A becak, ferry and bus took me to the Megamall in Butterworth. Other than the fact that they are airconditioned, I don’t like the malls outside KL. They are large but made up of an eclectic mix of small, badly laid out retail cells. It is as though the ground floors of a thousand Chinese shop houses have been transplanted into a large shopping hive. Some of the shops are highly specialised, selling for example, a single brand of bag or clothes. I doubt that many are profitable or have a long life expectancy.
In all the malls I have been to out of KL, there are empty shop units - developments appear speculative. The upper stories are the grimmest; the shops that are occupied are cheap beauty salons or computer shops selling a myriad of small, useless items, counterfeit software and movies. The top floors are horrendous: loud, seldom cleaned and badly lit. Usually there is a ‘state of the art’ cinemaplex - with three screens showing terrible movies - far less up-to-date than the counterfeiters’ stores; dark dens where youths play computer games, and a bowling alley, stinking of cigarette smoke.
The car being such a status symbol, the requirement for parking renders the old towns impractical for the aspirations of the new Malaysian middle class. The multistory concept offers modernity and a sense of Malaysia’s economic development - its progress, even though the quality and variety of merchandise on sale is little different to that in the old pasar (markets). These out of town malls, give the men a place to walk, show off their fake Rolex watches and look at the ladies. Perhaps that is one reason why so many Malay girls wear a ‘tudung’ or headscarf. I remember them being the minority in the late 1980s, but now I hardly ever see a Malay woman with her hair uncovered.
In all the malls I have been to out of KL, there are empty shop units - developments appear speculative. The upper stories are the grimmest; the shops that are occupied are cheap beauty salons or computer shops selling a myriad of small, useless items, counterfeit software and movies. The top floors are horrendous: loud, seldom cleaned and badly lit. Usually there is a ‘state of the art’ cinemaplex - with three screens showing terrible movies - far less up-to-date than the counterfeiters’ stores; dark dens where youths play computer games, and a bowling alley, stinking of cigarette smoke.
The car being such a status symbol, the requirement for parking renders the old towns impractical for the aspirations of the new Malaysian middle class. The multistory concept offers modernity and a sense of Malaysia’s economic development - its progress, even though the quality and variety of merchandise on sale is little different to that in the old pasar (markets). These out of town malls, give the men a place to walk, show off their fake Rolex watches and look at the ladies. Perhaps that is one reason why so many Malay girls wear a ‘tudung’ or headscarf. I remember them being the minority in the late 1980s, but now I hardly ever see a Malay woman with her hair uncovered.
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