The Great Malaysian Hypermarket Wars
Published by simon on October 1, 2006Makro is now being put up for sale, and some insiders are saying that Wal-Mart are considering buying it to enter the Malaysian market. I’m not too sure if certain quarters are all too comfortable with Sam Walton’s mega corporation coming into Malaysia, with their vicious reputation. But for those who unfamiliar with the Great Malaysian Hypermarket Wars, here’s a little rundown of the contestants…
Tesco – In the Blue and Red corner, we have Tesco, proudly representing the British way of life.
Do I like them? Hell, yeah. Everything is well arranged and brightly lit.
What’s good with them? Ample parking, usually covered. Easy to maneuver your trolley. And their air con dam powderful one. UNLIKE some others… Cheap in store brand that isn’t as crappy as you think. My sister eat’s their cereal like it’s no tomorrow. Bonuslink available.
What’s not good? Not always the cheapest. Restocking problematic.
Claim to Fame – Hey, look, we got here before Asda and Sainsbury!
Carrefour – the oft mispronounced French retailer got here quite early, and settled themselves into the psyche first Subang Jaya folks, then slowly spreading out. One of the biggest retailers worldwide.
Do I like them? Well, I used to like them, until Tesco popped out, that is.
What’s good with them? Well stocked, nice to walk, sells everything under the sun. Good location.
What’s not good? Unbelievably long check out queues on weekends. Their trolley quite difficult to use one. Plus, they used to have that one-ringgit trolley deposit thing.
Claim to Fame – It’s pronounced “Kah Foo”, like the Brazilian footballer. plus, we supply the rubbish bags for 69% of Subang Jaya households!
Giant – Ini Malaysia Boleh punye. Okay, it’s not that I want criticize our local representative, but … *haih*… aiya. Dowan to say so much.
Do I like them? No.
What’s good with them? Frankly, not much. Okaylah, I’ll say they cheap for SOME items. But not enough to attract me to go there.
What’s not good? It’s to cramped, trolley accidents everywhere. Arrangement of aisles very strange. Fresh produce not, um, “fresh”. Their bakery stuff is sometimes inedible. Enough already?
Claim to Fame – We’re like your neighbourhood kedai runcit. Only much bigger.
Mydin – Sorry, never been there. Don’t they use to sell Hari Raya clothes like Globe Silk Store and Gulati’s? No? Like I said, never been there. But always send this very interesting flyer to my place, directly challenging one of the other hypermarket in terms of pricing. It goes something like “ANYONE can say this and that, but WE DARE you to…”. Wow, fighting words, my boy…
Anyway, most people I know are creatures of habit. Meaning if they like to go to one, they’ll always go to that one because it’s either near to their place or convenient. As for the price, they can fight all they want about their watermelon being RM0.59, but when ou buy 20 things the prices average out and it doesn’t really make much different between one store to another.
But nonetheless, all of us love to read their flyers that appear in our postboxes every week…
Technorati Tags: carrefour, wal-mart, tesco, mydin, giant, shopping, hypermarkets, subang jaya, makr0, asda,
Really enjoyed this, hehe.
Carrefour is just plain bad in queue management. I actually wrote to them a few years ago, and got a polite reply saying they’re looking into it. Still no improvement from I could see.
Carrefour ROX! although not in Kuantan…but i frequently visit it in KL…
Giant service isn’t that good..
Walmart really coming? I will be really happy if they bring in all their products, especially baby clothes :p
I once bought a mouldy pita bread from Giant. Your observations are right on the spot lah.
“But nonetheless, all of us love to read their flyers that appear in our postboxes every week…”
“all of us”…? really? I thot only the aunty aunty only read? HAHA!
I also Tesco Sapoters wei!!! carrefour is slacking la! they used to be good b4 Tesco kambin
m.o.t.t. - eh, it makes good reading in the toilet, wat!
WalMart employees are the least helpful compared to other hypermarkets here. Could it be because they’re paid the very minimum wage? Ah I missed the Puchong Tesco a lot, used to hang out there almost every day. Kinda sad eh?
In the East Coast, there’s Tunas Manja and the coolest thing about the stores are the mascots.
A big ugly kangaroo.
I’m still shop at Giant cuz its near my place but there is a new Mydin next door so gonna try that, am sure the prices are same if not better.
Carrefour is also ok, better than Giant in terms of layout, organized and uncramp, you feel good going there unlike Giant, like a kedai runcit on drugs. Cheers!
I bought ayam busuk TWICE from two different Giant outlets…argh!
i like KAFU. maybe cos it’s near my house. Never liked Tesco cos it’s too far and the things i wan to buy always out of stock. Hate that. Been to Mydin once. Really CHEAP. low down of giant.
and i heard Giant is not by M’sian.
Some Hongkie pump in $$ for it to run.
although not considered as hypermarket, but i always shop at jusco. i like jusco.
vincent - my god. isn’t that like a little scary? actually, giant’s smiling t-rex is no better.
A friend of mine noticed Tesco has the exact same arrangement for its every branch, down to the promotional items of the day. True?
Everybody these days like to hang out at these foreign hyper markets, drink RM10 coffee and pretend they are somewhere in the States. Hmmmm …. Notice how our playgrounds are like shrinking? Last time, people go to the “padang”. Nobody wants to go the padang these days. Sun now very hot. Not like last time. Ozone gone mah. Some more we sweat. Not kool, lah. Better to wear sweater, go to the mall and hang out and look kool. Some more the chicks are there. And they look hot — so maybe that’s why they don’t wear so many clothes. But who cares? But i digress. you want cheap price? Go to 99Speed Mart — vely cheep, now i sound like a chicken, cheep cheep cheep
Have u hear about Billion shopping centre? is a 100% Malaysia brand! Price is resonable compare with those foreign hypermarket and the best things is u can get a very friendly help from the staff there.Location is convinence and comfortable if u have some experience in Econsave, in malaysia i think have around 40 outlet. Plese give a support,.” Malaysia boleh” !
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