Everyone have their favourite malls. I think today I will write about what I hope all malls would have to provide, especially to valuable shoppers like me. Haha. I buy all my groceries from the supermarkets within malls every week. Majority of whatever I normally buy are also from within malls. From my Macbook to my watches and moving on to even my current Plasma 51 inch TV. Thus, if the malls are able to fulfil my requirements, many of the retail outlets within these malls would be able to secure some businesses from me. I assume all malls would have enough food and beverage related outlets. Here are my small requirements.
Touch n GO for car parks. Make it as hassle free as possible, especially for your treasure visitors. Please do not make me queue to pay for the parking and I would be terribly irritated if one of the machines broke down and the queue stretches longer than 10 pax. Do not be foolish, just do it.
Baby Rooms – Nope, I am not talking about just those provided by some of the anchor outlets like Parkson or Jusco. I am talking about some baby rooms which are provided by the malls themselves and please equip them right. If the baby room smells bad, I can safely assure you that it would be my last visit to the mall. Based n demographics, this is becoming ever more important and its best to do it before every other mall has it.
Toilets, quantity and quality – Please, not just one at each end of the malls. There should be sufficient numbers and it should be dry, airy and bright. Provide acceptable quality toilet papers please. There’s little need to force visitors to skip the mall simply because of the toilets. Oh yeah, there are 40 plus malls upcoming too.
Events, lots of them. – Let visitors come in one big group and everyone has something which can keep them interested. A branded warehouse sale for shoppers, a famous cartoon character and other entertainment for kids or even a dancing or singing audition where 30 participants alone would already be bringing along an additional 300 of their supporters easily.
Strong air-con – Any mall which made me sweat will only be visited once. I will also tell the world too. Let’s be objective. This is Malaysia, no one goes to mall because they want a sauna.
Supermarket – Any mall without a good supermarket is going to lose lots of visitors like me. Therefore, all the malls must ensure one of their anchor tenant is a supermarket. Please get one with lots of variety and not just have a small one.
My requirements are so simple BUT many malls do not fulfil them. That’s why there are many malls that I have visited only once. Just the other day I was in a ‘premium’ mall in Ipoh where its anchor tenant does not even have a proper baby room. I was utterly disappointed and it will be a very long time before I visit again. The reason for visiting again is simply because there are not many choices yet. Malls in the Klang Valley are not as lucky because competition is heating up and thus the survival of malls are at stake. Happy visiting malls.
written on 13 Oct 2015
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