KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 ― The Covid-19 movement control order (MCO) definitely caused a disruption in the daily lives of Malaysians.

More so for those running businesses.

For thrift shop owner Christopher Teng Gim Boon, the first month was the hardest for him.

Struggling to keep his business alive, Teng, who owns a small thrift shop called Eagle Shoppe Vintage in SS15, Subang Jaya had no choice but to take his business online.

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Teng had previously tried selling his items on the Malaysian online marketplace website, Mudah.my but after it didn’t have much impact on his business, he shifted to the online marketplace app, Carousell.

“Carousell is actually a professional platform and because it can be connected to social media, the network range is huge.”

“They’re also constantly updating and improving the app on safety and they also protect buyers and sellers,” he said adding that unlike Mudah.my, scammers on Carousell would be blocked immediately.

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Thrift shop owner, Christopher Teng Gim Boon at his Eagle Shoppe Vintage in SS15, Subang Jaya. ― Picture by Arif Zikri
Thrift shop owner, Christopher Teng Gim Boon at his Eagle Shoppe Vintage in SS15, Subang Jaya. ― Picture by Arif Zikri

Besides that, Teng had also used Instagram to promote his business.

“It is easier for people to view products on Instagram because of its catalogue look.”

“So if they see a product that they’re interested in on my Instagram, they will WhatsApp me immediately but to compare, I make more sales on Carousell,” Teng said.

These days, Teng, a former interior designer, said his business has been receiving more walk-ins due to the recovery MCO period.

When talking about the future of his business in the new normal, Teng said that he was looking to expand his business to the international market by using online marketplaces like EBay and Grailed.

Having operated the business for 15 years, he also actively takes part in car boot sales as he believes in a more direct approach rather than just waiting for customers to come.

Soul Crew Cafe owners, Afzan Ramlan (right) and Ainuddin Jaafar (left) had just opened their restaurant last December. ― Picture by Arif Zikri
Soul Crew Cafe owners, Afzan Ramlan (right) and Ainuddin Jaafar (left) had just opened their restaurant last December. ― Picture by Arif Zikri

Restaurant owners, Afzan Ramlan and Ainuddin Jaafar were left with no other option but to comply with the government orders by closing down their restaurant as Covid-19 cases started to escalate at the time.

Having been in the food and beverages sector for almost 15 years, the duo had just opened a fusion food restaurant called Soul Crew Café in Prima Saujana, Kajang last December.

When the MCO was implemented, they had to shut down their operations for almost two months.

They reopened after the enhanced MCO started but only allowed takeaways and deliveries.

According to Afzan, the MCO resulted in them losing two-month worth of sales and to make matters worse, they still needed to pay for rent and other bills.

In an attempt to recover their losses, Afzan and Ainuddin decided to offer their own delivery services with their staff to reach hungry customers.

They have since stopped using this method as demand has increased.

Instead, they are now using a food delivery service called Super Rider that charges only 10 per cent for service charge.

Afzan and Ainuddin said they previously used FoodPanda but stopped using it after a few months due to the excessive charges (35 per cent service charge) and lack of profit.

“After we did some calculations, we found out that the sales that we were making through FoodPanda wasn’t enough to cover our expenses.”

“We need to take into consideration our food cost, rent, staff’s salaries and with the additional 35 per cent from FoodPanda, we were left with only 10 per cent from the sale of the food which couldn’t even cover the food cost,” Afzan said, adding that the same could be said for Grab Food as well.

Even though they agree that FoodPanda and Grab Food have a wider range of customer base, they were not willing to raise their prices as they did not want to risk losing customers from the area.

Besides that, they’ve also created a WhatsApp group for their regular customers, where the customers are able to place orders and get regular updates.

Their WhatsApp group initiative proves to be a success and they’ve been receiving orders almost everyday through the group.

Besides that, both of them had also made the best out of social media by using it as their marketing tool.

Afzan said Facebook offered a wide range of advertisement services with prices as low as RM3 which can reach to about 300 people and the numbers get bigger as the price goes on.

“So far, the outcome from the ads has been great and as we get back our momentum, we’ve stopped using the ads for a while,” said Afzan.

