SEPANG, July 26 — Norlizam Yatim, 50, was in a quandary. Cyberjaya’s Malakat Mall, where she trades, is set to close by end of the month — and she still did not know where to shift her stock.

Come July 31, the Muslim and Bumiputera-exclusive mall said it would close down — but according to her, this was inevitable, due to the way the place was being managed.

“The poor turnout in recent years was partly due to how this place was managed. They could have been more proactive. Additionally, it felt like there was racial profiling.

“We’re meant to be for Muslims, but even Muslims complained about the setup here,” said Norlizam, who ran a souvenir and clothing store called OLeH OLeH by KUL GiftS on the mall’s third floor.

She pointed to several decisions that ran counter to how a commercial establishment is usually set up, such as hosting congregational prayers by making a makeshift “surau” in the centre courtyard — thus blocking pathways and walkways.

Last year, Sepang’s Islamic authorities said the mall did not have the credential to host Friday prayers at the courtyard — a feature that the mall had promoted.

Malakat Mall opened its doors in January 2020, launched by then minister of entrepreneur development and cooperatives Tun Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

Its founder Fadzil Hashim is an entrepreneur and business coach, who made his name in 2008 by starting Brainy Bunch, an Islamic Montessori kindergarten chain popular among Malay-Muslim families.

Originally opened on the back of the “buy Muslim first” and anti-Chinese business sentiments among the Malays, the mall’s development was stymied by the pandemic that saw the country forced into lockdown.

It again went viral in 2022 for its decline, causing Fadzil and his partners reportedly investing RM40 million into redeveloping the mall. Despite generating revenues of RM17 million to RM25 million in its first two years, the mall struggled with sustainability.

In his announcement earlier this month, Fadzil mentioned that the closure is aimed at exploring a new business model, but did not provide further details.

Several vendors interviewed by Malay Mail shared similar sentiment on the mall’s decline, pointing to a range of issues which they said contributed to it: poor management, lack of effective marketing, and an overemphasis on culturally and ethnically-specific products.

Several vendors expressed their disappointment, noting that the mall’s original mission to support Muslim entrepreneurs fell short of expectations.

Afiq Farhan, who operates a cat grooming centre, said the mall’s focus on what were deemed “Islamic brands” inevitably limited its appeal.

“Marketing seemed non-existent. Even I was confused about the brands here. This lack of awareness probably contributed to the low patronage,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Afiq said there is already a lack of variety in food and beverages offerings. Adding to that, none of them had any recognisable brands.

“Not only are they not very famous, but some are start-ups and new. Hence, it seemed like people didn’t really identify with them despite the novelty idea of having mostly Muslim businesses in this area.

“I decided to open here as in this area, there weren’t any cat cafés and I felt it could use one,” he added.

Sharmin Raju and Dini Iskandar, both 20, work at Brainy Bunch Shop — a spin-off of the kindergarten chain Fadzil founded, selling clothings, accessories and school supplies.

They highlighted the impact of slow foot traffic and the pandemic on their sales.

“We will relocate to lower Cyberjaya, closer to our headquarters. For now, the sales are high due to the ongoing clearance, but usually, it’s slow,” said Dini.

A staff member from the restaurant Casa Madani — which touted itself as fine-dining — said it previously had to shift to a cafe-style dining experience due to slow business.

“We’re moving to normal dining and the upstairs will be open too, but we may limit seats. So the food won’t be fine dining any more. Instead, there could be a merger with another business. Meanwhile, we are still doing catering and events,” said the worker, who wished to remain anonymous.

“In my opinion, the lack of business here was due to lack of marketing campaigns,” they said when met, pointing to the unrecognisable brand names sold in the mall’s supermarket.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/07/26/even-muslims-whine-about-it-vendors-says-bumiputera-only-malakat-mall-doomed-by-mismanagement-and-obscurity/144435