentage from the products sold.

We are always looking for designers, Kuwaiti women with high quality products. We will take the product market it, take photos of it and sell it at our store and online and deliver it to our customers. We do all of this for free, however if you bring us 10 pieces and you sell 1 we will take a cut from the 1 not the 10.

The other brand we have is our own brand, we have started a bit last ramadan. But now we are serious about starting our own tag and brand. And this is something new that no blogger knows about it. It started out with our instagram. We are having for sure, a collection for Eid that is our own fortune cookie brand. The collection would be in-line with current trends, something that you see in the runways, with competitive pricing. That is what we are aiming for when it comes to brands.

What about the decor, it’s amazing?

When we made fortune cookie we wanted a fun store we wanted to steer away from the traditional. corporate looking store. We tried to do something different from the store to the website to the tags and decor. All these thing we tried to incorporate it into each other and made it a fun experience and not boring, its different, your having fun. We liked it to have the Kuwaiti feel with a twist we used the floor, the chinko, the traditional door with a new twist, things our generation is not used to see, like it is in Al-Mubarkiya we wanted it to be more trendy so that our generation can link it with the past, present, and future. With it being funky and trendy at the same time. We lucked out with the designer who did the design Salah Zamani, he is not just an interior designer, he is an artist in my book. Because he’s very creative, he did everything custom-made. He is very talented, we where very lucky. As for the website it was done by Circus BC, they are very talented. This is it when it comes to decor. The store and online store are interlinked and they both enhance each other.

You keep saying we, who are we?

Me and My Husband, Thamer Al Abduljaleel. Of course no one can accomplish anything without the support of his close ones, support from the father, support from the people close. I couldn’t have made it without the support of my father and sister.