Covid-19: Petaling Street food traders record surge in online sales with Chinese New Year around the corner

PETALING JAYA, Feb 1 — Chinese New Year is in a few weeks time and the usually vibrant Petaling Street is quiet with hardly anyone visiting the old shops and buying food items.

With visitors not coming into their stores due to the movement control order (MCO), fourth generation traders have been going online and consequently have been experiencing a surge in online sales especially nearing the festive season.

Known for its traditional Chinese bakery, Fung Wong Biscuits in Petaling Street is usually bustling with customers queuing to buy peanut cookies, butter cookies, pineapple tarts, Hong Kong egg rolls and love letters.

The bakery located in Jalan Hang Lekir has been around for 122 years with one of the passed-down traits being its hand-made pastries made with minimal use of machinery.

Its owner Melvin Chan, who is also the fourth generation owner of the bakery told MalayMail that with the current MCO, lesser visitors have been visiting the bakery as compared to previous years.

“Usually around this time, people would be queing up to get the egg rolls, or the signature almond cookies.

“But so far, walk-in customers have reduced to only five per cent as compared to previous years.

“As such, we have started selling our pastries online and I even started a Facebook Live on my account to promote the pastries,” he said.

Fortunately for Chan, response from customers has been good with high orders coming in for the kaya roll and Hong Kong egg rolls that are famous during the festivities.

“I’ve also been delivering the Chinese New Year treats to my customers around the Klang Valley so that they would see my familiar face and be assured of the quality of the products,” he said.

Oloiya, a famous bak kwa franchise that started from a humble shop in Petaling Street can also attest to the surging online sales amid the MCO.

The shop is a hotspot for customers from other states and even Singapore who would crowd the shop to get the salty-sweet dried meat especially during CNY.

Its owner Raymond Khue told MalayMail that some customers who purchase the salty-sweet dried meat would give them to friends as a sign of good luck.

An old picture of the Oloiya shop that was known as Syarikat Kiew Brothers back then where people would crowd the shop to get their bak kwa packets. — Picture by Raymond Khue

“We started promoting our online sales through social media such as about five years ago. This year, there has been a 500 per cent growth in online sales as compared to last year.

“Many have also been going online to buy our bak kwa especially that the CNY festivities is near - as customers would give them as gifts or to eat them as snacks at home,” he said.

Khue said that with many people ordering the delicacy, the issue his team and he are facing is dealing with the overwhelming requests and fulfilling them.

“I used to have many school leavers who would work part-time in the shop after the SPM examinations, but due to the examinations being delayed, many can’t take leave and work with me temporarily.

“Limited manpower is my main concern, but we hope to work as hard as possible with the packaging and delivering so that orders can be delivered on time.”

With the government’s interstate travel restrictions, Khue is fortunate to have local customers still visit his shop these past few weeks and buy one or two packets of bak kwa packets or a hamper filled with the meat. 

“Most of my customers come from the T20 income group and are still able to buy bak kwa from us to give their friends and family,” he said.

As for Chai Huat Hin dried seafood store, the shop too has been experiencing many online orders this past few weeks.

Among the ingredients that are in demand by customers during CNY are sea cucumber, dried scallop, abalone, dried oysters, traditional candies and Hong Kong waxed sausages.

Abalone and Hong Kong sausages are some of the important ingredients used for cooking CNY dishes. —Picture by Lana Ng

Lana Ng, who is responsible for the online marketing of the shop said that the Covid-19 pandemic has definitely spurred customers to buy the food ingredients online.

“And since the MCO last year, we’ve had 50 orders per week as compared to only five orders online before the MCO.

“We’ve also been utilising our social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to help us market and promote our products,” she said.