Two-hour rule for shopping complex outings utterly impractical, malls association laments

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — It is “totally impractical” to order shopping malls to impose a two-hour rule on their customers, as it is simply impossible to keep track of the movement of each and every patron, the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association said today.

In a statement today, the association said it fully agrees that limiting the time spent by shoppers in malls would definitely contribute to enhancing the movement control (MCO) under the current circumstances.

It added however that once shoppers are inside, mall management has “totally no control” over where they go and are unable to keep track of their movements.

“The only practical way is to put up signages in the entrance and common areas and to advise businesses to do similarly at their premises, plus announcements (where applicable) to remind shoppers. Apart from this, we opine that it is not practical for anyone to stop a shopper asking to check his/her MySejahtera to audit the time of entry plus nor do we have the authority to do so.

“In the event enforcement authorities were to undertake this, it would be akin to a ‘police-state’,” it added.

Yesterday, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said that customers are only allowed two hours max in retail outlets, including shopping malls.

Nanta released the latest standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the retail and distribution sector in which he said the number of customers at any outlet would be limited to one person per four square metres.

He said the ministry welcomes the National Security Council’s (MKN) decision to tighten regulations in the current movement control order 3.0 (MCO 3.0), while still allowing the economic sector to operate.

He added that any retail outlet identified as a high-risk area via the Hotspot Identification for Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system will be told to close for three days.

He said that 2,262 enforcement officers from the ministry will be deployed to ensure SOPs are enforced at all retail outlets and shopping malls nationwide.

The association said that the onus would be on shoppers to discipline themselves to abide by the two-hour shopping time limit and not for its members to enforce it on them, adding that it also completely opposes any attempts to penalise malls and/or retailers for such misdemeanour.

It said that since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, car parking records of malls have shown that shoppers are already spending between one and to 1.5 hours shorter than the normal average of three hours, adding that this is already below the imposed two-hour limit.

“Business premises within the mall are already controlling their capacity, limiting this to four square metres per person and the maximum capacity numbers must be displayed at the entrances. Once this is fulfilled, we opine it should be sufficient crowd control. Similarly, it is not practical for such business outlets to monitor and check the shopping time duration of their customers.

“However, in shopping malls, it is totally not practical to count and limit the number of shoppers in the mall at any one time because shoppers come in from multiple entrances and will be dispersed to the business outlets anyway. These numbers of shoppers to malls are perpetually transient as they arrive and depart at any time. In any case, there is no longer any occasion where shoppers can congregate at the common areas as events, exhibitions, promotion activities are now all not permitted, it added.

The association said that it also should be noted that the natural capacity of the number of shoppers in a mall is limited by the number of car parking lots available, which it said is based on the Town Planning Rules of one lot per 40 square metres.

“Furthermore, the number of passengers in a car is now limited to three persons and the number of people coming by public transport is not significant. So we are of the opinion that limiting the numbers in a business/tenant’s premises suffices and that counting the number of people within the mall is not practical and impossible to be carried out sensibly. We do acknowledge that the authorities are aiming for tighter control but again, such measures must both be practical and doable, otherwise it does not serve the objective and we reiterate that we are here to work together to find practical solutions,” it added.