Inside the crowds, excitement, and FOMO-fuelled rush at Primark’s Mall of the Emirates opening.
In Dubai, the opening of Primark at the Mall of the Emirates drew large crowds, with queues stretching from the store entrance through the mall corridors and extending in the direction of Ski Dubai.
Inside the slow-moving line, shoppers waited their turn while inching forward and filming the atmosphere on their phones, capturing the excitement and buzz surrounding the launch—similar to previous Primark openings at Dubai Mall and City Centre Mirdif.
Marketing executive Sofia Alvarez said she came to see whether the hype around the store was real.
Leaning on her tote bag as she observed the crowded scene, she said she had been following the trend online for some time. “You see all these clips and you start wondering if the reality matches the hype,” she added.
She also noted that, with this being the third store to open in the city, she was curious whether the crowd would be just as large as before. “My friends sent me their lists too, they couldn’t imagine standing in line, so I took one for the team,” she said, laughing.
Civil engineer Ron Silva, who recently moved to Dubai, said the scale of the queue felt unusual compared to his home country. “Back home, a queue like this would mean something is wrong,” he laughed. “Here, it feels big, especially because where I come from, it isn’t every day you see people excited about Primark.”
Further along, school student Nicole Bennett stood with friends in her school uniform, saying, “We literally came straight from school. We decided to go after we saw it on an influencer’s page yesterday.”
University student Naina Sanjay was seen waiting in line with her father.
She said she had recently returned from India during her university break and decided to join the crowd, adding, “I had nothing to do, and doing something unnecessary like standing in a long line feels good sometimes,” she laughed. She also recalled experiencing FOMO while in Pune, saying her friends often talked about Primark.
Her father, standing beside her, said simply, “I’m just here to accompany my daughter.”
Retired teacher Alia Sultan was seen standing in the queue alongside her daughter.
She said she had skipped previous store openings her daughter attended, but often ended up liking the items her daughter brought home. “This time she asked me to come, and I just agreed,” she said, laughing as she gestured toward her daughter.
As shoppers left the store carrying oversized paper bags, the scene reflected the buzz around the launch, with social media feeds expected to fill with first impressions, haul videos, and queue clips in the days that followed.
