What Ramadan taught us about tableware
How the iftar table reshaped our buying priorities.
The first Ramadan of StyleMart Home, in 2020, we sold out of our two serving platters in three days.
The lesson we took: the GCC home does not eat individual dinners. The GCC home serves.
Our first-year buying plan was built like a European tableware brand. Dinner plates, side plates, water glasses, napkins. What we were missing: large platters, rice servers, mezze bowls, deep bread baskets, coffee trays.
By Ramadan 2021 we had added the terracotta serving platter, the Mariam pasta bowl — which, despite the name, is as often used for rice as for pasta — and the hammered copper trivet pair to stop the table from being scorched by everything we were serving.
We now stock seasonal pieces a full month before Ramadan rather than during it. We learned this one year at a time.
The habit changes buying. Every time we consider adding a piece to the catalogue, we ask: does this serve four, six, or ten? Pieces that serve one get vetoed quickly.