PETALING JAYA, Jan 3 — Traders and organisers of cheap offers are keeping their fingers crossed hoping authorities will reverse the recent ruling to reduce the number of such sale events.
They feel amendments made to the Trade Descriptions (Cheap Sale) Regulations 1997 were made abruptly and lacked planning.
Recently, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism announced changes to the cheap sale regulations where it could reduce sales campaigns from eight to four.
Malaysian Retailers Association member Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin, responding to the announcement, anticipates retailers’ unhappiness over the changes.
“They (the ministry) cannot assume all businesses functions like government, they (the Government) should plan ahead.
“It just isn’t right to make such a big announcement several weeks before enforcement starts.
“People plan these things at least half a year ahead. These changes are going to disrupt these businesses,” he said.
Ameer said many business owners will find it difficult to cope especially those who planned for Chinese New Year sales, Deepavali sales and other festive season sales that do not fall on the dates stipulated by the ministry.
The four cheap sales dates are: 1Malaysia Super Sale (March1-31), 1Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival (June 15 to Aug 31) and 1Malaysia Year End Sale (Nov 1 – Dec 31), while the fourth to be decided by retailers.
“The retailers used to have three additional dates to decide on sales they wished to hold apart from the ones decided by the government. That helped business owners whose peak seasons vary throughout the year,” said Ameer.
While the ministry also said the amendments were to encourage more sales for business owners, Ameer disagreed the decision would help business owners nationwide.
“Business owners like me will not benefit from it, and those who are non-departmental stores will not benefit from it either.
“The ministry cannot just make blanket amendments like this and hope it would work out for every business owner out there,” he said.
Malaysia Retail Chain Association (MRCA) operations manager Simon Wong said while the association accepts the decision, it was taken aback by the announcement.
“They met us two weeks before they made the announcement but it was for another issue.
“The announcement about changes came as a surprise. Most of us were taken aback, and there was no space for discussions or objections. They just put it to us and we had to accept it,” he said.
Wong said while the amendments do help streamline the sales periods in Malaysia, it will not necessarily benefit every industry player.
“But since we can’t turn back on the decisions, I urge business owners to start thinking about how they can come up with strategies that would allow them to maintain business sales.
“We can’t go against the decisions, so I would like to think that it is time we come up creative business plans to keep our businesses going.
“For Chinese business owners, I think one of the things they can do is to leverage on the Chinese zodiac sign animal and create promotions around that.
Responding to the decision by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism ministry, Tourism Malaysia said it accept the decision on this issue as they are a member of the Committee that deals with Major Sales Carnivals.
