About Magrudy's Bookshops

Magrudy's is one of the leading bookstore chains in Dubai and the UAE with a strong reputation for quality and customer service.

A Brief History

Magrudy's first began back in 1975 and started life as an educational toy shop. Though toys the main product at the time, we were selling books from the very beginning. The first bookshop was situated near to where our Educational Resource Centre is now, on the Dubai to Sharjah road. Mind you, back then there were only two lanes of traffic and you could pull across and park your car on a sand lot in front of the bookshop. There were no traffic jams in those days either!

The second bookshop to open was our Jumeirah branch on Beach Road. When it opened, however, it was a standalone shop, the mall that is there today built up around it some years later. This was the extent of Magrudy's chain for some years where the focus steadily shifted from mainly educational toys to mostly books, but also stationery, cards, toys, bikes, barbeques, wool, materials and almost anything else! In fact, there was a saying amongst customers at the time, "If you can't find it anywhere else, go to Magrudy's!"

After the opening of Magrudy's branch in Deira City Centre in 2001, books became our primary business, with a huge range in several different languages available. In particular, our range of Arabic books has been steadily increasing to meet the needs of our many Arabic-speaking customers.

The opening of shops in the Burjuman Centre in 2003 and Ibn Battuta Mall in 2005 sparked a re-imagination of the Magrudy's brand and a re-design of our shops. This continued with the opening of our branch in Al Wahda Mall, Abu Dhabi, in 2007, and culminated in the 2008 opening of our new flagship bookshop in Dubai Festival City, which is larger and carries a better range than any other bookshop in the UAE.

Magrudy's Today

Today, Magrudy's has 5 major bookshops in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi, as well as the Magrudy’s Educational Resource Centre for schools, teachers and libraries. The bookshops stock toys, gifts, magazines, cards and stationery, but our first love will always be books. These spacious, open-plan shops promote a relaxed atmosphere allowing you to browse in peace whilst ensuring that there is always someone nearby to help should you need it.

Smaller Magrudy's shops are available in numerous Spinney's supermarkets all around Dubai. These open kiosks, placed for convenience focus solely on books and magazines allowing you to view and buy just as you are passing by.