Shops along Olaya Road are making limited sales due to the ongoing construction of the $22.5 billion Riyadh Metro which began five months ago, leaving many shop owners disgruntled and fed up with the long construction process.

One manager of a high end store along the road said: “I won't be surprised if a number of shops close down due to lack of customers while the Riyadh Metro construction is going on."

The lack of customers is primarily due to the fact that a long wall has been constructed, blocking customers from accessing the shops from Olaya Road. To access some of these shops, customers have to park somewhere else and walk some distance to reach the area, causing many would-be customers to shop elsewhere.

“We have employed all the sales strategies in the book that we know. We've called our customers to visit us but they said that the heavy traffic caused by rerouting prevent them from doing so,” said Mohamed Fikri, an Egyptian salesman in a shop dealing in luxury leather items along the affected road.

Mohamed Davis, manager of a shop dealing in various sports products, said that their shop used to rake in some SR70,000 in daily sales but that this had gone down 30 percent thanks to the construction.

“With sales down, so is the commission we had been receiving. I am happy though that despite the downturn in sales, I continue to receive my monthly paycheck,” Davis said. The Syrian manager of a shop dealing in branded items, Louay Mounir, said that their sales had also gone down but that the owner of the shop is optimistic. “He has deep pockets. He could pay overhead costs and other bills.

That's why we're still open. He believes that we'll be able to ride out the bad situation and eventually recover our losses because we're dealing in well-known high-end items,” he said.

Due to lack of customers, many of these stores are now offering discounts of up to 70 percent, while others have increased their discounts to 90 percent.

The Riyadh Metro is being constructed by the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) to serve the population of the Saudi capital, which now stands at 5.7 million and expected to grow to 8.3 million by 2030.