KUALA LUMPUR – Kuala Lumpur saw a positive mood of festive shopping and merrymaking this past weekend as those who stayed back this year joined in with the remaining city dwellers for a last hoorah before Aidilfitri celebrations commenced.
The atmosphere at Dataran Merdeka was buzzing with entertainment and leisure activities where families and groups of friends gathered to enjoy a night picnic and play with electric scooters along the closed off road of Jalan Raja.
This would be the first time in two years that KL finally welcomes back Raya crowds with less movement restrictions.
Vendor Samad Ali, 59, shared that sales promotions for the past month have been increasingly satisfactory.
“Usually I am around Pekeliling, but I have been selling drinks and snacks daily since the beginning of Ramadan. I am quite happy to be getting about RM2,000 worth of profit thus far.
“My kids are all grown up, so it is enough for my wife and myself to get ready for Hari Raya,” said the Selangor resident.
“Things will be a bit more relaxed for us and we are planning to go back to Rawang on the first day of the celebration later in the evening," he added.
Mahathir Shamsury helps in supplying electric scooters and bikes for recreational use in the area. He noted that Dataran Merdeka has been attracting a steady crowd since the beginning of the year.
“I am part of the committee of small traders for this area where there are about 40 of us. Because the location is so popular among the public, we do get others from outside that pop up and set up shop,” shared the 37-year-old.
“At the moment there are no issues, but we would like things to be much stricter. This is only because of security as well as easier for us to level prices,” he added.
Over at Central Market, just 400m away from the historical square, the last chapter of the ‘Rentak Raya’ bazaar took place to cater to patrons looking to get their last minute shopping done.
KL boy and Artboy founder Muhammad Hajid Mohamed Azhar, 25, was one of the participating vendors present, selling kufic art and handmade macrame goods.
“This is the first time I am part of such an event. Even though I am still here and most people have returned back to their hometown, I made sure to not miss the opportunity.
“I didn’t have formal training in art but I suppose the inspiration that I got was from my time spent studying abroad.
“There were a lot of string materials being used and I took interest in it, which later turned into what you see today,” shared the Islamic studies graduate, who just returned back home from Egypt, earlier this year.
“My hobby is my business, and thankfully I managed to gain returns by the second day of being here. So, I am pretty much just focusing on profit making since then.
“That said, it is also more about gaining experience and understanding how well customers respond to the brand physically as well as understanding the flow of participating in bazaars.
“I am taking it step by step and hopefully one day, it will bring Artboy more visibility,” added Hajid.
Another vendor, Abdul Ashraff Abd Rahman, 29, who offers customers a wide variety of traditional and hip batik wear through his line called Batek Bae expresses, “having been operating the business primarily online without a physical store, it’s nice to conduct the buy and sell in person this time round so customers can see our products better up close.”
“We never had the chance to set up a booth of this sort so it’s quite exciting to be present throughout the bazaar period,” said Ashraff.
“We are also quite lucky because Central Market attracts a lot of buyers, and not leisure patrons, and the team is taking the experience as a stepping stone for us to participate in more bazaars to come.
“Sales wise, participating in this particular bazaar managed to reach the same level as online in just two days. So, there are definitely no complaints there,” said the entrepreneur, adding that his online business will still be active but with postage delayed to later in the week to make way for the Aidilfitri celebrations. – The Vibes, May 2, 2022
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