BY ABIDGAIL MERTA GANGGANG
KUCHING: It was much quieter at Parkson in The Spring shopping mall yesterday as compared to the first day of the retail company’s closing down clearance sale with massive discount.
Parkson’s first day of sale resulted in massive crowd queuing and worsened the dreadful traffic jams during peak hours on the flyover at Simpang Tiga.
Yesterday, New Sarawak Tribune made some observations at The Spring from 10 am to 12 pm.
Fewer shoppers were seen in the shopping area and traffic flow was smooth even though there were many vehicles on the road.
Parkson’s customer care associate, Mohd Rafhan Zainuddin said their first day of sale was the busiest day of operation and crowds were stranded in the queue for half an hour.
“Packs of people were lining up in a long queue at every level from ground floor to Level 2. They started to crowd the store at 9.30 am until night and our staff finished their shift late,” he said.
The store was packed until 4 pm and gained more customers after 8 pm.
The 42-year old said their staffers usually finish work at 10 pm, but on that day they needed to catch up with work until 10.30 pm as the customers were still shopping.
“Shoppers are attracted by the sale price and the discounts are appealing to them that they tend to bargain more than they always do,” Rafhan said.
The unexpected crowds were seen to bring back two trolleys of goods from the store, especially electrical and home appliances.
Moreover, sale with affordable prices and special offers are the opportunity for the Muslims to join in the shopping-spree as the Hari Raya is coming soon.
As for Alexander Tuyang, one of the promoters in the menswear section, he said more than 40 customers purchased clothes from him compared to their regular day.
“Most of the customers spent at least RM300 each and it is very challenging for me because multiple restocking was done within two hours as the clearance items were sold in a day,” he said.
The restocking turned out to be so full in Alexander’s inventory list that he was out of hands and needed help from other promoters to serve his clients.
He said fewer customers on the second day of clearance sale made him impassive and expected more customers in the evening and night on the second day.
The same thing happened to Enessa Izleen, 23, who said it was difficult for her to handle the wild crowd and it was almost impossible for her to avoid high traffic after work shift ended.
“I have to wait for all of the customers and clock out at 10.20 pm before I got to face the busy traffic,” she said.
Despite the overfilled store, the promoter said spatial crowding increases the arousal of the shopper due to the feeling of availability of more products in a limited space.
Her customers spent RM600 on ‘baju kurung’ and home appliances like pillows, towels and bed sheets are among the popular demand during the sale.
One of the shoppers, Elyka Limpong, 24, said she was joining the hype after browsing on her social media and came across the posting from Parkson’s Facebook page.
“I never expected a huge crowd sale at the store on their first day of sale and decided to back off to avoid the traffic jam,” she said when met.
Additionally, Elyka said crowded space lowered her pleasure for shopping and that one could get stressful to compete with other consumers.
She would rather shop at another mall than waiting in a long queue.
“I decided to go on the second day to save my time. Even though it is the weekend and some items are out of stock, I still can look for other things at an affordable price as long as the place is not packed,” she added.
Elyka managed to spend RM300 to buy handbags, blouses and kitchenware.
Another customer who wishes to be known as for Mazkinah Putty said the sale is not a blessing for her because she did not find any price differences in the store.
As a shopper, I am expecting bigger sales on an actual clearance stock but I can find the same discount from the same store in different outlets,” she said.
Looking for the essentials of Hari Raya, the 47-year old felt disappointed with the sale and went there to just check.
“I am surprised to see people bringing back a lot of stuff from Parkson yesterday on Facebook but I could not find the same thing. I believe all of the discounted items are sold out,” she added.
Parkson at the Spring Shopping Mall will be closing after 15 years of operations and will be holding a closing-down sale which started from April 7 until April 24.
