As daily cases rise, Klang's morning markets see a drastic decrease in visitors and customers. 

The new daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Malaysia have exceeded 20,000 for more than a week now. Klang district in once again, among one of the 'hardest hit areas', hovering around 1,000 new cases every day. This has caused a lot of locals to go out less, and the usual bustling morning market is seeing an approximate 70% decrease in their usual traffic. 

Hawkers are basically stuck in the dilemma of waiting for customers to come to their door all morning, and some are forced to sell cheaply to reduce losses.

Mr. Yap, chairman of the Klang City Mobile Hawker Association, disclosed to the media after inspecting the morning market that the crowd at the morning market has decreased drastically, and the number of customers has withered.

He pointed out that according to his observations and feedback from his community, the main morning markets in Klang have been particularly deserted in the past week, including Klang Jaya, Taman Chi Liung, Pandamaran and Jalan Papan. 

He said that usually after the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, there will be a huge decrease in business, but the hawkers are a group of people who needs to earn their living, and hence they need to continue operating their stalls regardless. 

"Compared with the Lunar New Year period, it can be said that it's a vast difference, especially stalls that sell fruits, cakes, roasted meat, etc. Many hawkers cannot sell their goods, resulting in leftover goods."

He said that in order to survive, some hawkers had to sell at a low price, hoping to increase their business volume through promotions, otherwise they would lose money if they couldn't sell out, which is equivalent to nothing.

He pointed out that the rebound of the new Omicron wave had a serious impact on the hawkers. Many of the severely ill are elderly people, which has led to a decrease in their elderly customers as they refrain from going out.

"The main customer groups in the morning markets are the elderly and housewives. Now one of our main customer groups are afraid to come out, and hence our business has not been doing well."

While the hawkers would also like to stay home during the pandemic, they are not able to do so as they need to operate their stalls to maintain their living. Many customers are choosing to only head out on Monday to get a week's worth of groceries. 

"Recently, we have began to reduce our stock, while also reducing retail prices to avoid losses."

"Pastry sales that used to be around RM150 a day is now reduced to around RM100, yet they still can’t sell out. I had to sell out to make money, so I had to choose to make less and sell at a discount. For example, some pastries that were originally sold at RM1 were reduced to 80 or 90 cents, hoping to drive sales, earning one cent is one cent, and the business of other peers is similar."

"If the pandemic continues to worsen and business is bleak, we may consider taking a break. Although life will be miserable, there is no choice."

Reference Links - 
[1] E-Nanyang