shopping habit

What is it about Malaysian and supermarkets/hypermarkets?

It doesn’t matter what time of the day or what day of the month, it is always crowded and the line at the check-out counter is frustrating!

When I was in KL I used to kill time walking around supermarkets/hypermarkets especially after work because I had to wait for my sister. My other favourite spots are Starbucks or MPH but I feel shy if I have to be there for more than an hour on my own. I dislike going to the shoe store or boutiques because why would I want to tempt myself with things I can never afford or fit into. It’s depressing. So my third favourite to-kill-time destination then is the Giant Supermarket at Sunway Pyramid. I would take 15 minutes just to decide which flavoured biscuit I want to get, because I have the time to do so. I’d do price, ingredient and packaging comparison before I decided which brand to buy. It was a very joyous process.

Anyway, I noticed during every single visit that place is always crowded with people. Are they there to shop or are they there just to kill time like me? I will never know but I assumed that’s the KL lifestyle. Open a 24-hour hypermarket and you will still get plenty of customers.

So, I moved back to KK. With KK being a laid-back kind of place, I didn’t think you’d get many people in the supermarkets especially during mid month. But NNNoooOO. You still get a lot of people doing their grocery shopping and to make it worse, the small hypermarkets only make it more congested. 10.00am to 10.00pm doesn’t make any difference to this people.

And I swear people lost their manners the moment they step unto supermarkets/hypermarkets. *tsk tsk tsk*

What is the Malaysian shopping habit? Do we buy groceries in bulk? Or do we buy them when we ran out of supplies only? I don’t know about the rest but my family buys in bulk because:

a) It’s cheaper to buy in bulk

b) We are practically a kampung (village) with big appetite, so more mouth to feed

c) It’s convenient than to go out every other day for groceries

d) Save on petrol and parking ticket

Maybe we Malaysian are well-off and the economy doesn’t affect us that much despite the moaning and swearing every time the price of petrol, alcohol and tobacco increases. Maybe it is all a show only.

But I do feel the pinch of the increments. Or is it just me?