News : Retail scene going the digital way

Retail scene going the digital way
Monday September 18, 2006

PROPERTY TALKBy S.C. CHEAH

HOW much does it cost to park at a hypermarket?

Well, the Giant hypermarket in USJ1 has put up banners at its large car park stating that customers can park for free, but non-customers will have to pay RM10.

Giant is forced to display the banners as many motorists have parked at its car park although they were heading for the Mydin wholesale hypermarket since it opened its doors next to Giant several weeks ago.

The two rival hypermarkets have also started a price war with Mydin claiming: “Our neighbour is just a Giant on price tags. Do not fall for their claims!” It went on to chart out the price per kg of white squids from Aug 28 to Sept 4 to show that Mydin's prices were at least stable for two weeks compared with Giant's prices that “fluctuate every now and then”.

Although Giant's prices are still reasonable, Mydin (it opened a new but smaller outlet in Rawang town this year) is a threat to Giant's USJ1 outlet. Just look at its al fresco concept with a TV screen at the main courtyard. It is a refreshing change and shoppers like that.
Besides having a big supermarket and department store, food court and small retail outlets, it also boasts a wholesale centre that occupies the entire top fourth floor. Some of its prices for products like batteries, children’s stationery and canned items are cheaper than those at the Nilai 3 wholesale centre in Negri Sembilan.

Although some shopping centres and hypermarkets are expanding (Carrefour Malaysia plans to increase its nine outlets to 14 by mid-2008), Makro recently announced that it was up for sale.

The Digital Mall in Section 14, Petaling JayaRetail as well as hypermarket/wholesale players must realise that shoppers do not like stifling rules and you must give them a wide variety of products and services at reasonable prices besides making your premises interesting, shopper-friendly and innovative.

Who wants to go to a place that looks more like a godown?
Meanwhile, there has been a spate of new shopping centres and malls being launched recently. Dijaya Land Sdn Bhd has brought in Carrefour as the main anchor tenant for its Tropicana Mall located within Dijaya’s RM600mil Tropicana City (comprises the mall, 601 designer suites called

The Tropics and a 12-storey Signature Office Tower).
There is also the Crimara Mall at Crimson Damansara launched earlier this year. It will have 342 retail and commercial units in three-storey strata lots with covered promenade and a landscaped central plaza.

There is also a wave of new shopping and retail concepts being introduced particularly in the Klang Valley since this year. The “digital” and “street mall” concept with al fresco dining is gaining popularity.

For example, The Weld in Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, which reopened in August after a RM15mil facelift, has large areas for al fresco dining.

Retailers and shopping centre developers and operators have also brought in new brand names and embarked on an image change in the wake of rising competition.
The former Metrojaya store in Section 14, Petaling Jaya, has been refurbished and renamed Digital Mall with reports of good occupancy.

Several shopping centres have also turned entire floors into similar “digital” centres like the one at Sunway Pyramid to capture a flourishing market for computer and IT-related products.
Malacca also boasts an over 40,000 sq ft Digital Domain in the 1.5 million sq ft Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. About 80% of the space in the Digital Domain (the biggest in the southern region) has been booked by IT and IT-related companies. One of them, I-Gate Cyberstation, has committed six lots for its new concept stores.

The “digital” fever has also taken on a new form with I-Bhd pioneering an innovative and exciting development called I-City in Shah Alam, Selangor.

The I-City’s digital city vision will be a comprehensive and fully digitised township designed to provide a full suite of digital solutions that will encompass home, business and public amenities.
It will be a centre for knowledge workers, a one-stop place for consumers to buy digital and ICT products. It will have full communications network using digital technology for voice, data and video data recognition to enable I-City residents and visitors to interact with one another, whether within or outside I-City.

A recent milestone is the signing of a collaboration agreement between I-Bhd and Intel on Sept 7 to establish an e-learning centre using Intel’s integrated solution kit for education, setting up an Intel showcase centre that displays Intel’s latest technologies and enabling small businesses to have shared services on a “pay-per-use” basis.

I-City is also set to be a tourist spot when its City Walk and RM40mil unique light and sound concept are completed.

Imagine dazzling light shows and images projected on the glass walls of tall buildings and boulevards filled with colourful lights never seen before in Malaysia. It will be a great leap forward not only for the local retail scene, but the urban lifestyle of Malaysians.

However, we also need more foreign brand names to make Malaysia a truly shopping destination.

[tags : shoppingNsales news malaysia]