“Navigating obstacle course”: 99 Speedmart’s messy, narrow aisles prove to be a nightmare for customers

 

PART of the appeal and success of the 99 Speedmart chain of grocery stores is the convenience it offers consumers.

Located within residential areas, this publicly listed convenience store chain is well-stocked with daily essentials and products are priced competitively to boot.

No wonder thousands of customers flock to the green and orange signboards for household items daily instead of heading to the hypermarkets.

However, amid the acknowledgement that the brand dutifully serves the needs of many urban dwellers, there is one issue that is a recurrent theme among 99 Speedmart outlets – messy, narrow aisles.

Anyone who has been into a 99 Speedmart outlet will be familiar with the scenario. Cramped aisles stacked with boxes and the narrow passage-ways can turn a simple shopping trip into an obstacle course adventure.

Editor’s Note: Staff are known to attribute the matter to irregular delivery schedule by product suppliers which resulted in outlet workers failing to store the stocks properly in view of space limitation.

This reputation for messy stores was highlighted on X in a cheeky post by @bckupacc99 who shared a host of images of a neat and tidy store. No open boxes clogging the walkway or poorly stocked shelves; everything was seemingly in the right place.

The simple caption that was dripping with sarcasm declared that “this was NOT a 99 Speedmart” as the poster added the tell-all addendum of “those who know, know”.

The post has generated 458.8K views at time writing with plenty of commenters lamenting that 99 Speedmart outlets leave much to be desired when it comes to layout, presentation and customer experience.

The neatness on display in the shared images prompted one cynical commenter to claim that it was going against the natural order of things in a 99 Speedmart. Another backed up that opinion by sharing that the Cyberjaya outlet was a complete mess.

The shock was evident in one surprised consumer’s gasp of disbelief that these images were those of a 99 Speedmart outlet.

Echoing this sentiment was an observer who could not quite believe that such a neat and tidy store could exist in Malaysia. Where were the scattered card

One hapless shopper who even suffered an injury from tripping over a box in a 99 Speedmart, fumed that the staff pretended they did not catch the mishap on the CCTV.

It was opined that if indeed this was a 99 Speedmart, it must be a new outlet or one that was preparing for a visit by the area manager.

Likewise, it was observed that the store could not be a 99 Speedmart as its shelves are usually much taller and with items stacked to the back of the shelf making it impossible to reach.

One commenter even surmised that the messy layout was a theft-prevention mechanism used by 99 Speedmart to deter shoplifters.

However, there were a few who defended the 99 Speedmart outlets where they do their regular shopping, noting that the premises they frequented were clean and their shelves and aisles were in proper order.

Given that many Malaysians rely on 99 Speedmart for their daily grocerie

There is no doubt that the store chain is an unqualified success with over 3,000 stores nationwide and has firmly established itself as the largest mini-mart chain the country.

Wouldn’t it be a shame that that such achievement is tarnished by a reputation for being the tardiest of them all? –  Focus Malaysia