LOWER GROCERIES PRICE RING UP THE CASH

HALF....Housewife Ajijah Salim said grocery bill cut by half.

By : NURHAFIZAH YUSOF

PRICES are lower by as much as half of other grocers. But the goods are just as good. Sabah’s first 1Malaysia people’s shop which opened at Inanam in Kota Kinabalu last month has been raking in the cash. Sales have averaged 20,000 ringgit ($6,274) a day. Zulkifli Yunus, its manager, says its highest takings for the day were 24,000 ringgit on July 1.

Zulkifli fights shy of revealing his profit margin. But those in the business say a 10% margin seems reasonable. That would be an average of 2,000 ringgit a day in gross profit for a grocery that sells cheap but good quality products to the small consumers.

The brainchild of Najib Razak, the prime minister, Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia has a stock of 250 products ranging from rice, cooking oil, milk, tinned food, toiletries and diapers for low-income earners in towns.

It helps to control consumer prices and check inflation by breaking up monopolies. There are 47 of this year’s planned 85 in Malaysia which sell goods at prices between 30% and 50% lower.

Ismail Sabri Yaakob, federal minister of domestic trade, cooperative and consumerism, who visited the shop on July 12, said six more are due to open in Sabah later this year. They are in Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran, Keningau, Sandakan and Semporna.

Accompanied by Jainab Ahmad, the assistant minister of resource development and information technology, Ismail said there were plans for one 1Malaysia people’s shop in every parliamentary constituency. That means Sabah would have 20 of them if Najib says so.

The shops are run under a franchise of Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad. Ismail said a franchisee would need 500,000 ringgit to start one.

Ajijah Salim, 40, a housewife with two teenage children, is happy with the products that she buys from the Inanam shop.

“I’m saving about half my grocery bill,” she says. Her family spends about 350 ringgit on groceries monthly. She says her husband who works as a city hall law enforcer earns just enough to make ends meet.

“I was afraid that grocery prices would go up during the fasting month,” she says. “Now I worry no more.” (Insight Sabah)