Kedai Rakyat will hit small shops, says ACCCIM

UPDATED @ 02:52:53 PM 12-09-2011

By Mohamed Hosni Ibrahim

September 12, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Almost three-quarters of Chinese businesses believe that the Najib administration’s Kedai Rakyat 1 Malaysia initiative will have an adverse impact on small retailers, a recent survey has shown.

According to an Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) survey, 70 per cent of businesses expected existing retailers to suffer “given thepublicity and price advantage enjoyed by 1 Malaysia shops”.

File photo of a Kedai Rakyat outlet.

“With such price differentials, it is not difficult for any party to envisage the adverse effect this would bring to the livelihoods and future operational ability of small retailers or sundry shops.

“As it is, their businesses are already affected by the large hypermarkets and supermarkets, and this would be an added blow to them,” the survey report said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched the first of many Kedai Rakyat 1 Malaysia thrift shops at the Kelana Jaya LRT station in Petaling Jaya in June in response to rising inflation, which hit a two-year high of 3.5 per cent that same month.

There are now three such shops in the Klang Valley.

The shops, operated by hypermarket giant Mydin, offer 250 generic products like rice, oil, flour, bread, eggs, milk powder and diapers, at prices 30 to 40 per cent lower than market rates, as well as branded goods.

Najib said more Kedai Rakyat 1 Malaysia will be set up in other locations similar to the 1 Malaysia clinics his administration has established in states like Sabah and Sarawak.