KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — For Hayat Ramadhan, 28, it had been three years since his last visit to Malakat Mall.
When met by Malay Mail, he was sitting on the cold tiled floor outside the baby shop Eebu on the third floor while watching over his toddler son playing in a wooden playhouse. They were waiting for the mother, Nur Syafiqah, 28, while she shopped for bargains before the mall shuts down at the end of the month.
As the mall prepared to shutter for good, curious first-time shoppers descended on the mall to pick up discounted bargains offered by vendors, some up to 70 per cent off, so their stock could be cleared.
“It’s quite sad, as I like it here ... Now, after hearing about it closing down last night, I knew we had to come here one last time. We drove all the way from Shah Alam too,” he said with a laugh.
Hayat said he liked the mall for its Islamic features, such as providing a makeshift “surau” or a prayer space in the centre courtyard, which he said was convenient for Muslim shoppers. Other malls would usually offer a space in more secluded areas, sometimes cramped and with poor ventilation.
But when asked about the mall’s closure, he conceded that management was to blame.
“Sorry to say, but all the businesses under this mall owner have been poorly managed,” he said, making a reference to the founder’s other businesses such as the Brainy Bunch kindergarten chain.
Earlier this month, the kindergarten said it was attempting to settle the arrears regarding its staff members’ Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) contributions.
Nur Syafiqah, 28, a former lecturer at the early learning training institute Raudhah College, located in CBD Perdana 3 office building beside the mall, came to Malakat Mala to catch a final glimpse.
“We wanted to come here one last time to check out the place, and to see it like this is sad. Execution, marketing and promotion were all lacking so much that it was hard to see any future here,” she said.
“I had to leave and go elsewhere, and now three years later, they’re closing. In my opinion, most of the shoppers you see here today will most likely be first-timers or busybodies.”
Those singled out by Nur Syafiqah would likely be attracted by the promotion by Malakat Mall, so its vendors can clear their stock — promising discounts of up to 70 per cent.
The mall announced that it would close its doors on July 31.
One of those first-timers was Safwan Kamal, in his forties, who came with his three sons.
When approached by Malay Mail, he said it was his first time at the mall and he came only because he heard it was closing down.
“I wanted to see what the fuss was about. We went picnicking this morning, and it was near here. After reading yesterday’s viral news, I said why not check it out?” he related.
When asked if he would come back to Malakat Mall if it had survived instead, he disagreed.
“In my opinion, crowd-wise it looks okay, but I mostly saw people at the grocer, nowhere else. The thing is, there aren’t a lot of things to do here, and it needs some life injected into it. They also need some familiar brands as half of the brands here, despite being local, are pretty unknown,” he said.
“You’d have to build a strong local presence and have the local residents be hardcore supporters of you, then I think they could’ve perhaps grown their business.
“It’s all novel and good to want to support fellow Muslims, but maybe it didn’t work out here. Perhaps that is something we can study too, if such malls or concept malls are worthwhile,” he concluded.
Most of the patrons Malay Mail spoke to were first-timers looking for bargains. Most of them could be found at the shoe stores, while others were at the local DIY shop called DIY Malaysia, where racks upon racks were empty.
The supermarket Malakat Grocer had a constant line of people filling up their shopping carts to the brim, stuffing every single discounted item they could get their hands on to pile into their already packed trolleys.
In other places, there were empty shop lots, half-renovated spaces with snooker tables and dartboards strewn across the floor. Some empty lots had birds flying in them.
Nor Hidayah Hamidin, a housewife who lives in Putrajaya which neighbours Selangor’s Cyberjaya, said she used to shop at Malakat Mall because it was easy to pick products that she knew were already halal-certified.
“The thing is, on certain days when I was about to go home and thought to drop by just to get some milk and bread, the grocer was empty. If not empty, there was just the one brand which I don’t like,” she related.
“Then when it happened several times after that, eventually I gave up because lots of time was wasted. I decided to find another spot. I only came here today to see if there were any sales, and it seems like many things are on sale, so good la, come now and get whatever you need before they close."
“They should’ve diversified or been more attentive to the finer details. That, I feel, sometimes can make or break a business,” she said.
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