KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — Many may not be aware that local hypermarket Mydin features a dedicated aisle for local products called the Small Medium Enterprises (SME) lane.
The products on the aisle are categorised based by state of origin.
While the effort by Mydin has been ongoing since 2006 as their contribution to help boost local SMEs in line with the government’s ‘Buy Malaysian’ campaign, many on social media recently became aware when a user on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared images of the aisle and products.
Mydin’s managing director Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin said that the SME lane helps in highlighting local products which are usually overshadowed by other big international brands.
He pointed out that the demands for local products is rising especially with the current climate where several international brands have been the target of boycotts.
The dedicated lane offers much needed visibility especially in Mydin looking specifically for local products.
The SME lane features food items such as coffee and pastes as well as an array of local snacks such as kerepek (chips) and kuih (cookies) from the whole country.
Ameer said that the categorisation by state was also to highlight famous homegrown delicacies from each state.
“Certain products from a particular state are very popular; maybe you are looking for budu, of course you’ll want the ones from Kelantan and if you want dodol, you can go to the Melaka section.
“The products on the SME lane also differ based on stores in different states. For example our branches in Kelantan would feature more products from Kelantan-based SMEs.
This is because some SME cannot cater to huge quantities of products to be put in all of our store branches. So we try to support them locally first and if they manage to sell more, then we can help feature their products at other branches,” he said.
Apart from the SME lane, ocal products are also displayed in other aisles based on their categories and products afre featured at an eye-level to prevent it from being overlooked.
Ameer said that they don't charge listing or advertising fees to local SMEs and pay much sooner than other suppliers.
He added that all the local products featured at their stores will have to go through evaluation and they only offer priority to products that have their own touch.
“Obviously we can’t put every local product that’s out there but we will try, especially to products that are different from others.
“If you say you want to put tomato ketchup, I already have 100 types of tomato ketchup at our stores but if you say your tomato ketchup has durian in it, then of course we will include it.
“Because then we have an array of different products in Mydin, creating a different niche compared to our competitors. So it’s not just we’re helping them, they are also helping us. It’s a win-win situation,” he said.
