Low Yat retailers: We’re better off than Mara Digital Mall

KUALA LUMPUR: Retailers at Low Yat Plaza have dismissed any notion that they are performing badly compared with those at Mara Digital Mall, although their businesses are not thriving as they would like.

They said sales had been slow due to the current state of the Malaysian economy in spite of the mall appearing to be bustling with activity.

A 21-year-old store operator who wished to be known only as Feng said the number of patrons observed today was much less than what was seen during better times in the past.

He said his business had dropped by 60%, and the other outlets there were likely to be feeling the pinch as well.

“It is because of the market conditions. Lately, I have been getting no more than five customers a day. Previously, I used to have at least 10 each day,” he told FMT.

Another trader identifying himself as Seng said he had heard that shops at Mara Digital were not doing well either.

“I heard from a friend working there who said that whenever customers there complained about product problems, they were sent here to Low Yat to get them fixed,” said the 22-year old who has worked in Low Yat for the last three years.

He said one of the problems faced by local retailers was the increase in foreigners, mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, who had become serious competitors.

“Before this our competitors used to be mostly Malaysian. How the foreigners got their operating licences we do not know. Maybe there is a ‘lubang’ (loophole) somewhere,” he said.

Retailer Shinji See, 31, said he had a few friends who had opened shops in Mara Digital after the mall was launched in December 2015, but had since left due to the poor profits there and returned to Low Yat.

He added that business had dipped after the implementation of the 6% GST in April 2015.

“It is bad, but it is not as bad as what they say outside. We are still surviving,” he told FMT.

Jack Tan, a tenant for more than five years, claimed that some Mara retailers were acquiring their stock from suppliers in Low Yat.

He also said a major challenge faced by the retailers of electronics products was the online business.

“A lot of the youngsters prefer buying online as some of the items there are cheaper compared with what we sell here.

“Online businesses don’t have certain commitments and rentals to fulfil, so they are able to sell at lower prices,” he said.

A dealer at Mara Digital Mall was reported on Monday to have said that Low Yat had lost its shine and customers, with buyers preferring prices and quality offered at Mara which he claimed was seeing comparable, if not better, business.

He said his patrons had complained that many items sold at Low Yat were either not original or were refurbished.

FMT had reported last month that some retailers who had suffered a major drop in business were objecting to a hike in the rental at Mara Digital.

The mall, located near the Sogo shopping centre at Jalal Tunku Abdul Raman, was mooted exclusively for Bumiputera traders after a highly publicised dispute took place at Low Yat in July 2015 when a youth allegedly stole a Lenovo mobile phone valued at RM800 from a shop. -FMT