Today, the big little Stockdale and I went to Mustafa.

No, MuSTAFA, not MuFASA.  What the heck is Mustafa?  It’s the most bizarre retail store I’ve ever seen. 

http://www.mustafa.com.sg/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Centre

Remember my Singapore retail analogy of the giant throwing aisles of the Target in various directions ( https://adventuresofdalestockdale.com/2010/06/01/i-miss-target/ ).  Instead, imagine a Wal-Mart, and a bank, and a travel agent, and a flea market, and another Wal-Mart, and a Sears, and a Dicks, and another flea-market, and a Blockbuster, and the nicest jewelery store in town, and a farmers market, and an Autozone, and a grocery store all thrown in a blender, poured into a 6 story gymnasium and open 24 hours a day.   That is Mustafa.

Do you want Poptarts at 3:00 am on a Tuesday during a blackout?  You can grab the strawberry frosted, a toaster oven, and a generator.   Need a gold bar on your way to work – Mustafa has it.  Want to change some Euro’s into Thai Baht for an upcoming trip to Phuket – Mustafa!  How about some tacky gold necklaces, Christmas lights, or a fountain?  Dishes, shaving cream, pots, pans, cricket bat, nuts, soup, televisions, shoes, dresses, fruits, vegetables, toys, computers, picture frames, tuxedos –  there is virtually nothing you can’t buy in this store.

However, you must find it before you buy it.   To call their layout haphazard, chaotic, or random really wouldn’t even begin to describe the bizarness of how they have the place ‘organized’.  There is some thought.  You can tell that similar things are in certain regions of the store for a reason, but that is about it.  All the dishwashers are together, but they aren’t anywhere near similar appliances like stoves or refrigerators.  Dishwashers are logically next to fans, which should be near soup.  Gold necklaces are conveniently next to toys which should be across from fruits and vegetables.  All the cleaning products are actually together ( laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, glass cleaner, etc. ) but they are also on the 4th floor next to CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes.  ( Think of the joy of dragging a 15 kg box of laundry detergent down four escalators to a taxi-cab. )  It’s almost like they would have been better off just putting everything in alphabetical order.

We bought Mrs. Stockdale some cashews and almonds and the big little Stockdale got some Oreos for putting up with this trip.  It took us five minutes to find a place to pay.  The check outs are hidden throughout the store.  There was, what appeared to be, a regular cash register.  The cashier rang up our purchase and the total was $27.80.  I gave her a $50.  She opened a regular old drawer under the cash register ( like a kitchen drawer ), put my $50 toward the back, and rooted around in a giant pile of bills until she found my change.  For security purposes, our items were placed in a plastic bag with a zip tie pulled tightly around the top.  No one would ever figure a way around that system.

To add to the confusion, Mustafa is just outside of Little India.  This means that traffic is gridlocked a fair portion of the day, and there is no parking garage.

Like I said once before, sometimes it’s like Homer Simpson runs this place.