DUBAI – A growing number of United Arab Emirates (UAE) residents now favor weekly “big shop” trips to local convenience stores, rather than shopping at the regions’ larger hypermarkets, according to an article in The National.

“I don’t go near the hypermarkets now. These new [convenience] stores are clean and you can trust all the branded products on sale,” said one resident. “Why fight for a parking space in the big malls when I can get most things I need around the corner?”

In fact, the competition for supermarket customers in the UAE is increasingly visible at small convenience stores and suburban environments. For instance, Carrefour, known for its hypermarkets in some of the UAE’s biggest malls, has opened its third “Carrefour City” concept in Dubai’s BurJuman metro station. With the concept, the hypermarket operator is looking to exploit the trend of shopping at small, local shops rather than once-weekly shopping at hypermarkets.

“As the demand for convenient retail experiences increases, and the number of residents and communities in Dubai continues to grow, we always look for new ways to adapt our offering,” Frank Rouquet, a vice president of Majid Al Futtaim Carrefour Market, told The Nation. “Partnering with the RTA allows us to reach a new shopper segment through our neighbouring convenience store concept.”

Likewise, Lulu Hypermarket is also increasingly focused on the convenience outlet segment. Its Lulu Express concept, which opened its first shop in 2011, now has 17 outlets across the UAE and Qatar. In more mature markets, the spread of small shops has led to falling revenues at hypermarkets.

Industry watchers forecast a boom in the UAE convenience sector but point out that hypermarkets still remain customers’ favorite shopping venues—for now. “We expect the number of convenience stores to double in the UAE over the next five years,” Diana Jarmalaite, a research analyst at Euromonitor International, told the publication.