How UAE Supermarket Catalogs Work — And How to Use Them to Save Money

If you have been shopping in the UAE for any length of time, you have seen them — the thick glossy booklets at the entrance of Lulu, the weekly flyer pinned near the Carrefour checkout, the PDF that lands in your email from Nesto. These are promotional catalogs, and they are the most consistently useful money-saving tool available to UAE shoppers.

Most people glance at them occasionally. The shoppers saving the most money read them every week, before they shop. Here is how the system works and how to use it properly.

What Is a Supermarket Catalog?

A supermarket catalog — also called a promotional flyer, weekly leaflet, or weekly offer booklet — is a curated list of products that the retailer has discounted for a specific period, typically one week. It is produced by the supermarket marketing team, printed in large quantities, and distributed in-store, via email, on the retailer website, and through third-party platforms like CliqDeals.

The catalog is not a random collection of discounts. It is a carefully planned promotional tool. Retailers use catalogs to drive traffic, clear seasonal or overstocked inventory, and compete with rival supermarkets. Understanding this helps you read catalogs more effectively.

When Are UAE Catalogs Released?

The majority of UAE supermarkets follow a Thursday or Friday release cycle, aligned with the start of the UAE weekend. New catalogs go live digitally on Thursday, with physical copies available in-store from Friday morning. The promotional period typically runs for one week, ending the following Wednesday or Thursday.

Here is the approximate release schedule for the major UAE chains:

Lulu Hypermarket: New catalog every Thursday, valid through the following Wednesday.

Carrefour UAE: Weekly catalog released Thursday to Friday, typically valid 7 days.

Nesto: Thursday release, one-week validity.

Geant: Thursday to Friday release, one-week period.

Day to Day: Weekly offers updated Thursday.

Al Madina: Weekly promotions released Thursday to Friday.

Sharjah Coop and Emirates Coop: Weekly catalogs with Thursday release.

Some retailers also run mid-week flash promotions that do not appear in the main weekly catalog. These are typically app-only or email-only and last 2 to 3 days.

How to Read a Catalog Efficiently

Most people open a catalog and browse page by page, which is the least efficient approach. A 24-page catalog has 200 to 400 individual promoted items. Browsing all of them wastes time and leads to impulse decisions.

The efficient approach is to scan for your staples first. Before opening any catalog, have your weekly shopping list in front of you. Open the catalog and scan specifically for those items. Most catalogs are organized by department — fresh produce, dairy, pantry, household, electronics — so you can navigate directly to the relevant sections.

When you find a staple item discounted, ask two questions: Is this discount 20% or more below what I normally pay? Do I have storage space to buy more than my usual quantity? If yes to both, buy extra. If the discount is less than 15%, it is not worth changing your shopping plan for.

The back pages of most UAE catalogs often contain the deepest clearance discounts — items the retailer needs to move quickly. These are worth checking even if you did not plan to buy them.

What Retailers Do Not Want You to Know

Catalogs are designed to drive you into the store with a promoted item, where you will then buy many other items at full price. Retailers call the heavily discounted catalog items loss leaders — products priced at or below cost specifically to generate foot traffic.

The most common loss leader categories in UAE catalogs are eggs, cooking oil, rice, and basic dairy. These items are often discounted so deeply that the retailer makes no margin on them. The profit comes from everything else you add to your trolley while you are in the store.

Knowing this, you can reverse-engineer the strategy. Go in specifically for the loss leaders. Stick to your list for everything else. Buy the heavily promoted items in larger quantities since the discount is real and the prices will return to normal next week.

How to Use Multiple Catalogs Together

The biggest savings come from using multiple catalogs in the same week, routing your shopping to wherever each specific item is cheapest.

This does not require visiting five supermarkets. A practical approach for a weekly shop is to check three catalogs — Lulu, Carrefour, and one budget supermarket near you — and identify which store has the best price on each category of your shopping list. Route your main shop to whoever wins the most categories, and make one secondary stop if another store has a strong promotion on a high-value staple.

Most families who do this consistently find they naturally split between two stores per week: one for fresh and bulk, one for packaged goods. The total time cost is 10 minutes of catalog review before shopping, which consistently returns AED 60 to AED 100 in savings per week.

Where to Find UAE Catalogs

You can find individual retailer catalogs on each supermarket website or app, but checking them one by one across 8 to 10 stores every Thursday is inefficient.

CliqDeals collects and updates weekly catalogs from 40+ UAE supermarkets and retailers in one place. You can browse by store, by city, or by category. New catalogs are added every Thursday when retailers release their weekly promotions. No registration is required.

This is the fastest way to compare what is on offer this week across multiple chains before you decide where to shop.

Getting Started

If you have never used UAE supermarket catalogs systematically, start with one simple habit this Thursday: check the Lulu and Carrefour catalogs before your weekly shop. Write down any items from your regular list that are promoted at 20% or more off. Buy extra quantity of those specific items.

Do that for four consecutive weeks and track your grocery spend. Most households see a measurable reduction within the first month.