Year-end for Retail Business to Pick Up

Business in retail outlets and malls will be slow until November or December before it picks up steam, said MRCA President Datuk Seri Garry Chua.

hile shoppers are slowing W trickling back to the malls, retailers can expect a rise in profits by year end when consumers spend more during the festive season, he said recently in an interview with theSun newspaper.

“Malls will have to give good discounts as consumers, even the T20 (income group), will be looking for value buys. However, it might take up to the middle of next year for profits to return to pre-pandemic levels,” he was quoted by the daily.

He told theSun that retailers in the meantime “have to introduce measures to keep their businesses afloat”.

Datuk Seri Garry was also recently quoted in the Star newspaper where he told the national daily that everyone, not just the government, had to play their part to combat the virus. “I believe all MRCA members have followed the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the government before opening up to ensure that everyone is safe.”

He was also quoted that conditional MCO was vital to ensure that jobs were saved but at the same time, necessary measures must be in place to ensure safety. To safeguard the economy, lives and safety, a balancing act was also necessary.

On the issue of parents taking elderly parents or relatives and young children to the malls, Datuk Seri Garry told the daily that everyone must be responsible. Those with young children or elderly relatives should not be encouraged to visit public spaces and shopping malls. He was of the opinion that children above 10 years may go with their parents to the mall provided they follow the guidelines.

“But sometimes, it is difficult for parents as their younger kids may insist on following them so I believe the situation would depend on each household,” he told the daily.

Datuk Seri Garry was also quoted in The Straits Times on May 12, regarding moulds that appeared on leather merchandise at a shop in a mall in Penang, when the mall was reopened after more than 50 days of closure due to the pandemic.

“I think there are remote cases where there was damage of goods, but

MRCA members have not had issues with that,” he was quoted. He also told the daily that retailers and shopping malls needed to work together to attract more customers.

“Shopping malls must have aggressive promotions to help retailers. Malls also need to show that they have their standard operating procedure to prevent Covid-19 infection, such as temperature checking and providing hand sanitisers, to bring back customers’ confidence,” he told the daily.