India Street textile traders put on brave face as they look to make up lost income
KUCHING: After having little or no income at all for nearly two months due to the movement control order (MCO), textile traders at the popular India Street area here are looking forward to getting back on their feet.
A check by New Sarawak Tribune around the city yesterday found that textile shops were busy cleaning and shelving their wares according to the standard operating procedure (SOP) as prescribed by the authorities.
Traffic was busy, with lorries unloading stock that had been left at the shipment centres for almost two months.
Eric Chang, who owns Fah Textile Company, said the extended MCO caused the company to suffer huge losses.
“Business has been bad since the MCO was enforced. But I totally understand that everyone feels the same. All of my employees are still working with the company,” he said yesterday.
Asked on his shop’s SOP, Eric said he would be making compulsory body temperature checks at all his branches.
“We will allow one to two persons from one family to shop,” he said, adding that operating hours would be from 10am to 7pm as announced by the state government.
Another textile shop owner, known only as Foo, said while the 50 per cent rent reduction would be music to most ears, the situation was no different as the shop had no revenue for the last two months or so.
“I don’t know if a business owner like us can make some revenue after this crisis. I find this year very tough and it seems that we may not be able to make enough sales to cover all our operational costs.
“Honestly, I’m not sure how long I can keep my business afloat,” he told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
He also said the rent deferral assistance would not be able to help him make repayments of accumulated debts on time within these few months.
“What can we do? Although this is hard, we have to face the problem and keep hoping that everything will be back to normal,” he said, with hope.
