GEORGE TOWN: A man who co-runs a durian shop which sold three durians for RM937 here said he felt vindicated now that the authorities had found his durians to be reasonably priced.
The 58-year-old, who gave his name only as Lim, is one of two partners running the Macalister Road shop.
He said he had repeatedly been explaining to customers that the durians were being sold according to market prices.
Yesterday, the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry had stated it found that the RM937 charged by Lim’s shop for two Black Thorns and one Musang King to be “reasonable”.
It said it found no element of profiteering, following a complaint by a woman customer who found it to be too expensive.
However, the ministry slapped a RM2,000 fine on the traders for not displaying price tags in Bahasa Malaysia (they were in Chinese) and also because the prices were written in a confusing manner. They paid the fine.
Lim today admitted his price tagging mistake, adding quickly that this had been rectified.
Narrating the events that led to the fine, he said the local woman had first come to the shop with about 10 people on May 30.
“They were mostly Taiwanese people. She asked my staff for the biggest durian,” he said when met by FMT at his shop, which was set up eight months ago.
Lim said his staff informed the woman the price of each variety by kilogramme and she was agreeable to it. He said at that time, Black Thorn was sold for RM95/kg, while a Musang King was priced at RM60/kg.
He said the grand total had come up to RM937 simply because of the size of the fruits, which were heavier than the average 2kg. The fruits sold to the woman were “slightly over 3kg” each.
Lim, who has orchards in Jawi and Balik Pulau here, explained that durians of this weight were a rarity, saying in a harvest of 100 durians, only “two to three” fruits would be larger and heavier than usual.
He said these heavier and “fatter” looking durians had many pods, too.
“They would have at least 15 pods, compared with an average of eight pods in normal durians or durians with odd and dented shapes.”
Lim lamented that his business was badly affected after the woman took to Facebook to complain about his prices, when in reality they depended on the harvest periods and market forces.
“Now, I have two freezers full of durians, which I have shrink-wrapped, hoping someone would buy them. You tell me, do I look like I am profiteering?”
He said he had sent a legal notice to the woman on July 10, demanding an apology for her “defamatory” FB post or risk being sued for defamation.
“That woman closed her FB account and never said sorry. I have asked my lawyers to sue her ‘kaw kaw’. I have lost a lot of money,” he said, adding the woman had given an exact location of where his shop was in her FB post.
The woman had told The Star Online that she was “not the one at fault” and was not worried, when the shop had threatened to file a police report against her for defamation.
Checks by FMT at Lim’s shop showed the following prices for durians on sale (by variety/kg): Butter-RM28; Kulit Hijau-RM30, Bukit Queen-RM38, Udang Merah RM45, Black Thorn- ‘AAA’ (big size) RM110 and ‘B’ grade Black Thorn-RM95; Musang King RM65 to RM75, according to different grades. - FMT
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