Due to the early morning shower shoppers had to negotiate and wade through pools of water to go about their groceries shopping chores. Apart from the water you have to be careful where you step, otherwise you might get your feet wet after stepping on a pool of water.
Even on dry days it is difficult to walk about in the market because the large crowd of shoppers and the narrow aisles hinder you from moving freely from one stall to another. And you are further restricted in your movements when you bring along a shopping cart to load and transport your purchases.
This is the Seri Petaling morning market where my wife and I go there to buy groceries. Although both of us have retired from work we go there every Saturday because it is on this day and Sunday where there are the most number of vendors operating their businesses there. And it is on these two days when the most number of working people who are off work come out to do their weekly groceries shopping as well.
The picture shown is that of a sundry stall where my wife patronises for the purchase of eggs and other dry sundry produces. My wife is waiting for the vendor to return her change after paying for the purchase of a box of eggs.
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At 10.30am in the morning as I was approaching the Aeon shopping mall in Cheras Selatan I was surprised to see that the open car park of the shopping mall was full.
Today is Thursday, a working day and I would expect that most people should be working in their offices and factories. Where did so many customers come from? I could only conclude that many working people took their day off from work to come here for the Aeon members day sale.
As I drove past the toll gate into the compound, I saw a "car park full" sign and an attendance waved me in the direction of the 2nd floor indoor car park. With the open car park full I would expect that the indoor car park would also be full. In fact I remember mumbling to my wife that we were going to park our car on the open roof top car park.
However I was wrong. As I entered the building I noticed that the indoor car park was only 1/4 full. On a normal day motorists would only park their cars in the open yard when the indoor car park is full. This strange anomaly means that shoppers had already invaded the mall even before Aeon had opened its indoor car park to the public.
Once inside the Aeon store another surprise was in store for me and my wife. I saw big crowds of shoppers many with supermarket push carts snapping up merchandise at the various stations and also long lines of shoppers queuing at the cashier counters to make payment for their purchases.
I thought supermarket push carts are for customers to transport their purchases of groceries and not general merchandise. The fact that the supermarket and the trolleys are located at the opposite end of the mall did not deter shoppers from pushing the carts for the long walk from the supermarket to the department store.
Aeon members day sale is truly a phenomenal event even though it is usually held on a week day. So attractive are the discounts offered that many working people take one day off from their annual leave to attend the sale. Who could resist discounts of up to 70% of the regular price of the merchandise on this day. To entice shippers to spend Aeon even rewarded customers with cash vouchers worth RM10 for every RM100 of general merchandise purchase and RM5 vouchers for every RM100 worth of groceries purchase?
Eying the pile of ladies underwear my wife quickly snapped up 3 pieces priced less than RM12 each. Those were the last pieces of her size left in the pile of apparel. The normal retail price for these items are RM39.00. At RM12 the store is offering a hefty discount of 70% off its regular price. Few people would pass this chance to acquire quality apparel at such a discounted price.
Joining other shoppers we also grabbed a trolley from the supermarket and filled it to the brim with our purchases of clothing, bedsheets, groceries and other daily necessities. As I pushed the trolley along the crowded aisle towards the department store where my wife was shopping I passed by a few people pushing not one cart each but three carts piled end to end in a row like a train of carts.
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