This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 4, 2023 - December 10, 2023

I’m no shopaholic, but even so, I’ve got to admit, it was hard not to be enticed by the slew of year-end sales that we had recently.

I succumbed to the lure of the advertisements screaming steep discounts and two-for-the-price-of-one type offers that kept making their way to my social media accounts. (On a side note, I’m not quite sure why Facebook keeps pushing me ads about heavily-discounted tool sets, but hey, who am I to question its all-knowing algorithm. I did, after all, recently google the Home Improvement television series from the 1990s, so maybe it thinks I want to be like Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor).

For me, the year-end shopping kicked off with the 11.11 online and in-store sales on Nov 11, or the Singles’ Day sales as it is known in China, from which the massive annual shopping event originated.

Then, there was the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale some two weeks later, or as Uniqlo calls it, the Thank You Festival. Doubtless, there will be pre-Christmas sales to come, and before we know it, the Chinese New Year sales will be upon us. I ended up buying a stash of ordinary items that I would normally have had to stock up on anyway, sales season or not, and some, in multiples of two or three because of the huge markdowns. Ok, truth be told, there was also one not-so-ordinary item — a no-brand, made-in-China cordless vacuum cleaner, 

so cheap I couldn’t resist, to replace a similar one I had bought some time ago that went wonky after just six months of use. Clearly, I’m not one who learns from mistakes easily.

The upside, of course, is that the amount I spent on each of these items was at least nearly 40% lower than what I would normally have to pay. The downside is that my online orders will be delivered in boxed packages that may include plastic wrap. I can just imagine the disapproving looks from the good people championing better care of the planet at the COP28 conference being held in Dubai currently.

There are so many opportunities to shop more cheaply than usual throughout the year, and yet, sadly, Malaysia’s retail sales outlook still seems pretty bleak.

In September, Retail Group Malaysia said that it expects retail sales to grow by just 2.7% this year compared with an earlier expectation of 4.8%, following the solid 33.3% growth last year. This was after sales came in lower than expected in the first six months, partly because of the high base effect last year when people shopped with a vengeance after having emerged from lockdowns. Consumers are also more cautious about spending, worried about the higher cost of goods despite a slight easing in inflation.

Additionally, tourists from China, who are big shoppers, are not yet back in throngs this year as initially expected.

Against this backdrop, The Exchange TRX mall, which sits in the heart of the Tun Razak Exchange in Kuala Lumpur, officially opened its doors last Wednesday.

Touted as a “world-class experiential lifestyle destination”, the retail mall houses 400 stores across four floors. Apple Inc is widely expected to open its first Malaysian store there next year, going by recent news reports.

A new mall, especially one as highly anticipated as The Exchange TRX, is always exciting. Over the next few months, hordes of Malaysians — yours truly included — are likely to make their way there to check out the scene and, hopefully, spend some of their hard-earned money.

One can only hope Malaysia’s retail sector stays resilient, for the sake of the economy. In the meantime, keep the frequent sales going. I mean, who doesn’t love a good discount?

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