In 2015, the municipality of Dubai announced the initiation of a standardization process for the city’s grocery stores or baqalas, citing the need to modernize the city space. Dubai’s Department of Economic Development stated that the baqalas are no longer suitable for the city’s standards of living. In brief, this plan would involve replacing Dubai’s grocery stores with franchises of the multinational giant 7-eleven. Since no comment has been made about the affects of 7-eleven’s entry to the market on the small grocery stores, my research attempts to look at the potential relationship between these two phenomena. Dotting Dubai’s low and middle-income towns, the baqalas are small stores, usually staffed by Southeast Asian or Persian men. They often cater to residents’ day-to-day needs, creating bonds within these communities. My imminent research hopes to analyze the role of the baqala within these towns, and the potential effects of standardization on the towns’ residents. In an attempt to answer this question, my research uses the lens of urban studies, specifically to understand the roles of these baqalas as a space of public encounters. My methodology involves a combination of historicizing baqalas within the city’s recent history of urban development and conducting ethnographic research of some of these baqalas. I intend to interview city planners to locate the baqala within Dubai’s development plans. In terms of historicizing the baqala as part of the city’s recent urban development, I attempt to locate the baqala in recent historical narratives around Dubai. Conducting ethnographic research in a number of baqalas, I intend to observe the baqala and document its relationship to residential communities. As these baqalas are experiencing significant changes, it is important to archive their histories to further grasp the potential effects of standardization on Dubai’s communities.