According to Afzan, things are getting back to normal as the RMCO began which allowed restaurants to receive walk-ins again.

“We’re getting back on our feet, people’s spending power has also increased and we’re now able to pay off our old debts and hopefully, we could cover back our losses,” Afzan said.

Talking about the future, both Afzan and Ainuddin are looking to focus more on their online market base as it is gradually growing.

Grellas Cabin owner, Mohd Qayyum Ibrahim said that MDEC has helped him with his business a lot during MCO. ― Picture by Arif Zikri
Grellas Cabin owner, Mohd Qayyum Ibrahim said that MDEC has helped him with his business a lot during MCO. ― Picture by Arif Zikri

In Mohd Qayyum Ibrahim’s case, shutting down his business due to MCO meant that the zero income left him with no money to pay his suppliers.

Because of this the 34-year-old restaurant owner faced a problem where suppliers did not want to provide him with the necessary items he needed.

He was then forced to source for supplies by himself.

Qayyum has been running a western food restaurant, Grellas Cabin in Subang 2, Shah Alam with his wife and family for seven years now.

“Just imagine, we have debts that need to be paid, our business couldn’t operate, there were a lot of ingredients that went to waste and not forgetting our staff’s salaries,” said Qayyum who has been in the F&B industry for 21 years.

He uses local delivery provider, Lalamove for when his supply orders exceeds RM2,000.

This has also proven to be cheaper for him as he has to spend only RM20 to RM30 per delivery.

After a few months of hardship, Grellas Cabin is finding its groove again under the RMCO.

“We’ve met with our previous suppliers and we made a deal with them. We are not asking for them to forget all of our debts but we only ask that they let us pay them bit by bit.”

“Whether they agree or not, this is the only way that we can pay back the debts because to be honest, the whole world is affected,” Qayyum said adding that they had also received threats from suppliers.

When talking about the future, Qayyum remains optimistic as he has joined the eUsahawan programme, an initiative developed by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to help local entrepreneurs in digital marketing. 

As a result from the programme, Qayyum had managed to venture into making ‘sambal’ as a side business which turned out to be a hit at his restaurant and in the online market.

Besides that, Qayyum is also planning to sell frozen meats including lamb, chicken and burger patties to local and international markets.

Kebun Ali owner, Md Ali Abdul Aziz has been manning his garden all by himself for a year and a half now. ― Picture by Arif Zikri
Kebun Ali owner, Md Ali Abdul Aziz has been manning his garden all by himself for a year and a half now. ― Picture by Arif Zikri

Plant retailer, Md Ali Abdul Aziz said that during the MCO, people became more interested in growing their own plants and he has seen an increase in his sales.

Ali, who opened his shop, Kebun Ali in Sungai Buloh last year said he started his gardening activities as a way to kill time after retiring.

When the MCO began, Ali received calls and messages from the public as they were looking to buy saplings and some even asked him for tips and advice on how to grow plants.

As RMCO began, he has been receiving twice the support from the public as people are starting to have a passion in gardening.

“They come here to look for saplings, fertilisers and they’re even willing to buy a sapling that’s just two inches tall.”

He added that the demand was there and it was up to him whether he still had the strength to carry on as he had been manning the business by himself.

Besides that, Ali is also actively promoting his business on social media and makes full use of Facebook ads.

“For my business, it is seasonal, I will only pay for Facebook ads when the time is right for example during the school holidays.”

“For now, I am promoting my business through Instagram and Facebook but without using ads as people are getting busy preparing to start back their life, plus schools are opening as well, which means they will be busy,” Ali said.

Even though his business has been blooming lately but just like the others, the MCO has also impacted Kebun Ali that sells saplings.

About 500 to 600 of the saplings died during the MCO as they tend to die and their growth stunted if they are not moved into bigger pots.

Besides selling saplings, Ali also sells fertilisers and plans to take his business into online shops like Lazada and Shopee as part of his future plans.

He had also resorted to using a delivery service during the MCO as Pos Malaysia did not accept such items.

Fearing a reinstatement of MCO, he added that major players in the industry needed to come up with an SOP when it came to delivering plants.

Although, Ali was still grateful that his business wasn’t badly affected compared to other sectors that suffered tremendous losses during the MCO.